We're still looking for the easiest way to make our beetle walker respond to remote commands. To that end, we ordered a pair of wireless modules from Pololu which turned up today. We didn't have the Servotor32 board handy to work with, but we still wanted to see these doohickies in action. Hit Back after viewing an image.
We started out with both Wixels connected to different USB ports on a single computer, but couldn't get them to talk to each other. We downloaded and installed the Wixel utility from Pololu, which gave us drivers for the modules, and they then showed up as COM ports. Using the utility we installed a Wireless-to-Serial program, which should have had them streaming bits to each other on 2.4GHz wireless. With two PuTTY windows open (one on each COM port) what we typed into one should have shown up on the other, but to no avail. Then we decided to switch one of the Wixels to a different laptop.
And success! After random typing and the required hello world we felt pretty confident that we're getting data back and forth. We took the second laptop a good thirty feet away, with the original Wixel sitting down inside a cubicle, and were still able to send messages back and forth, so that bodes well. If this works, we actually don't need the Arduino Uno: we can load Hexy's PoMoCo on a laptop fitted with a Wixel, and attach the other Wixel to the USB port of the Servotor32, and control Hexapedal Hitman 0.9 wirelessly from the laptop, using the full bank of built-in moves - less programming too! Hurray!
hello world
Tags: arduino, gearingup
General
Finally! Two packages have been dropped off by USPS - both containing servos. One came from Hong Kong, and the other from Washington state. Let's check them out ... Hit Back after viewing an image.
The Hong Kong package contains 22 metal geared servos that we're going to put in our Hexy Kit tonight. Then we're going to load up the kit so it weighs a grand total of six pounds, and then we're going to see if it will walk. The idea here is that if it can move six pounds with these servos (rated for 2.2kg-cm of torque) then we can build the aluminium combat version of the kit with them, and keep the same leg design.
If it turns out that the replacement servos can't cut it, we'll need to trade up to heftier servos. For comparison the original metal gear servo is on the left. Next to it is a larger servo, also with metal gears, rated for 3.0kg-cm of torque - this would be our first choice replacement, as it's the smallest of the three options. Basically what we'll do is, knowing that the little blue servos have 2.2kg-cm of torque, we'll see at what weight they can move the kit, and then factor the needed torque for six pounds from there. For example, if they can move the kit at four pounds, we'll know that to move six pounds we'll need about 3kg-cm of torque, and so the next size up servo will work. If the little blue servos can only move three pounds, we'll need to step up again: the third servo is rated for over 6kg-cm of torque, and the fourth one is rated for 8kg-cm. If we do need to redesign, fingers crossed it's for the first alternative, because the other two are HUGE!
More tonight ...
Tags: hobbyweight, hh1, gearingup
Our day started with the usual round of obsessive checks on our packages in shipping. The FingerTech order seems to have stalled in Calgary, and the box of servos from Hong Kong has somehow ended up in Newburgh, New York! Unfortunately we're not going to be able to retro-fit our Hexy kit with metal gear servos this weekend - that will have to wait until next week. We are hoping to finish the Sportsman, Palindrome30, this weekend, and hopefully make some progress on the 30lb'er too. At least we have the Arduino kit to play with. Hit Back after viewing an image.
The Arduino starter kit didn't come with any documentation, but we did find the SparkFun Inventor's Kit Guide online, and so grabbed ourselves a copy of that, and set about going through the exercises in the manual. The first was to simply blink an LED, which was trivial, but teaches you how the basic program structure works. Next came varying the brightness of the LED with a potentiometer.
Also, we got to play with a tri-colour LED, cycling it through it's various colour combinations, which added a few more concepts into the mix. One thing we realized, though, in working with the Arduino board is that each time you start it up, you have to load a program to it. Hmm. This could be an issue in using it to run the walker, because it doesn't have enough EEPROM to store the code to run the Servotor32s ... each time we power it up we'd have to hook a PC to it, which is less than optimal.
After looking around, we found these: Wixel Shield for Arduino + Wixel Pair + USB cable, which would let us send the code to the Arduino over 2.4GHz wireless. If the NERC officers would let us use these instead of a transmitter and receiver we'd be able to run the walker directly from a PC, giving us a much wider range of pre-compiled moves the walker can perform. We can also run the servo for the hammer from the Servotor32 too. Guess it's worth an email to the NERC board to see if this is legal.
While we were out of town last week, FedEx dropped a package off that we've been waiting a long time for: our Kickstarter-funded Hexy the Hexapod Kit. Knowing that it was sitting and waiting for us now, rather than the other way around was ironic, but we set aside the whole day to work on the kit. Hit Back after viewing an image.
And here it is! The package is quite colourfull, and ought to look good on the shelves of a store when it comes time to sell these units retail. We requested grey legs and a purple body, and the package is marked grey, so hopefully there are some purple parts inside too.
