Yay my boiloid is in! (oh and some questions)

[Suicidal.Banana]

Yay! i made the humanoid, and got it working straight away!
Tbh i did only 3 beginner robots before doing the humanoid, was gonna do alot more, but the nuts drove me nuts (even posted over at robotis site they should really do something about it) so i decided to jump a few pages in the manual

I know i really dont need to tell you people, but its hawt, and woo i build it it does fall over when going in attack mode tho, but i read alot of people have that even before ordering the thing, guess its time to try out the motion editor
And i really should re-check all nuts and bolts, since its already trowing a few out on his first few meters of walking

Ill be back ina while (ina new topic) asking questions about IMU and wireless control that didnt get awnsered here/i didnt fully understood.

Thx yall! HUMANOIDS FTW <3

// --------------------- OLD POST: --------------------

Hey all,

First off, i love these forums, been browsing them for a year or so, and i've always wanted to 'build my own robot'.
Seeing how i have minimal to no electronics skill i eventually decided to get a Bioiloid for its modularity (is that a word?)

Just got a call that its waiting for me at home and im so hyped lol, i figured its now time to register so heys all!

But, the reason i posted; are there any things i should know/keep in mind not mentioned in the manual(s)? im thinking ill build one of the basic robots and then the humanoid, would this be doable or is the humanoid really hard to make and would i need to build more 'simple' robots first?

My end goal (not planning on reaching it this year) would be a humanoid that automatically balances (well thats hardlly a surprise ) ive also been thinking about openCV flartoolkit and other visual coolness.
Basically i want a brainbot hehe.

And another question, that prebuild $250 IMU i see on huvrobotics is that like plug and play? i just add it to the daisy chain and it will automatically help the humanoid (or any other biped robot) balance? or do i need to write some custom C 'brain' to do that?

If so, any examples available for custom c IMU code, or maybe; can that library (libavr/libbioloid) already work with an IMU?

And lastly, what would be needed to have the bioloid wirelesslly connect to a pc acting as its brain, just sending back and forth servo data between bioloid and pc? i've read all kinds of stuff but im to noob atm to understand most of it, like, whats a gumstick? is there any wifi module out there? wouldnt the wireless connection cause a 'lag' in the sensors?

Thanks for any awnsers and for your time reading.

[Suicidal.Banana]

I've been playing with it for the last few hours, and its awesome!

I build the sound level meter as first robot, at first i thought it didn't work, until (while holding the thing close to my face) i yelled at the sensor causing the 'arm' to suddenly jump actually giving me quite a scare lol. So then i went looking at the actual code i just loaded into the CM5, and found the line that checks for sound level - 128 and changed that too - 32 for some more clear reactions, and i gotta say its a cool visualizer

I don't know which one ill build next yet, maybe the car that picks up small stuff and puts it aside, while avoiding larger objects, that sounds like fun.

The only thing i found to keep in mind was the placing of nuts inside the servo and some other parts, i was being really careful and getting frustrated none of the nuts seemed to fit, but found a solution to that looking around on these forums (for reference: just force them, pointy side up, helps if you push left/right aswell while pushing 'down' into position)

So, even though its a bit early to ask them since i plan to build at least 10 of the robots in the (comprehensive-)kit before making the ('stock') humanoid;
Anyone up for the questions in my previous post?

[Deathrider20]

see you are having fun!.. good for you, when I started I was the same way.. but then i got married

[Suicidal.Banana]

Hehe that sucks (well sorta, she must be nice if you married her )

[clusher]

Hey Suicidal.
There's not much I can tell you about the building part... besure you understand how the servos work very well befeore building any of the advanced robots. If you get them on wheel mode, you might brake something. And careful with those wires!

About the IMU. You connect it to the daisy chain and from it you get readings from an accelerometer and from a gyroscope, the same way and using the same protocol as the servos. From there, you have to do a program that allows the bot to balance based on those measurings. Depending on what you want to do, you can use BehaviourControl or write your own C program for the CM5.

Hope this helps.

