http://www.cnczone.com/modules.php?s=&name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=14

maybe this will be usefull to someone, its somthing of a tchnical article.

it details

2 driver designs
linear axis design
etc.

let me know what you think. its 1mb zip, compressed to smithereens unfortuantely.. 9 tabloid size sheets.

It says I cant access the file.

Oh by the way, did I mention to you that Ulead gif animater was a great tool for compresion.
It offers the best compression with no noticable loss. That combined with saving a document with pictures as a .mht is very small. I am not convinced pdf it the best way these days. And whats more a mht will open in a browser without specific reader software installed. Just a tip not a demand. I dont know many who use my method but I like it. :)

Sorry, you can't access this file directly...
[ Go Back ]


I got the same message...

Jeff

I'm working on the problem.

OK it's all fixed!

very nice info. thx

Ok, what am I doing wrong? Can't download it. Get the "Page cannot be displayed" message. When I try "Save Target As" I get nothing. Happens on the "6 Axis Pendant layout" too, not just this one. Sorry for being so computer illiterate.

Thanks,
Marv

Oops, got it, Thanks.
Marv

Nice, ... Very Nice.

Marv

Hey Vac,
Do you have any more "school projects" that you can offer to us? These are great assets to the article section

-Tei

well ... one thing i am about to do is finish the pendant design and upload the 3dcad files and some toolpaths for it. i have designed it into a 10x7x1.5" product. i need to get the thing machined first, to see if its worth using for anything.. i also have a simple 6axis hobby-servo driven robot arm that i think would be really nice if cut from graphite or lexan or something. its a solidworks file right now. it can be see at: http://www.vacuumstudios.com/robot.jpg . The whole thing can be built for under $100. the expensive part is 6 servos@12.00 each. The only other thing really needed is a few square feet of 1/8" material, a CNC machine, some simple hardware, and the servo-driver card.

Vacpress your link is dead. Fix it up we'd love to see your robot design.

Yeah. its not that its dead - for some reason my server was down last night. Its a friends freee hookup and I know if i get to much traffic, it will likely have to go. But here:
http://www.vacuumstudios.com/vformer.htm

go there, the image is "robot.jpg" It is sorta based on a lynxmotion design, but i changed it some. i wouldnt market this really, as it is being done at lynxmotion.com by jim frye who designs amazing awesome little robots.

Thats really neat Vac. At WESTEC (the machining conference last week in LA) they had a robot that kept looked real similiar to that and was shown moving 30 blocks back and forth on a table, the difference is that it cost probably 40x more!

Yes- using good servos, the price of this bot hits like $500, but it is suitble for research applications at that point.. I may make a tiny work cell in the future with 2 of these guys, a small 3 axis mill, and a material delivery conveyor or something.

I really wannt to make a "big" robot arm. for me, big would have an 24-36" work area. I need to either learn how to use steel cable well, or save $$$ to buy friction belts and components...

BTW - if someone wants to build this bot, I can supply the cad files, and support. The driver board for this guy is only like $10-50 depending on what you build or buy. This can also be made simpler easily with 4 servos to reduce cost\functionality. To build this guy you would:

1-convert the solidworks files into DXFs

2-Load the DXFs into your CAM toolpath generator or router software.

3-Route the parts from some light strong material. The lighter and stronger, the better the accuracy and lift capability of the arm

4-Do the hand finishing, etc. on the parts. Fabricate any parts that cant be milled - if any

5-Assuming you have 6 hobby servos, assemble the bot. Once assembled, you mght want to gob on lots of glue - i dunno if its needed though

6-Using the ISOpod or other servo-driver, test all axis. etc. wire it up. proximity sensors, encoders. whatever. the great thing about hobby servos is that they have a built in gearhead, feedback device, and driver. so they are closed loop positionable - and have fair repeatability. good ones have impressive specifications.

7-Homebrew or find control software. I think labview could be made to work easily, as could a basic program. See nuts N bolts for help.

Well?

Awesome, I look forward to you posting the designs. I have no clue as to build something like that

teilhardo- sure you do - your building the turbine right? you can cut some flat acrylic pieces. then get the servos all responding.. its simple.. the hard part is buying 6 servos! after you get the servos moving, look at the pictures of the robot i would provide-then start building. its really easy..

the parts can all be made with a drillpress and a bandsaw. no cnc needed. the thing is held together with 4-40 bolts and nuts and some screws. the servos come with alot of mounting hardware that is used. a "servo horn" is a disc that hooks the robot arm parts to the servo. its all very direct and basic. the drawback of this design is its low-lift capacity. however, used cleverly, this thing could sequence DNA!

But what do you use to control it? I am a beginning amateur to programming and electronics and I would have no clue as to how to make a small controller for the thing. How would I control the motion, gcodes:)
This is a great little starting "toy". We could put little piezo sensors on the arm and control the grip that it has to, from lifting up heavy loads to small little fibers.
The possibilites are endless! Now, all that is needed is some more programming and electronic knowledge!
-Tei

well. there is a controller out there- i jsut cant remember much about it. they way to start is to get the computer talking to servo board, talking to the servos.. here. i will go find a link for a cheapo servo board. Here: http://www.al-williams.com/gp4.htm <---40.00 for 8 servos. that is good. it leaves 2 to add more options to a mini workcell. servos can be to run continuousely so you could make a little conveyor with 1, and make a sorter with another, and have the robot arm load parts in a certain order... or Something! for me, this is a test bed for a larger robot arm i want to make, with an ideal end-arm capacity of 5lbs. thats quite a challenge!