After opening the box, we see a sticker telling us where to find the assembly instructions online, a receipt, and a lot of bagged parts. This is a little like Christmas coming early, but we have other build plans for that week, and there's no time like the present to play with this kit.
Dumping out the parts we have:
Here we've opened one of the bags of leg parts, and pulled the paper off the acrylic pieces. It's cool to finally have these in hand and be able to begin assembly.
There are a lot of servos in the package! Three per leg, one for the head/ultrasonic range-finder, and a spare. Granted, this is a gratuitous photo, but hey, we've been waiting a while for this day, and we're enjoying it! :-)
Down to business, and the first thing to do is start stripping the paper coating off the acrylic pieces. This means sacrificing a thumbnail, but so be it.
All told it took about a thumbnail-destroying hour to strip all the paper off the parts, but they're looking great! Time to jump online and pull up the assembly guide for the legs.
We're going to assemble all six legs in parallel, so we begin by fishing out the nuts and bolts we'll need for them from the Bag o' Bolts that came with the kit. All the bolts are metric, but we have no problem with that. You'll see in the picture we set out seven sets, as there are seven bags of leg parts, but can't actually assemble the seventh, because there aren't enough servos for it, so that last set is really just spare parts.
The build begins at the thigh, where we install two servos per thigh. Seems easy enough. The laser-cut acrylic had very little flashing on the edges that needed cleaning up.
The next step is putting a plate on the back of the thigh to hold the servos in place - it was pretty cool that so far we've only used one nut and bolt per leg, but already we feel like we've made a lot of progress.
Next is assembly of the feet. We've put on the rubber tips, and bolted on the side panel where the servo horn will attach. We like the 'captured' nut approach, and this method deserves serious consideration versus tapping when it comes time to make the combat version of this kit.
This bit was a little fiddly, as we've never actually used a servo before for anything, but we finally managed to mount the servo horn on the feet with the tiny screws included with the Bag o' Bolts.
The next step vexed us some. We had to plug the servo for the foot into the controller to center it, then press on the foot using the servo horn in such a way as to keep the foot centered with respect to the leg. It was quite difficult to line the foot up precisely, as the splines on the servo didn't match up exactly with the splines on the horn, but we got it as close as we could. Thank goodness there were spare parts, as we put a little too much pressure on the 'thigh bone' as we were mounting the first foot, and snapped the acrylic.
Eventually we had all six feet mounted as close to centered as we could manage, and we've screwed the horns down onto the servo hubs.
With the foot mated to the servo, we could go ahead and install the other side plate for the foot, which bolts to the foot, and has a captive bolt that sits in the thigh side panel to act as an axle - another clever idea to keep in mind when we build the combat hexapod.
With the 'ankle' done, we move up to the 'knee' and begin assembling the upper portion of the leg. This requires installing more fiddly servo horns, but we're definitely getting the hang of it now!
The thigh servos are also installed at this point. We're digging the fact that not one servo has been bolted into place - they're all essentially clamped into place by the leg pieces themselves - nifty!
Here we've mounted the 'knee' joint, again using the controller to center the servo and then try to align the leg pieces as straight as possible. They're not quite perfect, but certainly good enough!
The last piece of the leg puzzle is the other plate for the thigh that keeps the hip servo in place, and there we have it - six completed legs! All told, it's taken us a little over three hours to build the six legs - not too bad at all.
The body is very simple to bolt together, using slotted uprights and also has a shelf in it, presumably for the controller. We actually ended up taking it apart again, though, for the next step ...
... Installing the servo horns for the thigh servos on the top-plate. It was much easier to work on this piece by itself before assembling the rest of the body around it.
Time to mount the first leg! Again, we do the thing where the servo is hooked to the controller to try and mount it straight, and there is a nut and bolt that's held captive in the leg to be a swivel point.
The wiring needs to be tidied up quite a bit, but here we have all six legs mounted. Unfortunately this is as far as the step-by-step guides go, so we're going to have to wing it from here.
There is a wiring diagram, so we feed all the servo cables into the body, and hook them up to the controller where the diagram says they need to go.
Lastly for today, we downloaded a bunch of Arduino software and a pre-written script from Arcbotics to see if we could elicit any signs of life from the kit. It took a while, but we did finally figure out how to hook everything up to the laptop, and managed to coax some movement from the kit! Granted, the movement looked more like a spasm than a pre-defined movement, but at least it moved! Yay! Now we're going to wait until the next set of guides for programming the kit are released, but in six hours we went from a box of parts to a moving 'bot - how cool is that?!
