RoboSavvy Forum

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-22T22:28:37+01:00

Cheers Gary. Your grippers are really well done with alot of thought gone into realising the concept.
They are what I expect real mecha hands to be like for the RN.

Now see the "SON OF ROBONOVA"

Marcus.

Statistics: Posted by DirtyRoboto — Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:28 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-22T21:34:09+01:00

Hi Dirty..

No offence taken..Actually I'm trying to figure how to incorporate the spring loaded idea into the grippers. Since I'm using cheap analog servos, I have no feedback, and my wife reminds me that I already have rusted nuts.

Limor posted the imbed idea in another post before mine...So there...

I'm sorry if I stole any of your thunder though.. but remember.. You are light years ahead of me in the programming and stuff.. I love your moves.

Gary

Statistics: Posted by gdubb2 — Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:34 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-22T21:08:35+01:00

I really hate you now gdubb2. You shafted me in two ways

(don't take offence, as none is intended towards you or anyone else) this is just a neo-rant

First you stole my thunder from my 'yet another gripper' post with your cool design, Grrrr!
And then Limor goes and announces his next bright idea on your post about "I am spreading the news about embedding youtube clips"!!!!!!!!! when the first ever embedding on this site was done by me ARGHHHHH!!!

May all of your nuts go rusty!
and yours too Limor

Marcus.

Statistics: Posted by DirtyRoboto — Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:08 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-22T18:18:24+01:00

Hi Humanoido,

in the photos the legs look a little farther apart than in the stock RN. Is this true?

Yes, I moved the top leg servo mounts out by (1) hole which gives about 12mm between the legs.

Also, how did some of the brackets end up black and others did not?

This evolved from my failed hip rotation attempt. I made some new brackets, anodized the new ones and re-anodized the originals. They didn't take the dye very evenly, so I painted all of them a dark metallic green. The torso was left gold for contrast. The robots name is "Bheka" which is frog in sanskrit. Frogs are multicolor, soooo.....

And the last photo seems to show an extra battery pack on the side?

They are indeed hip mounted battery packs. Another adaptation from the hip rotation thing. With the rotation servos in place, there was not room for the stock battery pack. I was too frugal (cheap) to buy Lipo's, so I used 1000 mah Nimh AAA cells. A pack on each side for balance, It didn't add hardly any weight, and doubled the capacity. They are mounted with a super dooper velcro type stuff. The adaptors are for using other chargers, and some packs from my combat bots on a tether.

Hope I answered all your questions.
Gary

Statistics: Posted by gdubb2 — Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:18 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-22T16:44:16+01:00

You did an expert job on these grippers. Just wondering, in the photos the legs look a little farther apart than in the stock RN. Is this true?

Also, how did some of the brackets end up black and others did not?

And the last photo seems to show an extra battery pack on the side?

Humanoido

Statistics: Posted by Humanoido — Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:44 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-21T21:02:15+01:00

Thanks for all the compliments..The proof will be in if they actually do what I had in mind.

I'm going to try to make a ping pong ball holder for the ball toss. Thats why I made the fingers easy to change.

Gary

Statistics: Posted by gdubb2 — Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:02 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-21T18:03:14+01:00

Gary, those grippers are awesome! Nice work!

Statistics: Posted by DerekZahn — Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:03 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-21T01:13:15+01:00

Hi, I'm trying to spread the word on the forum.. you can copy-paste the youtube embed sequence into your posts

Code:

phpBB [media]

Statistics: Posted by limor — Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:13 am

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-21T00:43:10+01:00

Sorry last bit of info, This has 8 ADC ports and is a prebuilt board that just needs 5 volts supplied to it. As sure they must be available in the US too.

http://www.active-robots.com/products/controllr/mr8535-details.shtml

Pev

Statistics: Posted by Pev — Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:43 am

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-21T00:13:24+01:00

Gary,

Its always difficult to decide on the processor, I think I've tried most of the cheap ones, including basic stamps, BasicX24s and Amtel ones like the ATMega 8. What one is right can be tricky but as I only program in Basic really (I do a little C but not enough) I tend to go for something that has a language I can use.

On that front I have noticed a lot of use of the Amtel processors by the biped robotics community and have been working with the Mega 8 to develop an I/O module with pepperm on here. The Amtel processors do have one advatage for a simpleton like myself, I can program a huge range of them using BASCOM basic (they do a free download demo version at www.mcselec.com), which compiles to machine code. Thats what I have used for the firmware on the I/O module and thats with 1000000 bps serial comms (thankfully pepperm sorted the hardware for it all). Oh and there is a free C complier too, bit beyond me though lol

It may be worth looking at the Amtel processors as they are cheap, pretty easy to program and have the ability to use hardware based I2C. With hardware I2C you could build a small network of 2 to 3 processors to get the AD input you need and then have one master processors that gathers the data and streams it to the PC. Oh and the BASCOM help file does detail the pinout and function of the different types fo processors under the Hardware/Chips section.

Hope it helps and be interested to see how you get on. (Us oldies have to stick together)

Pev

Statistics: Posted by Pev — Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:13 am

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-20T23:56:01+01:00

Pev,

Don't worry about wandering off topic.. It's my thread ...

I've been trying to figure out which way is the best to go with getting the information from the waldo to the computer. There are just to many MCU'sto choose from. I have no experience with any of them, so I have to learn the language of whatever I use.

The easiest looks like Trossen's Phidgets. They seem to interface directly to Visual Studio, but are the slowest. The main problem,I have in my thinking, is that I need 5 analog inputs from each arm. That's 10, and most MCU's are only 8 analog in. Or to use 2 MCU's. The leg movements I will just use preprogrammed stuff.

I could program fairly well back in the '80's (I'm old you see) but the newer stuff I just lost track of.

Oh well time to kick the old brain cells out of retirement..

Gary

Statistics: Posted by gdubb2 — Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:56 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-20T23:31:43+01:00

Gary,

This is a bit off topic but the analog value stuff isn't too bad. If you have a microprocessor like an AMTEL Mega8 or something processing your WALDO you can convert the analog signal to a digital value with the processor, then stream this data to the PC over a serial link. An Amtel ATMega 8 can handle up to 1 million bps, way faster that a PC UART can handle by default . Probably best to use some sort of packet based setup with a checksum like the Robotis guys do.

.Net 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 have a serial control that can handle incoming and outgoing serial streams on multiple com ports, so you could process the WALDO data on a wired port and stream the control to the RN-1 over Bluetooth.

Anyway I stop blabbing now, glad you like the Bluetooth interface, let me know if you want any enhancements or find any bugs. My email address is on my website.

Pev

Statistics: Posted by Pev — Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:31 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-20T23:21:45+01:00

Pev,

I'm using the tablet one. I had a choice between getting a laptop or a PPC. Well, the laptop won out.

I just got yours a couple of days ago. Was using Matt Bauers, which is great, but yours is more versatile. In my grand scheme of things, I want to make a "Waldo" type of interface where I have a replica of the upper half of the robot, then manipulate the arms and have it follow along. I figure getting the data into a PC will be easy, but sending it to the RN-1 will be hard. Analog values and all that..

Gary

Statistics: Posted by gdubb2 — Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:21 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-20T23:13:51+01:00

kool
the pics do look great.

Statistics: Posted by onesandzeros — Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:13 pm

And even one more gripper post too..

2007-02-20T23:10:42+01:00

Hi Onesandzeros,

I haven't had much time to try it with the grips. I have added the weight of (2) 8498's to the arms. One as wrist rotate and the equivilant of one with the gripper.

Gonna play this afternoon.

Gary

Statistics: Posted by gdubb2 — Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:10 pm