CALIBRATING...

[slashsplat offline]

I have assembled the bot and it is fully operational. I am using a 10' phone wire extension to the serial control cable, and have dialed an AC power supply down to 10.8VDC and have eliminated battery issues.

I am REALLY confused about how to calibrate this guy. The steps seem to include the following:

A- setting the servos to 0 INTIALLY before attaching horns
B- setting the "trim" (flying bird icon)
C- setting the Home position (Right-click + "Turning it in the home position")
D- setting a startup program so it gets upright when powered up

I thought I did A and put the horns on according to the Doc pix, exactly aligned. For instance, at 0, his arms stick straight out from his sides.

I have successfully done B, since it will RECALL those setting (apparently from the Bot.) I set them to put him in a standing position.

I went through all the servos and set them to "Home" to be in the SAME standing position.

Did D, and it executes at startup to stand nicely.

BUT, ALL motion files I run wind up with all servos at '0' and that AIN'T a normal standing position.

1. What is the sequence to do all this stuff - A, B, C, D? What are the screen results I am working toward? Is there some sequence that results in all 0's being a standing posture??

2. Should I go BACK and PHYSICALLY adjust every horn to be centered at '0'? Centered is the Docs assembly position where they show to attache the horns...

3. If I create a POSition with all 0's, should it be in the standing position?

4. How do I know that MY standing position is close to everyone elses so we can swap motion files? I can make him stand in MANY different default poses...

5. Is there a STANDARD CALIBRATION POSITION for he Bot? I would see this as a diagram of the exact alignment of the body parts with measurements as to how far off "lined up" they are. If we all start at the same position, the motion files are going to work better. Am I on drugs, or is this a real issue?

6. On a forum, I saw someone say that "on the AT01, CH5, CH6, CH9, CH11, CH14, CH15, and CH20 need to be setup 'reverse'." Was that ONLY relative to the KHR-2HV, or what? I never saw to do that anywhere and do not really know how...

[srobot offline]

Hi,
I rilly don't know about this on Manoi, but on other robot projects I've done the center is 127 not 0, and 255 and 0, are right and left. But like I said, I do not rilly know about this the Manoi so do so at your own risk! I hope this helps.

--srobot

[rep001 offline]

I am guessing that you have already done so ,if not the Software English instructions helped me just fine .If you have any specific probs then drop me a line and i'll do what i can..

http://www.kondo-robot.com/html/Info_En.html

[tempusmaster offline]

6. On a forum, I saw someone say that "on the AT01, CH5, CH6, CH9, CH11, CH14, CH15, and CH20 need to be setup 'reverse'." Was that ONLY relative to the KHR-2HV, or what? I never saw to do that anywhere and do not really know how...

If that hasn't been done, then the stock motions will produce odd results since they expect the robot to have been setup that way.

The home position setup, including the setup for reversing those servos, is covered in the section that starts on page 63 of the MANOI AT01 manual. There are some photos in the manual and similar photos with notations on the AT01 website.

[slashsplat offline]

The home position setup, including the setup for reversing those servos, is covered in the section that starts on page 63 of the MANOI AT01 manual. There are some photos in the manual and similar photos with notations on the AT01 website.

Bless you.

I just can't seem to get methodical enough. I will buckle down and work on following the recipe step by step... This whole J. thing has thrown me a bit.

[tempusmaster offline]

The home position setup, including the setup for reversing those servos, is covered in the section that starts on page 63 of the MANOI AT01 manual. There are some photos in the manual and similar photos with notations on the AT01 website.

Bless you.

You're very welcome. It's my pleasure. I wish I had time to help more, but my schedule is total chaos at the moment.

I just can't seem to get methodical enough. I will buckle down and work on following the recipe step by step... This whole J. thing has thrown me a bit.

There are also a lot of new concepts in addition to the language. It took me quite a while to get my head around them.

Given your background in software and systems development, I would really like to see you get to the point where you want to tackle writing some better software for the AT01 (and KHR series). H2H3 works a heck of a lot better than the original H2H for the KHR-1 (I'm in the process of replacing the RCB1 in my KHR-1 with a RCB3), but it could be improved a lot.

[slashsplat offline]

Given your background in software and systems development, I would really like to see you get to the point where you want to tackle writing some better software for the AT01 (and KHR series).

HTH3 simply sucks. Generally, Japanese software seems to be lacking, and it all may be a cultural issue. Not that HTH3 is a good executiion of whatever the concept was. It is extremely sloppy. Every little thing has been given no attention. The sequence of the focus when you TAB through the control is never properly sequential, for instance. I cannot find a simple "SAVE" command without doing a "SAVE AS"... And on... I have no frame of reference, other than being in the software business for 30 years.

What I am thinking is a body frame that you strap on YOUR body to generate the moves. Like a surgeon using a glove for robotic micro-surgery.

That seems to be the only reasonable way to capture movement. I am thinking that a rig with little servos that can report their positions (existing tech) and the right range of motion would do it. Basically stalks to strap on the the major body parts that are connected by little servos. Would require some limiting to insure the flexible body does not break them, of course.

Then, you move through the desired sequence, and it is recorded. You then could convert the position data to an RCB file and edit it in the stinking HTH.

I think the RCB3, while small and functional, is not really worth a lot of developemtn (using its API). I do not see it as the ultimate controller and would rather focus on the INPUT side of the issue.

From your perspective, does this seem like a reasonable direction to proceed?

If so, we actually have the resources to do it...