Tags: build, Hex1
Bots | General
Okay, so this has nothing to do with Combat Robots: I pre-ordered a 32GB Microsoft Surface with Windows RT a couple of weeks ago, and it showed up (on time) last Friday. Since then I've been playing with it, and one of the first things I noticed was that less than 20GB of the 32GB SSD was available for data. Luckily, though, I had ordered a 64GB microSD card from Amazon earlier last week, when they had them on sale as the Gold Box deal of the day. I received it Monday, and put it in. Then I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to actually use the card to store stuff. Windows Libraries don't let you add removeable media as a Library source location. I tried mounting the card as a folder on the C: drive, and that didn't work either. Finally I got it [almost*] working, and figured I'd post the steps I took for posterity. Click Back after viewing an image.
Make an empty folder on the C: drive. Note that I've called it SD2 as I still had the SD card mounted as C:\SD from my original efforts. On my SD card I have already made folders for Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos.
We're going to make symbolic links within C:\SD2 to each of the folders; specifically we're going to make Directory Junction points - I tried hard links and directory symbolic links, and they didn't work. Use an Administrator command prompt to run these lines:
mklink /j c:\sd2\d d:\documents mklink /j c:\sd2\m d:\music mklink /j c:\sd2\p d:\pictures mklink /j c:\sd2\v d:\videos
Having run the above commands, check that you have four directories under C:\SD2.
Open Control Panel, and select Indexing Options. Choose Modify, and check C:\SD2 as an indexed location. Hit OK and Close, and exit Control Panel.
In File Explorer, click the Documents Library, and on the ribbon click Properties. Click Add, and select the C:\SD2\d folder. I set mine as the default Save Location so any new documents will be saved to the SD card by default. Repeat this process with the other libraries, adding C:\CD2\m to Music, C:\SD2\p to Pictures, and finally C:\SD2\v to Videos.
Next step - verify that it worked! Open XBox Videos from the Start screen, and go to My Videos - you should see whatever content is in D:\videos displayed.
Do the same thing with XBox Music - go to My Music, and you should see the content of the Music folder on the SD card.
Finally, open Pictures from the Start screen, and go in to Pictures Library.
Ta-daa! The contents of D:\Pictures show up! Now, about that asterisk from above: you'll note that there is no content in the Camera Roll folder. I did actually have a couple of pictures in there, but they don't show up, even when you go into the folder. If you have a video clip you took with the camera in that folder, it does show up, which is weird. Note too, that I renamed an automatically-created Camera Roll folder to Camera Roll2 and it shows up fine. Curiouser and curioser.
Still, it's 95% functional, so I'll go with it. Hope this helps other people trying to see SD card content in XBox Video, XBox Music, and Pictures!
Tags: surface
Okay - this is way too cool! Jerome Miles suggested we take a look at CamBam, which is a tool that takes a CAD drawing and allows you to specify what you want to do to the part with the mill, then it automatically generates the G-Code for you! How neat is that??
We created a DXF of the chassis base for the new fairyweight, imported it into CamBam+, told it we wanted three pockets 3/8" deep, and it spat this out:
And it gave us a text file with the G-Code for it!
( Made using CamBam - http://www.cambam.co.uk ) ( FW2 Bottom.dxf 1/19/2012 10:30:14 PM ) ( T0 : 0.1875 ) G20 G90 G64 G40 G0 Z0.1 ( T0 : 0.1875 ) T0 M6 ( Pocket1 ) G17 M3 S0 G0 X1.7563 Y1.6313 G1 F6.0 Z-0.1875 G1 Y0.8688 G1 X1.7438 G1 Y1.6313 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y1.7063 G1 X1.8313 G1 Y0.7938 G1 X1.6688 G1 Y1.7063 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y1.7813 G1 X1.9063 G1 Y0.7188 G1 X1.5938 G1 Y1.7813 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y1.8563 G1 X1.9813 G1 Y0.6438 G1 X1.5188 G1 Y1.8563 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y1.9313 G1 X2.0563 G1 Y0.5688 G1 X1.4438 G1 Y1.9313 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y2.0063 G1 X2.1313 G1 Y0.4938 G1 X1.3688 G1 Y2.0063 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y2.0813 G1 X2.2063 G1 Y0.4188 G1 X1.2938 G1 Y2.0813 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y2.1563 G1 X2.2813 G1 Y0.3438 G1 