Ive been looking at ordering a kit or just SES parts for quite a while now, but i cant decide. Ive read so many threads and posts and articles on each type of robot and frankly i want them all, lol. but alas that thing called money has once again slapped me back into reality.
Anywho, i was wondering on what some suggestions are for someone who has not dealt with robotics of this nature before. The TriTrack kit with the eventual result being johnny 5 is really nice as well as any other rover. On the other hand i really love the CH3-R or any of the round hexapods (but the as of yet phoenix design is by far my favorite) with how they walk and look.
Now im still fuzzy on this Inverse Kinematics thing and controlling the way it walks, but im reading up on it. How hard is it to learn and understand the coding for making these little beasts walk the way they do?
Challenges dont really bother me, at least it will keep me “entertained” eh?
One last question about these walking robots, the standard servos that these kits come with the 475’s, is it worth upgrading to the 645s right away or just wait a while before ordering these?
The A,B, and CH3R robots are much easier to work with as you don’t have to know anything about programming for RC applications, and it greatly reduces the programming required for autonomous or other applications. As a beginner these are the easiest hexapods to get working.
You can always upgrade any of the 3DOF hexapods to Phoenix later on after we have PowerPod support for it. The Phoenix kit will not included all of the SES brackets or servos, just the specific body, femur and tibia parts.
The bots work better with 645 servos, but you don’t need them to have fun.
If you don’t have any experience in programing, it’s best you stay with the models that PowerPod supports, trust me when you don’t know how to program but you tell yourself : it shouldn’t be to hard… Well, it is
I personaly would go with the hexapod pheonix (depending on how much time it takes to make it supported by powerpod) , but the only down side is that there aren’t any SES parts, The other prosibility would be with the AH3-R, a bit less cool (from my point of view) but afterwards you can change the brackets and build an arm or whatever you want.
So, I would go with one of those too, but the final desition is yours. Maybe the pheonix will take some time before you can run PowerPod for it…
From what ive read due to the fact that these 18 servo kits can be rather power hungry, its safe to assume that run times are rather short?
Ive seen a few posts in regards to the matter where some users get upwards of 45 minutes of run time while most usually last around 10-15 minutes respectively.
I understand it depends on the battery rating and how many watts/mAH it can put out; have you or anyone else wired batteries together to achieve longer times?
heh, BEC is r/c speak for Battery Eliminator Circuit. It’s used in electric r/c planes/cars between the main motor battery and the r/c receiver+servos. This “eliminates” the need for a seperate receiver battery. It is basically a step-down voltage regulator, usually good for 2-5 amperes, and low noise so it doesn’t interfere with the receiver too much.
Here you go :