Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Ro-Bot-X on March 28, 2011, 05:52:00 AM

Title: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on March 28, 2011, 05:52:00 AM

Check this out guys:
The Spider Controller (http://letsmakerobots.com/node/26054)

This sounds nice: Spider Controller powered by WebbotLib!
(http://letsmakerobots.com/files/field_primary_image/Red_Back_Spider.jpg?)

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Webbot on March 28, 2011, 11:53:41 AM

Hmmm - wonder if they have a WebbotLib board design

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on March 28, 2011, 06:18:49 PM

The product will be available soon from different distributer stores, like RobotShop, Pololu, Sparkfun...

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Admin on March 30, 2011, 06:11:40 AM

You know what they plan to sell it for?

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on March 30, 2011, 05:09:16 PM

The maker from Dagu said it depends on the distributors...

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Joker94 on March 30, 2011, 11:57:01 PM

Quote from: Ro-Bot-X on March 30, 2011, 05:09:16 PM

The maker from Dagu said it depends on the distributors...

He also has come out and said it should be roughly the price of the Arduino Mega

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on March 31, 2011, 05:28:24 AM

I have updated the link in the first post, as OddBot kept editing the pages...

The only problem I have with the Spider is that it uses a built in 3A 5V switching power supply from 7-30V input to drive the servos, which is not good enough for standard size servos in a biped or hexapod. Even if it's capable of driving 48 micro servos at once, the servos have to be unloaded or light loaded to work fine.

I still think Axon II is a better design...

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Joker94 on March 31, 2011, 05:58:21 AM

Quote

Spider is that it uses a built in 3A 5V switching power supply from 7-30V input to drive the servos

like you said, not practical for 48 micro servos under light loading let alone 10 standard servos with a light load.

Although it is nice to be able to use a unregulated power source it is impractical for a larger robot using the number of servos that are intended.


Yes, the Axon and Axon 2 is better though out in respect to servos power and overall design.

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: madsci1016 on March 31, 2011, 11:20:52 AM

Quote from: Ro-Bot-X on March 31, 2011, 05:28:24 AM

The only problem I have with the Spider is that it uses a built in 3A 5V switching power supply from 7-30V input to drive the servos,

Yeah, that's a horrible design flaw.

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Admin on March 31, 2011, 12:40:47 PM

3A is enough to drive about 5 standard servos without current problems . . .

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on April 06, 2011, 05:31:16 AM

Spider Controller manual (http://letsmakerobots.com/files/Spider_Controller_Instrucuction_Manual.pdf).

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: totalis on April 08, 2011, 06:01:15 PM

As much as i am in favour of a free market and many people having lots of designs, i cant help but feel that there are a few flaws with the design.

Having built all of my own connectors, i have been fortunate enough to customise all of the 2 and 3 pin power, motor etc. connectors so that they can use 3pin 'servo' headers, it just seems a little odd to use male and female connectors...

hey, we might be missing out...

also where are the caps? i can see what i think are caps but they dont look very big or (48) servo friendly.

cool choice for the regulator though... seems a good investment.

just my 10 pence

T

Title: Re: Axon has a competitor!
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on April 12, 2011, 05:35:00 AM

You need a shield to use powerful servos:
http://letsmakerobots.com/node/26226 (http://letsmakerobots.com/node/26226)

(http://letsmakerobots.com/files/imagecache/robot_fullpage_header/field_primary_image/HD_servo_sheild2.png)

I wish he would add some FETs to be able to switch servo power On by the microcontroller after sending control pulses, so the servos don't move at power up.