X1.2188 G1 Y2.1563 G1 X1.7563 G0 Z0.1 G0 X0.6368 Y1.4074 G1 Z-0.1875 G1 Y1.0926 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.5188 Y1.078 I0.0 J-0.3938 G1 Y1.422 G3 X0.625 Y1.4074 I0.1063 J0.3791 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.4824 G1 X0.7118 G1 Y1.0176 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.4438 Y0.961 I0.0 J-0.3188 G1 Y1.539 G3 X0.625 Y1.4824 I0.1813 J0.2622 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.5574 G1 X0.75 G3 X0.7868 Y1.5602 I0.0 J0.2438 G1 Y0.9398 G3 X0.75 Y0.9426 I-0.0368 J-0.241 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.3813 Y0.6988 I0.0 J-0.2438 G1 Y0.3688 G1 X0.3688 G1 Y2.1313 G1 X0.3813 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.625 Y1.5574 I0.2438 J0.0 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.6324 G1 X0.75 G3 X0.8618 Y1.6747 I0.0 J0.1688 G1 Y0.8253 G3 X0.75 Y0.8676 I-0.1118 J-0.1264 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.4563 Y0.6988 I0.0 J-0.1688 G1 Y0.2938 G1 X0.2938 G1 Y2.2063 G1 X0.4563 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.625 Y1.6324 I0.1688 J0.0 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.7074 G1 X0.75 G3 X0.8438 Y1.8012 I0.0 J0.0938 G1 Y2.1563 G1 X0.9063 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.9368 Y1.732 I0.0938 J0.0 G1 Y0.768 G3 X0.9063 Y0.6988 I0.0632 J-0.0692 G1 Y0.3438 G1 X0.8438 G1 Y0.6988 G3 X0.75 Y0.7926 I-0.0938 J0.0 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.5313 Y0.6988 I0.0 J-0.0938 G1 Y0.2188 G1 X0.2188 G1 Y2.2813 G1 X0.5313 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.625 Y1.7074 I0.0938 J0.0 G1 X0.6368 G0 Z0.1 G0 X2.8688 Y1.5063 G1 Z-0.1875 G1 X3.0063 G1 Y0.9938 G1 X2.8688 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.7938 G1 Y1.5813 G1 X3.0813 G1 Y0.9188 G1 X2.7938 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.7188 G1 Y1.6563 G1 X3.1563 G1 Y0.8438 G1 X2.7188 G1 Y1.5063 G0 Z0.1 G0 X1.7563 G1 Z-0.375 G1 Y0.8688 G1 X1.7438 G1 Y1.6313 G1 X1.7563 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X1.8313 G1 Y0.7938 G1 X1.6688 G1 Y1.7063 G1 X1.8313 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X1.9063 G1 Y0.7188 G1 X1.5938 G1 Y1.7813 G1 X1.9063 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X1.9813 G1 Y0.6438 G1 X1.5188 G1 Y1.8563 G1 X1.9813 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.0563 G1 Y0.5688 G1 X1.4438 G1 Y1.9313 G1 X2.0563 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.1313 G1 Y0.4938 G1 X1.3688 G1 Y2.0063 G1 X2.1313 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.2063 G1 Y0.4188 G1 X1.2938 G1 Y2.0813 G1 X2.2063 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.2813 G1 Y0.3438 G1 X1.2188 G1 Y2.1563 G1 X2.2813 G1 Y1.5063 G0 Z0.1 G0 X0.6368 Y1.4074 G1 Z-0.375 G1 Y1.0926 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.5188 Y1.078 I0.0 J-0.3938 G1 Y1.422 G3 X0.625 Y1.4074 I0.1063 J0.3791 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.4824 G1 X0.7118 G1 Y1.0176 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.4438 Y0.961 I0.0 J-0.3188 G1 Y1.539 G3 X0.625 Y1.4824 I0.1813 J0.2622 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.5574 G1 X0.75 G3 X0.7868 Y1.5602 I0.0 J0.2438 G1 Y0.9398 G3 X0.75 Y0.9426 I-0.0368 J-0.241 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.3813 Y0.6988 I0.0 J-0.2438 G1 Y0.3688 G1 X0.3688 G1 Y2.1313 G1 X0.3813 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.625 Y1.5574 I0.2438 J0.0 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.6324 G1 X0.75 G3 X0.8618 Y1.6747 I0.0 J0.1688 G1 Y0.8253 G3 X0.75 Y0.8676 I-0.1118 J-0.1264 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.4563 Y0.6988 I0.0 J-0.1688 G1 Y0.2938 G1 X0.2938 G1 Y2.2063 G1 X0.4563 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.625 Y1.6324 I0.1688 J0.0 G1 X0.6368 G1 Y1.7074 G1 X0.75 G3 X0.8438 Y1.8012 I0.0 J0.0938 G1 Y2.1563 G1 X0.9063 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.9368 Y1.732 I0.0938 J0.0 G1 Y0.768 G3 X0.9063 Y0.6988 I0.0632 J-0.0692 G1 Y0.3438 G1 X0.8438 G1 Y0.6988 G3 X0.75 Y0.7926 I-0.0938 J0.0 G1 X0.625 G3 X0.5313 Y0.6988 I0.0 J-0.0938 G1 Y0.2188 G1 X0.2188 G1 Y2.2813 G1 X0.5313 G1 Y1.8012 G3 X0.625 Y1.7074 I0.0938 J0.0 G1 X0.6368 G0 Z0.1 G0 X2.8688 Y1.5063 G1 Z-0.375 G1 X3.0063 G1 Y0.9938 G1 X2.8688 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.7938 G1 Y1.5813 G1 X3.0813 G1 Y0.9188 G1 X2.7938 G1 Y1.5063 G1 X2.7188 G1 Y1.6563 G1 X3.1563 G1 Y0.8438 G1 X2.7188 G1 Y1.5063 G0 Z0.1 M5 M30
How cool is that?! Can't wait to try this out!!
