robophilo

[BrianG]

now my battery has also overheated and bit the big one. I am on the edge of being a lil mad now. I mean we know theres a prob with the smaller servos and now the batt? what should I expect for 400$ though right?

well if I paid 400$ for an rc car/heli that thing better come with carbon and alloy parts and be well designed. now with philo I understand the tradeoff,less quality materials so you can get a walking bot. but it actually has to walk! not strip the servos,that came with it!,and blow the battery after 8 mins of use. sorry jus venting a lil bit

If you want to unload it I might be interested

[jaybirdtke]

I started with the base motion file in the motion-library. Then I changed the initial servo positions of the base motion file to my tuned setting. So far he can bend down, pick up a box hold it over his head and place it back down. I started working on a cartwheel but it's quite difficult. I think I need to perfect some of the inital poses in the sequence before committing to send him rolling.
I created a new topic under the RoboPhilo forum called "Post your videos here" check it out. Here's my first video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBegvOwHTJ0

[rebuildit]

Ok, Got mine built, The battery is charging now. Outside of the servo's being jittery I am having fun with this. I am hoping the jittery in the servos is a low battery. I simply assembled it according to the instructions, and when I tried the remote with the factory installed programming it actual got down and up and walked and rotated without falling..

I think if robobrothers is going to replace your servo that is a very good sign of customer service. I had a problem with the cd and they zipped everything and emailed it and is going to send a new cd this week.
The only gripe I have right now is the layout of the instructions, I felt like I had to search for everything needed to complete a sub-assembly. But overall I think this a great platform to begin with.

[trey3670]

anybody know of other software to use the philo with?

[trey3670]

ok between the battery meltdown and now I have switched pc's I am able to get the philo-motion loaded and the bot running(useing a 6v receiver pack velcroed to the waist servo) I cant get the fine tuning down. when I am in the fine tune tab I hit save and then next time when I go load it up it goes back to being off the same way,any one know what I am doing wrong?

[jaybirdtke]

After saving in the fine tuning tab, you must go back to the Configuration tab and Save your motion file there. Make sure when you click save, that the motion file name is a local path. ex. "c:\philo-motion", not just "philo-motion".

[trey3670]

doh! thats it! this pc has two hard drives I was saving to the wrong one!

[jaybirdtke]

While trying to get him to balance on one leg with the other leg out to the side I'm really starting to notice the weakness in the hip servos. I'll have to get creative and balance him on one leg first by using one of the preprogrammed poses like the kick_slrb2 pose then swing the elevated leg out to the side. The problem with replacing these servos is the fact that during assembly you glue them to other parts (RB003-B and RB013).

[trey3670]

if I remember correctly you can take the four screws out of the bottom of the servo and replace it that way.

[jaybirdtke]

That might not work, but they are very close. According to the specs on the robobrothers website.
SV 4104 Servos - Dimensions: 1.57" x 0.79" x 1.5"
SV 4032 Servos - Dimensions: 1.59" x 0.78" x 1.42"

[trey3670]

well I got an email back from robobrothers and he basically said I charged the battery to long,and kindly offered to sell me another


as for the servos the dimensions being different is strange but not insurmountable. I was hoping a robot that I could slowly upgrade but this is turning into a real project. jus to keep it operational it looks like some upgrades are gonna be needed,maybe I should have bought a khr or bioloid.

[jaybirdtke]

I just got an email from robobrothers regarding servo upgrades.
We will be selling all the parts for Robophilo for upgrades and replacements very soon.

You can upgrade the servos for SV4032 with SV4140 for higher torque. You will need the following,

1) SV4140 - $25.00
2) RB035 - $3.50
3) RB036 - $2.00

After the replacement, you will need to use the fine tuning tab to set 90 degree for the new servo (with the horn off), then put on the horn (initial position setting), then do the fine tuning.

We'll make the servo brackets available for sale next week.

[trey3670]

so he is saying "we did ship out a robot with the wrong parts but hey we will sell you the right ones!"

anyone else reminded of a car salesman?

[jaybirdtke]

I think it was more of a marketing decision to keep it priced under $400 and $500 RTW. If they were to use all SV4140's in place of the SV4032's they would have upped the price to $588 and $688 RTW. It is totally functional with the SV4032's but if you want it to perform more advance routines you should upgrade at least the hip servos to start.
They now have the battery for sale $10.00

[Tech Mech]

They might have been better off selling a better performing robot for a little more money.