[Suicidal.Banana]

Heys Clusher,

Yea ill have to build a wheeled robot since ive yet to see where the 'wheel modus' is set.
Cool that the IMU can work with behaviourcontrol, though a own C/C# program would be best right?

What i want to do would be automated balancing, so despite of whatever motion is playing, the IMU will overrule any motions that would make balance worse, and finetune the motions to make a perfect balance

Thanks for the infos

[RandomMatt]

Cool that the IMU can work with behaviourcontrol, though a own C/C# program would be best right?

What i want to do would be automated balancing, so despite of whatever motion is playing, the IMU will overrule any motions that would make balance worse, and finetune the motions to make a perfect balance

The behaviour control program is very limited. It sounds like you want try programming in C - but this will require significant work (on the plus side, you can do absolutely anything).

--

Regarding the "careful you don't break it" comment - I'd agree with it. But there is an easy way to be safe...
- run the robot without a battery and attached to the power brick.
- Then if anything goes wrong, just unplug the power and wait for whatever to cool down (*).

* the servos can take about 10seconds of stall before you need to worry. But they will let the magic smoke out before the temp reading even increases by a degree. So... be careful.

[Suicidal.Banana]

Cool that the ... a perfect balance

The behaviour control program is very limited. It sounds like you want try programming in C - but this will require significant work (on the plus side, you can do absolutely anything).

--

Regarding the "careful you don't break it" comment - I'd agree with it. But there is an easy way to be safe...
- run the robot without a battery and attached to the power brick.
- Then if anything goes wrong, just unplug the power and wait for whatever to cool down (*).

* the servos can take about 10seconds of stall before you need to worry. But they will let the magic smoke out before the temp reading even increases by a degree. So... be careful.

About the servo stall:
Good to know, but how would i know when it stalls? i mean, does it flash its led or make a sound/mechanic screech or something? the reason im asking is that i wouldn't be able to tell if its stalling on the default position? or cant that even happen? (whatever servo in whatever standard or custom bioloid)

About C:
Yea, im pretty sure i will start using C for it, thanks for the heads up

[RandomMatt]

About the servo stall:
Good to know, but how would i know when it stalls?

That is the problem... the only sign is that you've asked the servo to move and it is failing to do so. In reality the servo is trying to move through it's own mounting bracket and failing.

--

The easiest way to avoid the problem (rather than mitigate it once it has happened) is to set the angle limits in the servo to values you can reach - and then the servo will refuse to move to a silly position.

as an aside, if you set both angle limits to 0 then you put the servo into continuous turn mode, which is useful for driving wheels - but catastrophic for humanoids

[Suicidal.Banana]

Ah okay thanks for clearing that up.
So it just comes down to paying attention when programming/re-using servos and knowing when your robot should move, ill keep it in mind

Another question (last for now, thx for awnsering all my questions so far guys):
I notice there are a total of 4 dynamixel-wire-sockets (sorry im clueless what they would be called) on the CM5, one on the 'front' labeled BUS, 2 on the sides, and another next to the battery (on the right, or left when you have battery facing up).

Does it in any way matter which one i use? until now i've just used whichever was used in the tutorial, but i already had to take it apart a bit to plug the cable in the socket on the right

[RandomMatt]

(you need a multimeter...) But, the answer is that all of the sockets are the same (i.e. pin 1 of all the sockets are connected together, etc).

So just use whichever is most convenient.

[Suicidal.Banana]

(you need a multimeter...) But, the answer is that all of the sockets are the same (i.e. pin 1 of all the sockets are connected together, etc).

So just use whichever is most convenient.

okay nice, thx

[Suicidal.Banana]

Changed first post, yay i made the humanoid ^___^
at any admin, feel free to lock this thread (assuming this isnt really of any imporance to any1, me finishing the humanoid) but please dont remove it since i wanna re-read the awnsers to my questions once i order the IMU and zigbee or bluetooth module.

Thx @ all of RoboSavvy

Edit:
Btw, i didnt notice having to set any settings on the servos to be able to use them as wheels? and when building the next (humanoid) i didnt notice anything odd either?
Maybe changed somewhere with firmware? afaik i got bioloid firmware v115