Tags: mill, design
Wow - that was pretty zippy! We received a shipment of parts from HobbyKing this morning - not bad considering they only shipped - from Hong Kong - on Friday! The EMS shipping is definitely worth the extra few bucks, versus standard airmail! Hit Back after viewing an image.
First out of the shipping box we have a pair of Turnigy G60 brushless motors and two 70A ESCs. These motors are the little brother of the G110 we had in the first version of our 30lb'er Formidable Fustigator 1.0, but in the second version we're going to be running two motors to the weapon blade, so in theory, an upgrade as 2 x 60 > 110 :-)
Better safe than sorry, right? We're going to be teaching Lauren about care and feeding of her 'bots for Motorama 2012, so we ought to start off right, and swiped a couple of jumbo LiPo charge sacks, as they were actually in stock when we ordered.
Here are some battery packs to go in the charge sacks - a pair of 3S 370mAH packs for Lauren's antweight, and a pair of 3S 470mAH packs for Poor Punctuation 2.0.
The Battery Eliminator in the twelve-pounder seemed to have blown up last time we were playing, so we swapped in the one from the carcass of the thirty-pounder. We decided we should probably pick up some spares ...
We also took the opportunity to grab some spare receivers, too. There are three 3-channel HobbyKing receivers for Lauren's 'bots, and a couple of AR6110e-equivalents to replace the ones that died at Motorama 2011.
Tucked in the bottom of the box was the programming card for the ESCs for the featherweight weapon motors, along with a chrome-like Turnigy logo ... no idea what to do with that, but hey: freebie!
These were our weight-fillers for the package, some wire, bullet connectors, and heat shrink tubing. The tubing is for the 1000rpm motors in the beetleweight, to try and provide some stability between motor and gearbox.
Last, but not least, a collection of LEDs, pre-made to plug in to a receiver, and hey presto: instant power light. Much easier than fiddling around trying to make them, so a dollar or so well spent!
Tags: gearingup, equipment
There hasn't been much in the way of updates lately because there's been a whole lot of fun stuff going on at work, and by the time the weekends roll around it's time to catch up on useful things like sleep! But with the Christmas Holiday coming up, we've been laying the groundwork for parts and pieces to keep us occupied during the break we have from December 23rd through January 1st. This time in two months we'll be packing the car ready for the road trip to Motorama 2012! Which means we'd better get busy: we've registered our bots:
We've drawn up a calendar, to identify when we have built time available, and feel quite secure that all the 'bots will be done before it's time to pack the car. We've already ordered parts from HobbyKing, and sent materials to the Whyachi folks for waterjetting, so expect a tremendous amount of work to be done between Christmas and New Year - stay tuned!
Tags: gearingup, motorama
Just a quick note - couldn't sleep, so we tested a couple of receivers. Sure enough, with the transmitter four feet away from the receiver, and holding the toggle longer, we were able to get the receivers to bind with the transmitter, so the receivers we thought were bad are okay - operator error!
Tags: equipment
16 New Hyundai 18V drills, snagged from eBay for $126 inluding shipping.
12 are earmarked for CyberScorpion 0.9, and three may go in Formidable Fustigator 2.0, so yes - we can definitely put these to good use!
Tags: gearingup
Hmm ... after re-reading the manual for the Spektrum DX6i, it says the receiver may fail to bind if the transmitter is too close to the receiver ... we'll give those receivers another go tomorrow evening then!
Team Radicus has a NEW 'bot: Steel Stiletto; and a new driver to go with it. Top Gear has The Stig, but Team Radicus has The SGGS!
Team Radicus: So, how did your first robot go?
SGGS: Well TR, I can build a computer, and wire a house, but I found neither one helped me with a robot! But with a lot of help from Team Radicus, and a lot of electrical tape, I was able to finally get it moving.
TR: Before you started, what do you know of robot design?
SGGS: Is that anything like shoe design?
TR: Ah, maybe with less heel and more electrons.
SGGS: Clearly you haven't seen my shoe closet TR.
TR: Perhaps not. So about the bots, what was toughtest?
SGGS: Well, I think the fact that it is NOT at all like working on a computer - which is actually what I'd expected. And, while I can do household wiring, fix a loo, and build a PC, I have never been mechanical. So this is a foray into an entirely new area for me.
TR: So, there are a number of components that must be new to you: receivers, ESCs, batteries, etc.
SGGS: Actually I'm dynamite with AA batteries.