http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=25
http://www.pololu.com/products/pololu/#servcon <--servo controller product range!
this is the product i borrowed that design from. as you can see, its very similar. i just wanted to put skin on it :). i am gonna design a better shell, and vacuum form it, for when i build the arm. its frustrating - you cant build the bot without having the servos!

note: its possible to build a very cheap 8chanel PIC driven servo driver for like $10.00 if you get samples from microchip - this is very easy to do! i love them!

more links:
http://www.robot.po.opole.pl/robot_opis/ervp/er5um02.pdf <-simple education robot arm
http://www.syseng.anu.edu.au/rsl/rsl_dextrous.html <-sweet robot arm
http://www.robotbooks.com/robot_arms.htm <-lame robot arm kit
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/cg152/Labs/RA/ <- this is a good link!
http://www.frid4y.gr/emerge/ma2000.htm <- My new favorite "small robot arm"
http://www.robotbooks.com/robix-robotics-kits.htm <-check their demo video!

http://www.balsapr.com/ <-- Source for Cheap servos

That controller looks homemade. Could I make one with a PIC? From what I recall on the Basic Stamp tutorials, controlling a RC servomotor is a simple as altering pulse width. What I don't know how to do yet is write a computer program that takes motion from a joystick (or some other peripheral) and translate it into motion. Computer programming and its related hardware is "greek to me"!

-Tei

We must have just wrote replies at the same time...I am just reading your second one now
All the links are great!
I think that I'll have to catch up on some reading now :)

Your idea for a vacuum formed "skin" is awesome and it fits with your member name very well, who knows, you might someday become BionicVacPressPrints :>)

DC servos are easy to control, and can be accurate. Yes, a PIC can control a servo very well. you can write a simpel PIC program that recieves serial command sof servo # and a position from -180 to +180.

this can talk to a PC Visual Basic program or basic, or C++ or whatever, for me, VB, that reads a script and generates coordinate sends. the script has to be eaither created with some sort of record mode and read operator inputs, or with some software that can generate such scripts.. one idea is matlab or labview. www.labview.com

i have so many projects I want to finish, but so little $$. i shoul really build this guy, since i have most of the parts for a big one. i really want to learn to do the (inverse)kinematics to move a robot arm end effector through a plotted path of cartesian points. once tht engine is written, i have a theory i can use midi type sequencer software design to form a control engine, and use some old opensource MIDI program for code help. I havent written a decent VB program in 8 years, but why let that stop me?

How did you learn VB. I am in deperate need of:
a. motivation
b. endurance
to learn these computer languages. I can't ever remember the syntax and those fancy schmancy words like arrays and pointers are so hard to reccount.

I completely understand your frustration with the $$ part. At least you have a business! Thats no small task, so far my machine setup has profited me -$1500 :) but it has taugh me A LOT!!! and got me interested in electronics, mechanics and programming.
All your ideas sound great, and having the knowledge is 90% of the battle. The other 10% is finding the niche for getting funding (I wish I had the knowledge part, I still have about 80% to go)
Tei

yeah. im 24 though. your like 18? keep going! youll be a wizz in 2 years if you can keep interested and have a steady source of $$ for projects. it dosent have to be alot.. maybe $100 month... more sometimes, less others.. i have been programming microcontrollers, building machines, etc. for a while.

and as for the business, we have barely done any work! i make my money doing websites and design stuff like that. i have a stocked shop but so far havnt had the motivation to find any work in that area? i still dont ahve decent CNC machine either. i just have the simple one that can cut at 10ipm! i just bought a 36" doublewide NSK linear Rail with 2 bearings for $70. so it was nice to score a deal. now i ust need like 600$ more parts.. great. :)

to get excited with VB, do this: start writing a manual control for your mill. it just has to send pulses to the parallel port. it can be a smple program. it wil teach you how to place objects, write some simple code, do some IO from the PPort, Learn about how to write software to control motors, etc. make it real simple at first, and see how easy it is to add on. Then look into how to add file reading and writing, write a script thts real simple and read it. use info from a tutorial on "writing a VB macro engine" or "loading a .ini file in VB"

a .ini can become a .step and it can have a bunch of numbers in it that represent which axis to send (x) number pulses too.

Its fun, when you get started, and going. Labview with a $100 DAQ board can provide a very neat way to control devices.

since i do this stuff for fun and education, i like to use shareaza.com to get esoteric engineering and systems design software.

Hi vacpress,

How much did you have to pay for Labview? Last time I looked (about 4 years ago) it was £1700.00....A lot of dosh!

benhill - i believe there is a 30 day demo... also, i think there is a few free type programs that do similar things?

also, as i noted in a previous posting, i have used illegal copies before, although i dont have one now... gotta get a new one eventually. there is lots of free robot control software out there, and its also fairly easy to write with visual basic and the free kinematics routines available from researchers

Shame on you!........Ilegal copies, I'd never stoop to such a thing!! However if you should ever find yourself with a spare............lmao.

Forgive my newness and this question, vacpress but, at the beginning of this thread you posted a link to an "18 page" download.
When I go there, it shows two files. One is a 6-Axis control pendant and the other a EMC - Enhanced Machine Controller. Niether of these seem to be what you mentioned.
Am I just not clicking on something?
Alex

the location has changed. it now resides at "opensource cnc designs" section