Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

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peterwaller
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

I made the new blade with the center annealed and although it took a bit of work to drill the 8mm hole in the center needed for Anticyclone I was really pleased with the result seen below on the right next to the old blade.
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Then I realized I had had another senior moment ( well I do clock up three score years and ten this month ) and forgotten the difference in density.
I had reasoned that as both blades were 2mm thick and about the same area they would probably weigh about the same but the new blade was about 8 gms heavier.
By the time I had hacked enough off of it to get the robot in weight using a dremel and diamond disc the whole blade had gone blue suggesting I had annealed it so I had to reheat it all up and immerse it in oil to re-harden it.
Here is the final blade which only time will tell if it is and improvement.
Image
Last edited by peterwaller on Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:03 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

I was a bit disappointed having to cut down the new spring steel blade on Anticyclone so I decided to see if I could improve the design and save a bit of weight to get a full blade in.
By inverting the chassis and using a smaller diameter motor I was able to simplify the chassis and get the spinner and wheels much closer to the front.
The resulting weight saving means I now have a full blade of the same length but with an extra centimeter of reach.
Not only that but for the first time in a while I managed to design and print the chassis in one attempt with everything correct although I was a bit disappointed with the Scarlet dye which came out a bit pink for my liking.
I now have a new gas torch which got the center of the blade hotter and made the drilling even of the 7mm hole as easy as mild steel.
Here it is with anticyclone showing the improved reach.
Image
Here is the under side just waiting for a brushless controller to finish it off.
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Last edited by peterwaller on Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

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I have been thinking about all the new bigger blades about and am considering an expanding horizontal spinner.
As you can see from the cad drawings it is not exactly original but that is getting more and more difficult these days.
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Last edited by peterwaller on Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

One of the things I have noticed lately is I tend to flit from idea to idea without always completing them. :oops:
I have the unfolding spinner part designed and a new controller awaiting the PCB's and now I have started playing with walking mechanisms again.
Although my walking mechanisms have worked quite well they have always been to tall giving robots that are top heavy or difficult to self right.
The walking mechanism on shuffleaction was 70 mm high and I got that down to 60 mm on Mutant but I have just built an invert-able one that is only 40 mm.
Here it is in action.
https://youtu.be/jr_mbMjc8lM
Not sure what to use it in yet but they are fun to play with. :roll:
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

The circuit boards arrived today and except for a slight hiccup on the servo connector which was easy to overcome it actually seems to work although I might need to tweek the software as inverting the table seems to have affected the centering slightly. The boards arrived with gold plated pads which are very easy to solder to.
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Last edited by peterwaller on Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Shakey
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by Shakey »

Nice and shiney new boards!

Also loving the folding out design you have going on. We'll have to see yours and Rorys have an extra wide fight sometime. :D
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by Rapidrory »

Looks good! What's the fine pitch chip between the processor and the driver chips doing?
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

That is a quad OR gate as I said I bottled it a bit to generate the different wave forms required by these these drivers so I didn't need to change processors or redo the software.
As it turns out just inverting the data table seems to be causing centering problems so I might need to rethink that plan.
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

The problem was that the variable PWM waveform was upside down for this chip so it ran flat out with the stick in the middle and slowed down as you moved the stick.
So I worked out that if I change the OR gates to NAND they would give the inversion required and still work correctly with the two direction lines.
Having just ordered some from ebay I realised that I shouldn't have inverted the lookup table, but just the values within it, which I have just tried and it seems much better.
Here is built up board you can just see the slight fiddle I had to do on the servo output connector to bring out the throttle channel and not the aileron.
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Last edited by peterwaller on Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Peter Wallers Robot Ramblings

Post by peterwaller »

Killing two birds with one stone I have just been testing out the new controller board with the walking mechanism.
The controller still has one slight fault where full forward combined with full turn can result in slightly exceeding the max pulse length causing the fail safe to kick in.
Also something I have just noticed if the transmitter is turned of the walker rotates instead of standing still which is a little bizarre.
https://youtu.be/dsPMbXTxqhU
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