TR: How about LiPo batteries?
SGGS: I've never had liposuction TR.
TR: Getting back to the subject.... starting with mechanics: what did you find easy or difficult with the mechanics of CC3 which you're modifying into Steel Stilletto?
SGGS: I found the motors themselves the easiest to understand and wire. THe convulted cabilng to extend and jump voltage between 2 ESCs, 2 batteries which I had to combine for total power, and a Battery Eliminator thrown in for added confusion, was the tougest bit. But I've made a lot of notes and drawings, and intend to take it apart and put it back together several more times so I'm more familiar with it.
TR: Are you taking this bot to Motorama?
SGGS: I intend to take it, and take Motorama; there will only be slight remnants of dust leftover from the bots that go against Steel Stiletto. I am, after all, related to The Stig.
TR: Any words of wisdom for your opponents?
SGGS: You can run but you can't hide. The arena is only so big ...
Tags: cc3, hobbyweight
No building this evening, just some organization and troubleshooting using some tips from our friends on the Forums, but we did receive a couple of deliveries! Click Back after viewing an image.
Our bearings order from VXB came in, bringing some 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" bearings, plus a bonus digital caliper, which will be handy, so we can keep one on the build table and one by Milly.
These were the contents of the first of three packages from Speedy Metals, who have some pretty good pricing on aluminium. The plate in front is 3" x 1/8" x 12" 6061, and will be used to make the weapon motor mount for Formidable Fustigator 0.9. The two rods are 1/2" 6061, and 1" steel tube (1/2" inner diameter) which will be the weapon shaft and retainer for the featherweight. The 6061 tube at the back will be cut to form the rounded rear wall of Nihilistic Naysayer 2.0.
The contents of the second package include a number of short pieces of 6061 tube, to be used for wheel covers and weapon caps for the featherweight. The two bars on the right are the teeth for the drum on the hobbyweight.
The third and final package contained a number of lengths of 6061 - some flatbar to make arm components for both the fairyweight and beetle, plus plow material for the beetle, and the round is for axles for the beetles too. Not a bad haul, and it certainly came well packaged!
Tags: gearingup, build
Now that Milly is a fixture in the Build Space, it was time for phase two of the setup - adding the CNC capabilities in! We'd rustled up an old PC (do you know how difficult it is to get a computer with a parallel port new?!) and did a quick refresh of the operating system, and decided to go plug it in. Click Back after viewing an image.
Of course it might have been handy to have installed the cabling before putting Milly in place, but no big deal - it didn't take long to attach the serial cables to the motors, and run a parallel cable under the bench.
Here's the old clunker we dug out and [almost] dusted off. An old Lenovo something-or-other, with a gig of RAM and a 2.4GHz dual core CPU. We went more for robustness than aesthetics this time. It took all night last night to reinstall the O/S and then clear all the pre-installed junk off it, but now it's ready to rock.
Not a great photo, but at this point we're ready to fire up the CAD software for the first time. The software is called Mach3, and came with the mill, apparently with configuration files already set up, so this should be pretty easy!
For the first time, we turn the mystical bottom switches - controller power on the left, and stepper motor engage on the right. It was an exciting moment, as we went over to the PC and entered our first command: G0 X-2 ... and nothing happened. Zip. So then came a half an hour of checking connections, checking the setup instructions, and finally we checked the motor setup in the configuration file, to find everything was disabled - huh?! It took another five minutes to realize that the pre-configured 'profile' file had a space between the filename and extension, so when we were starting the CAD software it was generating a new, blank, profile file. Geez computers can be picky! After a quick bit of renaming we finally were ready to reissue the command:
G0 X-2
And there was much rejoicing! For a while we investigated the various menus, and experimented with G codes to see what they would do. We even started getting fancy:
Having gotten the basics sorted out, we wrapped up the configuration by plugging in our backlash values (0.005" and 0.006") and wrapped up for the evening, plotting and scheming as to what crazy things we'd be able to do now ...
Tags: equipment, gearingup, mill
Unfortunately we haven't quite finished all our design work, so we haven't been able to order everything we need in time for this three-day weekend, so we're going to have to amuse ourselves with some general building this weekend. We headed out to the build space to dig out some parts, and to figure out some design issues. Click Back after viewing an image.
One thing on our list is unearthing the DeWalts and omniwheels for Formidable Fustigator 0.9. We last had them installed in a middleweight we didn't get to finishing, which we dug out from behind all our materials, and unbolted the top plate from.
As you can see, there are four DeWalt/omni setups in the 'bot, so hey presto! We have a spare. We're still not 100% sure whether we want to use the DeWalts, or some Craftsman 19.2V drill motor/gearboxes - it'll come down to weight at the end of the build.