[Pev offline]

What I am thinking is a body frame that you strap on YOUR body to generate the moves. Like a surgeon using a glove for robotic micro-surgery.

Something like the photo towards the end of this Robots Dreams post

http://www.robots-dreams.com/2006/11/roboone_gran_pr_2.html#more

Pev

[slashsplat offline]

Something like the photo towards the end of this Robots Dreams post
http://www.robots-dreams.com/2006/11/roboone_gran_pr_2.html#more
Pev

EXACTLY! But I think full body makes sense...

[srobot offline]

Hi,
More pictures of exosuits (master/slave units) are on the robot magazines site here:http://www.botmag.com/articles/robo_one_ten.shtml I think it would be very cool, but I also think it would take lots and lots of money (about $2500 USD), but if you have lots of time and money, I say go for it! Keep us posted! You might consider selling them, I know a guy who might buy one!

Thanks
--srobot

[Pev offline]

Hmmm it certainly gets you thinking doesn't it............

Pev

[Robo1 offline]

Some hints: I have a KHR-2

When setting the home positions:

when you click on a pos square in H2H and all the setting are 0 then it should be in the home position.

To get the home position I had to do it in a strange way. If you look at the manuel on page 49 (KHR-2) it has all the there numbers for the home. I set all these in my bot then unscrewed it and set all the servos so that it was in the home position. then i just fined tuned it once it was reasembled. if you do it this way you will find that some of the servos shouldn't be set to zero when attached.

I hate H2H 3 and the RCB. In fact I don't rate KONDO any more, I'm going to take it appate use the servos for a new project and make my own controller. you find that after the posing and simple preprogrammed routies you can't do much sell.

As you can't get position feed back and have torque I wouldn't even rate the servos.

hope this helps if you have and moore question bout getting the bot up and running I can help. I've looked and played with the Manoi and it's 100% the same as the KHR-2 even the same brackets just bigger servos that have the same force! I don't get how Kyosho can even say it's there own robot all their've done is put a shell on it.

bren

[Robo1 offline]

Just looking throught the manuel have a look at page 48 (KHR-2) the picture at the top right hand side is that the bot should look like with all the home position set to zero.

hope this helps bren

[slashsplat offline]

Just looking throught the manuel have a look at page 48 (KHR-2) the picture at the top right hand side is that the bot should look like with all the home position set to zero. hope this helps bren

Yes, it helps. Having a real job, and doing this in fits and spurts, I am just recovering from initial disorientation... And you are helping.

[slashsplat offline]

OK. The little spastic is working pretty well. The calibration sequence is simple. (Once you figger it out.)

1. Assemble with each servo set to 0 BEFORE you attach the horns and stuff. This is on pages 21-23 in the latest manual. Pictures at least.

2. Once assembled, hookup and start HTH3. DO the snazz on page 62. This will set all the default positions to 0. Save this as _zero.rcb. It is fairly meaningless, but required to get started.

3. On page 63 set the servos 5, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15, and 20 to REVERSE=ON. The ICS (which allows talking directly to the servo configs) will be stored automatically. Getting the ICS to start requires a power bounce (off then on).

4. Once the servos are reversed, set the trim. Why they have a little bird icon for trim makess no sense. This is where I have had some issues with HTH3 locking up. As you set the trim, save every so often to a file named _trim.rcb. Note that the contents of the _zero.rcb and _trim.rcb are TOTALLY different even though they use the same extension - by HTH default. They say you can use any file extension. But they default to rcb. I do not know how to do a simple SAVE, it seems to only allow a SAVE AS, where you have to agree to REPLACE the existing file every time.

5. The goal of the trim is to wind up with the little spastic standing like in the picture on page 66. Save the final _trim.rcb and close the trim window.

6. Click options and turn off all of the ICS checks that you set earlier.

7. Create the STARTUP motion for the power up. This will FREE all servos to totally relax, then SLOWLY return them to 0.

The goal of this is to get a standard motion to use 0 as the "home" position for the bot, as pictured on p. 66. On a clean canvas in HTH, click on the POS icon and create a POS object on the screen. Make all of the channels FREE (a radio button on the FR). This releases all of them to be unpowered/limp. Set the speed at the bottom to 1. This will make it SLOWLY move to the HOME postion - standing straight - when we get to the next steps.

8. Click the SET icon and place a set thing on the screen. Double-click it and click the value at the top, "Set the value measured by teahing in the parameter". Dontcha love when they use a translation PROGRAM to write programs... This is in the "Other" tab of the box. Close it with the X in the upper right corner.

9. Open the _zero.rcb file to place another POS object on the screen with all the settings at 0.

10. Link the three in the order they were created using the LINK tool that has ONE arrow in it "Connection wiring".

11. Click the RED start flag and set the first POS box ("POS1") to be the start object for the motion.

12. Save it to _start.rcb. Obviously you can use an file names you like. I use _ in front so these are on the top of the file list.

13. Click the "Writing" icon, a computer with a right arrow to load it to the spastic. Put it in a slot that you like. I use M80 because it is the last in the list and the least likely for me to use.

14. Click "Options" (green wrench??) and set the M80 as the power on motion.

You are cooking.

For a good set of motions, click http://irachandler.com/manoi_rcb_english.zip

I took the ones provided by Kyosho, and wil a little unqip help from my friend at Trossen, changed all the Japanese text to English. Regular Expressions go a long way for that stuff. The DANCE is totally cool.

More to come...