Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: haz on June 23, 2011, 12:03:33 PM

Title: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: haz on June 23, 2011, 12:03:33 PM

hello everyboody! my name is Harry and i am trying to make a help thread without sounding like a compleate beginer (i have read the "beginners read this" thing so i hope i don't annoy anybody just yet :-[ )
anyway, a little about me:
i do have basic knowledge in most areas in thinks like this and have build many (combat) robots (from 75g to 100kgs!) and i thought i would give some thing else a bit of a bash ;D 
for a small project ive been asked to do, i have been tasked with making a prop for a horror movie trailer, a demonic clowns head
(a bit weird i know  :))
me being me i got some of the cheapest little servos i could find and saved the budget for some sort of servo controler, nothing really fancy, just to move the servos around in a sequance, i have been having a breif look around on the interwebs but i just wondered what was your preferences?

thanks in advance,
harry ;D

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: garrettg84 on June 23, 2011, 12:37:41 PM

I think Soeren (a user here) recently commented on a post with somebody else doing animatronics and I can't seem to find it. The gist of the comment was about using muscle/memory wire to make things happen. The reason being the noise generated from servos is unappealing in 'life like' robots, as well as the additional fluid motion that can be obtained with muscle wire vs a servo. There are people using servo controllers of all kinds.

Are you planning to hook the controller to a micro controller, a computer, hand operated controls, sensors, or other?

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: haz on June 23, 2011, 02:22:18 PM

wow, thanks i'll look into that :)
i'm trying for a computer conrtoled type of thing

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: Gertlex on June 24, 2011, 08:01:15 AM

Computer control of the servos can be accomplished pretty easily, e.g. with a board like this one (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9664), and fairly basic software to send the serial signals that it uses.

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: haz on June 24, 2011, 11:46:18 AM

thanks very much, i will probably get one of those then

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: haz on June 24, 2011, 02:53:17 PM

well i set the servos up kind of how i wanted with some rc gear and i am quite happy with how it works, i really need to tidy everything up but it works, then i have to add the other servos to their places
[youtube]media studdies evil clown prop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NoYMk3plIM#)[/youtube]

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: Gertlex on June 24, 2011, 03:12:45 PM

Quote from: haz on June 24, 2011, 02:53:17 PM

media studdies evil clown prop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NoYMk3plIM#)

(Fixed link there)
Ya, that's pretty bizarre. :P

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: haz on June 25, 2011, 01:37:05 AM

yeah, not exactly ordinary, thanks for fixing the link!

Title: Re: hello people! and my robot stuff
Post by: nanovision on August 03, 2011, 04:06:55 AM

  You may also consider MICROCHIP dsPIC30F boards which have 6 or more motor control outputs for servos.  Sparkfun sells these boards with 3-Axis (DoF) gyros and accelerometers built in along with In-Out ports for radio control and two wire bus for multiple devices. 
   If you are interested in my project, as an example of this board's application, feel free to check out Maker Fairer in Atlanta on 10 September 2011 or see botmite.com (http://botmite.com)
   These boards and related chipsets can be programmed in Assembly, C, Basic, Pascal, and a new language that just tells the chip what you want to do - a compiler for just over 50 bucks.