Next on our list of things to do is to design a new gearbox for Nihilistic Naysayer 2.0's Handiworks motors. Last time one exploded from a hit, and we want to make them a little tougher. We remembered back to making custom gearboxes for Anaphoric Antagonist 1.6 and it was a fairly simple operation. We took apart the damaged Handiworks from version one and took some measurements.
Part of the reason we haven't finished our design work is because we need to design lifting arms for our fairyweight and a beetle. Starting with the fairyweight Machiavellian Malcontent 0.9 we took some 1/4" balsa and a 1/16" drill bit, and started joining things up with rivets.
The first stab, and we realized that when in the 'down' position, the arm wouldn't be sitting flat on the top of the 'bot, which obviously isn't ideal.
Also, with the arm in the 'up' position it sits over the 'bot, rather than toward the front, or even in front, so we need to rethink this position.
After making the rocker (the shortest piece) a little longer, we used a piece of aluminium to represent the top and bottom of the body, and worked around it to ensure the arm laid flat in the 'down' position.
By moving the pivot points closer to the front of the 'bot for the longer upright, we were able to see more of a forward motion to the movement of the arm, which is what we're looking for.
To finally nail down the sizing and positioning, we cut the balsa to the actual size of the 'bot, and checked the geometry in the 'down' position ...
... And the 'up' position - you can see here that we have a much more forward final position, which is what we were shooting for!
Here we're playing with the micro-servo which will power the arm in the 'bot. It took a while to find both a working receiver and a working BEC to power it - must remember to order a new receiver! The little servo seems to have quite a bit of oomph, so it ought to do fine in powering the arm.
Second verse, same as the first. On to the arm for our second beetleweight for Motorama. We used the rough geometry from the first attempt to pin together the pieces here. With some extra wood representing the size of the body in the middle, the arm looks right in the 'down' position.
And looks pretty good in the 'up' position too. All in all we're happy with these designs, so we recorded the measurements of the pin holes, and went back to the CAD for the two 'bots to work on designing the arms.
Tags: build, design, ff1, featherweight, nn2, hobbyweight, mm1, fairyweight, vv1, beetleweight
One of the great things about the holidays is that there's a whole lot of really fun things to do. The downside - as with any holiday - is there's more to do than time to do it! We had a really great Christmas, and hope you and your's did too, and a Happy New Year to you :-)
With Milly the new Mill firmly ensconced in the garage Build Space we had to spend some time rearranging and organizing the Build Space, and so that was a task duly accomplished today. With a little bit of time left over, we decided to give Milly a test run. It took a while to figure out the whole drawbar/collet thing, but then again this whole Mill-thing is a learning process for us. We eventually mounted up a collet with a half-inch end mill, and selected a sacrificial target - an off-cut of UHMW we've had sitting around for years, and bolted it down. Click back after viewing an image.
After a couple of minutes of cranking handles - we haven't set up the CNC PC yet, we have our first ever self-milled part produced in our own Build Space! Not a great photo, so let's go to Macro Mode.
Ta-daa! True, it's pretty rough, but none-the-less we did that with our own hands, on our own mill. Milly rocks :-) [Not literally though - that would be unsafe - Ed]
As you can see, we've gotten somewhat organized, with our meagre selection of tooling up on the pegboard ... as time goes by that board is probably going to become filled with handy implements, but hey: you've got to start somewhere!
Tags: mill, gearingup
We've been pretty quiet lately. There are a number of reasons: work, visitors from overseas, work, designing new 'bots, and work. Oh - did we mention work? But we've got a week off coming, and we have big plans!
♪♫ We wish us a Merry Christmas We wish us a Merry Christmas We wish us a Merry Christmas And a Happy Birthday! ♪♫
Back in October we ordered ourselves a ShopMaster Patriot Lathe/Mill combo machine. On December 9th it finally showed up, and we've spent a couple of weeks trying to get it ready to run. The 900-pound machine was quite difficult to handle, and we spend time ready other people's reports of getting their Patriot machines set up to try and prepare ourselves. Click Back after viewing an image.
After waiting all afternoon for delivery some time between noon and 5pm the truck finally showed up at 6:40pm! The delivery driver had some issues unloading, and there was a fleeting moment when I thought the whole crate was going to slide off the lift gate, but we wrangled the crate into the garage without too much effort.
A cursory check of the crate showed that one of the steel runners under the crate had gotten mangled, but otherwise the rest of the package looked pretty good.
We took the ends off the crate and then was able to unbolt the front and back panels, which were bolted to the legs of the stand.
We pulled the wrapping off, and Ta-Daa! A CNC mill/lathe to call our very own. Actually, I think we'll call it "Milly" :-) The legs of the stand were bolted to the table, and were cheap, metric crappy bolts, so we put them off to one side after removing them, planning to replace them with decent 3/8" SAE bolts.
These are the extras that came the order. Live centers, collets, a clamp kit, end mills, and miscellaneous stuff. There were a couple of pieces on back-order, such as the 4-jaw chuck and coolant system, but that's okay. For now we need to work out how to get it on the stand, and how to make it go!
