Show HN: Snap Circuits Telepresence Robot

Holidays in 2020 are a little different. My family is spread out around the country, and due to the pandemic we're unable to gather together. To include other family members in our holiday celebrations, I built a telepresence robot from a Raspberry Pi, a Snap Circuits rover, and an iPad.

iRobot actually makes a dev platform that would work great for this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.irobot.com&#x2F;default&#x2F;create-programmable-programmable-robot-irobot-create-2&#x2F;RC65099.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.irobot.com&#x2F;default&#x2F;create-programmable-program...</a><p>Its not much more at $200 and gets you all the sensors on a roomba (bump, cliff, etc), return to dock, charging, virtual walls, etc.

Neat project. I&#x27;m a big fan of Snap Circuits so this was a cool project to see. I&#x27;m thinking of doing something similar with Sphero RVR. My biggest worry is charging the base. The ideal solution seems like a roomba (with charging base).

IMHO I feel like adding a periscope would keep your pricey phone or tablet closer to the ground and less likely to be destroyed if the platform tips over.