Newbie RN-1 Questions

[Humanoido]

I spend about 5 minutes adjusting the zero settings and then the battery runs down. Is this normal?

When RN-1 is switched on, it stands in a good position, with legs about 8mm apart. However, when it moves the leg backwards (# 6 or 7 on remocon), the legs move closer together and the feet rub against each other. The legs also rub. What's wrong???

Would this happen if the hip servos were switched in position on the controller? I originally switched these because the feet were jammed hard together in the basic power on condition. I'm guessing I have to switch these back because code is telling RN-1 to move the legs apart slightly when performing these movements. Any ideas?

[hivemind]

The battery issue is a little concerning as your battery should last much longer than that.

As for the legs, it sounds like you may have them switched. So you can either go and switch them back, or... go the motor direction settings at the beggining of the program and just switch the two servos you need to. (to figure out which ones these are go through the motor control panel-f7-and then isolate the motors).

Hope that helps a bit.

[DirtyRoboto]

I guess you have seen some of my videos!

I have only zeroed the servos about 3 times. And this was when I had swapped out servos, or added weight to the front and back.

I get a good one hours work out of my batteries including the standing about while I redo code and download it, test it and redo it again.

I would suggest that the zero settings are not that important to be re-zeroed all of the time. This will only cause your code to vary in relation to the various zero-settings you have made.

[zapod]

I've reset the zero positions once to alter Robo's centre of gravity slightly forward - he was falling over backwards after a tumble or stand up from laying on back move.

But my RN's feet touch ever so slightly during the walk forward move - I duplicated some code to do two instead of one pace but I don't think the code change caused this...

[DirtyRoboto]

The foot rub could be due to the hip settings, servos 22 and 4.

[Humanoido]

I was ready to test the hip servos as you suggested and noticed the battery charger was not working. The red light won't stay on. Sometimes it stays lit a few minutes, then goes out. It never charges the battery and there's no green light. That appears to be the problem with the batteries not lasting long. I'll need to have the charger replaced by Hitec. Another delay. I already had to wait for some missing parts not in the kit. I'm rather anxious about getting up to speed on this. Thanks for tips about hips - look forward to getting that up to par once the charger arrives.

[Fritzoid]

This may be a stupid question, but have you built the battery monitoring circuit as described on the last page of the manual? If not, the input to AD6 is "floating" and voltage-check logic is producing erroneous results. This causes the LED to flash even when the charge on the batteries is good! Plug in the charger and it goes green because the batteries are already charged.

[Humanoido]

That's a very good question, and the blue light never had any problem before so it seemed there was no need to change code and add a new circuit. But now, the charger has failed, and never charges the battery, and does not turn green. Hitec put a new charger in the mail and I'm waiting.

[srobot]

Hi,

Hitec put a new charger in the mail and I'm waiting.

This might sound rilly stuped of me to say this, but while you wait, you could do some kind of hardware change to your RN-1! (or RN-! as rep001 would put it) Maybe you could do some kind of claw if you have a servo, or a cool piratey hook! Hay you could call him "capt'nova the first" I don't even thank its copy righted!

--srobot

[Humanoido]

Srobot, I was thinking along the same lines... there's a spare servo in the junk box and looks like it's perfect for a moveable head. There's also the battery sensor cable to be built as suggested by Fritzoid, the hip servos to switch suggested by hivemind, hip settings suggested by Dirty Roboto, and grippers suggested by you. Do you think I'll ever get any sleep? 8O Humanoido

[Humanoido]

I read where someone added a servo head to the Robonova-1, making it look more like the KHR Kondo robot. But didn't that change all those wonderful acrobatic routines?

I'm torn between upgrading my RN (and spending countless days creating new software), or keeping it as a stock RN with all the supplied routines that work so well. What to do?

How dramatically does adding a head servo change RN's acrobatic ability?

Humanoido

[hivemind]

I added my head rotational servo in the chest between the shoulder servos. Therefore all you are changing is weight, and although that does alter your routines I would say that almost all routines (outside of the default fast walk) function properly. Plus- you can always switch it back if you are not satisfied

-Hive

[Humanoido]

I added my head rotational servo in the chest between the shoulder servos. Therefore all you are changing is weight, and although that does alter your routines I would say that almost all routines (outside of the default fast walk) function properly. Plus- you can always switch it back if you are not satisfied -Hive

Excellent idea. What servo did you use? I'd like to use a common $12 stock Futuba servo, but the screws are on the back of the servo and not the horn side! The servo horn side has no screws. If I get down on my hands and knees and beg (or bow low enough), can you post some photos showing how you did it?
Humanoido

[Bullit]

I used an HSR-8498HB in the shoulders as a head servo. Its a bit of a tight fit and probably way over kill as it doesn't need catch and play but it bolts right in. I had thought about using a smaller lighter servo to save weight but just haven't gotten back around to it.

[Humanoido]

That's a good point, do we need catch and play for the head, or not? I could invert the Futaba servo and mount the horn directly on RN without much problem. I'll see if I can find some small metal eyelets to use as spacers. Plus the weight up there is going to change the center of balance point and software will need changes. Perhaps I'd better stick with the stock RN until I get all the other bugs worked out of it. These are good ideas for upgrades that I look forward to installing. Humanoido