Having ordered a heavy-duty mobile shop base, as recommended by another user, we realized when the Patriot arrived that the newer model is larger than the one the other user had, so the base was too small. We decided to make our own. We took six pieces of 1/2" plywood and started to drill them out.
Sad outlet is sad Sorry - couldn't resist the LOLCat reference. Bill Tillotson came by and installed a spiffy new 220V circuit for us, as what we had previously thought was a 220V outlet was just a funky-looking 110V outlet. Installing the outlet was a very quick job, no doubt made look easy by many years of practice - Thanks Bill!
Almost done assembling the new base - those are 200lb-rated casters, lockable of course. There's an additional benefit to installing these casters (besides mobility) which will become apparent later ...
And the base is readfy to roll - literally. The upper plywood piece is bolted to the end of the leg where the leveller used to be, and then the casters are bolted through using 1/4-20 bolts and locknuts. Hopefully it will be plenty sturdy!
Time to start the scary part - hoisting the 800lb mill/lathe onto the stand. You can see the swanky CNC connectors on the right there. We picked up a 2-Ton engine hoist from Craig's List, and here we're trying to figure out the best location to put the straps.
The first challenge is that the legs of the hoist don't fit under the steel tray. Even if the one bracket hadn't been mangled, it still wouldn't have fit, so we need to figure out how to raise Milly enough for the hoist to slide under.
Solution: 2x4s. We lifted one side and put a few sections of 2x4 under the bracket, and after clearing some working room on the other side did the same there. It was a little nerve-wracking, putting your arm under an 800lb steel tray, with one of the runners looking as warped as it did, but there were no incidents.
Success! Well ... the second time anyway - the first attempt to lift the unit didn't go well, with it leaning badly to one side - definitely brown-trousers-time. After stopping for a think, we were able to adjust the straps and leveller and get a clean lift on the unit.
From there it was pretty easy to slide the stand in under Milly, but that's thanks to the casters - without them the cross-braces on the legs would have meant that the legs of the hoist wouldn't have fitted under the bench. All we had left to do is bolt together the unit and the stand and put it in place.
Ta-Daa! Here we have Milly in place, and we're pretty damn happy about it! No injuries or damage done, and we're set to have a ton of fun during the Christmas break making chips!
Tags: equipment, gearingup, build, mill, lathe
They say a watched pot never boils ... likewise a tracked package never arrives. Or that's how it felt, seeing as the first order I placed at Hobby King has a tracking number that's untrackable, and the second seemed to vanish in Switzerland[!] so it was like Xmas coming early when the Swiss package showed up on my desk today - hurray! Hit Back after viewing the images.
These are the dangerous parts for the 12lb drummer - a 42-60 brushless motor with 60A speed controller, and a 2.2Ah 4S 45C LiPo battery pack. Nice :-)
This pack is for the beetle Hyperbolic Hoops 0.9 - a 2.2Ah 3S 25C LiPo pack. Looking forward to getting this installed!
Some cute little antweight parts for Poor Punctuation 0.9 - a 500mAh 2S 15C LiPo pack, a 28-30 brushless motor, and a speed controller for it.
Getting smaller still, this tiny 350mAh 2S 20C pack is for our next fairyweight ... the motors for it were ordered before this shipment from Hobby King but haven't shown up yet ...
A few miscellaneous parts, including JST connectors to be able to make charging pigtails for our smaller battery packs, and some 1g foam wheels for both the fairyweight and antweight.
Choices, choices ... we ordered this 35-42 motor for Hyperbolic Hoops 0.9 along with the 40A speed controller, before finding the 18-12 Nippy and it's Jeti speed controller amongst our stuff in the Build Space. We'll carry on building with the Nippy for now, but reserve the right to switch to this motor if either we (a) blow up the Nippy; or (b) want more power!
Tags: beetleweight, equipment, gearingup, antweight, fairyweight
If you're going to build, you need somewhere to do it. This means the garage, but there's a small issue - the garage is filled with three year's worth of accumulated junk! Time to do some tidying ... hit the Back button after viewing an image.
This is a pretty daunting prospect ... trying to clear out the junk and find some space in here to build. It ought to be possible, but daunting none-the-less!
This is work! After a night of effort there's finally a glimpse of some floor! What you can't see off to the side is the stacked cardboard and other trash that will need to be disposed of.
Getting there ... although even through there's plenty of floor visible now, the bench at the back is in complete disarray, so that's going to take quite a bit of work to sort and organize, but it's definitely getting there!
Ta-daa! This is as good as it's going to get, given the amount of stuff that does legitimately live in the garage. The trick will be keeping it neat and organized as we start to build ...
This site contains records of our trials and tribulations in building combat robots. So much to learn, and so little time!
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