**Was that a Nikko Truck? **
Am I correct in assuming this used to be a Nikko truck? I am working on converting an older Nikko. Did you replace the steering servo, or was there already something useful in there? Mine had an ‘analog’ servo with 6 wires, that I replaced with a servo I still had lying around. Unfortunately, the servo… attachment thingy I made is not perfect yet, I need a bigger one to get a sharper angle when steering.
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Not a Nikko.
This truck isn’t a Nikko but still has that same steering servo. This servo has 4 wires coming out of it in one group and then two going strait to the motor in the servo. I am currently just using these 2 wires to turn the servo all the way from side to side to steer. This may not be good for the motor/servo/the gears but it is only used for short cycles.
**Thanks. **
Ah, well I’m glad I didn’t buy a newer toy for this build then. I had no idea about the insides of this one and no real knowledge of r/c stuff, so for me it was quite a shock to find out there was no “normal” servo in there… I was hoping to use most of the existing electronics for my robot, but ended up ditching everything except the engine.
ps. Sorry for not replying in the proper place, I’m new to Let’s make robots, and the forum works slightly different from what I’m used to.
Replying here is fine.
That servo was a shock for me too. You said you ditched the original steering servo and tried another but the other one you tried was to weak. Maybe you could try putting wires going strait to the motor in that servo so you could just drive it from side to side like a geared motor. Or possibly yours is like mine and already has wires running to the motor. Thats what I am currently using to steer and it works fine.
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The servo was ok, it was my servo arm that was crappy.
The servo’s power was enough, but since I couldn’t fit the old attachment to the new servo, I had to make one from what I had. I used a servo wheel, but the diameter was too small, resulting in steering angles that were not sharp enough. I made and installed a better one yesterday, steering is just great now. I tried with the remote control; basically all I have now is a remote controlled car carrying a computer. The motorcontroller and new servo will interface much easier with the pwm channels on the computer than the old hardware. I plan to try writing my first robotics program somewhere this weekend. It will be simple; just moving the steering and turret around.
If you’re curious, you can find out more about it here : https://sites.google.com/site/theheadacher/robot
I plan to write some more about replacing the steering motor with a pwm servo later too.
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Cool.
You’ve got a nice project going there. There are two things I will mention/suggest though. One is that those Sharp sensors are great and easy to use but do not work as well in sunlight so keep that in mind if you plan on using your bot outside. And second is that if you get a chance you should post your bot on LMR.
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Thanks!
As I mention on the site, I am unsure about the sensors, and I still have to experiment a lot with them. I need something that enables me to “see” things like chairlegs and such when using it inside. I may be able to do this with smart algorithms on the image from the webcam, but would like to have a double or even triple check, and try to figure out which reading is the more reliable one. That’s all future stuff though.
I might place the robot here too, but first I think I’m going to get it to do something :-). This weekend, I’m going to try controlling the servos from the computer.