The forklift is a vehicle with a hoist capable of lifting and carrying loads, usually put on pallets, on short distances.

The forklift lifting mechanism is located on the front of the vehicle. It’s powered by a servo motor with a drivetrain consisting of a gearwheel and a guide.

Prepartations:

1. Begin with preparing your workspace. It’s best to have a spacious place to assemble your kit, like an empty desk or a large table.

2. Prepare your screwdriver and previously assembled nuts and bolts box. Keep in mind that your kit consists of two types of screws: 12 mm, 20 mm and 70 mm. All the nuts are the same size.

3. Don’t use too much force when breaking off wooden elements from the forms. Be careful not to break the parts. You can also use a small craft knife to cut the joints in the forms, but be extra careful when doing this!

We wish you a ton of fun during the assembly of your LOFI Robot kit 🙂 Enjoy!

Assembly: the vehicle

The Forklift is based on the Rover. Below you will find instructions, how to transform your Rover into a Forklift.

1. Start with preparing your Rover.

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Tip. Unlike the Rover, the Forklift’s main job is to transport pallets with cargo. That is why we need to move the center of gravity of the vehicle to ensure it’s properly balanced for the job. We need to move the dc motors to the front and pull out the powerbank a little bit.

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8. In order to remove this part, you need to gently push aside the side facets of the vehicle.

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11. Push the DC motor to the inside while holding the side facet.

12. Turn the motor by 180 degrees, as shown in the picture:

13. After turning the motor, carefully push it back inside through the bracket in the side facet.

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15. Now turn the other DC motor around following the steps listed above. Turning the DC motors around is a crucial step in balancing the forklift, so make sure your end effect looks like this:

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19. Insert the powerbank halfway inside the vehicle. This will help to balance the Forklift.

Assembly: the hoist

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Notice: Sometimes the decal on the motors prevents them from sliding in easily in the wooden motor brackets. It’s safe to take off the decals.

Prepare elements needed for the main part of the hoist.

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Notice. Make sure that the serrated guide is placed on the same side as the servo motor.

Prepare the parts for the gearwheel.

7. For this step, you can either use 12 mm or 20 mm screws.

8. In the following few steps, you will place the gearwheel on the serrated guide. You need to follow all of the steps to assemble this part correctly.

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b) Connect the servo to OUTPUT 1, then connect LOFI Brain with LOFI Blocks. Insert the following code to set the servo in position 50 – that’s the middle range of its operation.

c) When you press PLAY, the servo will set itself to our desired middle range position.

d) Only now you can put on the previously assembled gearwheel.

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Notice We recommend that you insert the small screw inside the gearwheel using the magnetized tip of your screwdriver.

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Prepare the front facet of the vehicle. We will use it to mount the hoist.

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Notice. Make sure you have placed the LEDs on the proper sides. It’s important for the cable connections.

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The Forklift is complete. Congratulations!

Assembly: the pallets

Inside the CODEBOX Drive kit, you will find parts for 3 mini-pallets. You can use the pallets to carry items.

Prepare the parts for the pallets.

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2. Elements in this step are tightly fit. You may need to apply a little bit more force to assemble them.

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4. Now place the pallet flat on your workspace, and use the palm of your hand to push down all of the parts, right into place. Repeat these steps to assemble 3 pallets.

Pallets for your Forklift are now complete.

Electronic connections

1. Connect the motors to the M1 and M2 ports of the LOFI Brain controller. Make sure the small metal walls inside the pins of the motor cables are facing the plastic walls of the pins on the controller.

2. Connect the powerbank to the micro USB slot on the Adapter.

3. If you are using a bluetooth module, connect it to the corresponding slot on the adapter. Make sure you put the module in the right direction, see the picture below.

4. Connect the servo motor to OUTPUT 1 (if you connect it to OUTPUT 2, you will be able to control the hoist with our LOFI Control mobile app).

5. Connect the green LED to OUTPUT 2 and the red one to OUTPUT 3.

Programming

Connect to LOFI Brain with the LOFI Blocks app using LOFI Robot Extension. Inset the following script:

If you’re curious why the program looks like that, please see this lesson.