All right here are some quick pics that I was resizing for the website.
Here is what 2 3/4 pounds of aluminum looks like shredded. The other 1/4 pounds was shaved by using the new Servo Case hinges since they add considerably less material to the servo than the old clamp on ones. And I’m using less hardware to assemble the legs now. We will see what she weights when it’s back together. I’m building the lipo packs for it now as well.
I was surprised to find that the holes didn’t affect the rigidity of the frame at all. I can still barely flex it with my hands. I could have definitely drilled the sides out as well but I was happy with the weight I shed and wanted to leave the sides solid to be sure it remains rigid regardless of the stress. The material is so thick that even with the holes, the chassis is probably 4 times stronger than it needs to be and has zero flex.
I have some CAD drawings of a round chassis that I want to get cut locally. That will come later though.
I know from my robot Spacejunk that drilling holes like that is the most tedious annoying thing to do. And you have to be very precise or it looks bad. You did a great job. A great way to save weight and it looks good.
They are all measured, marked, center punched and drilled manually with a drill press. I don’t own a CNC drill. It was VERY tedious. The alignment isn’t perfect but darn close.
I did some more walking with the hex and was working great until I started combining backwards with turning left. It looked as thought the front and back pair of legs didn’t know what to do. But the middle pair did. It toppled forward onto the front right leg and stripped 2 gears in the elbow servo. It was a pretty hard fall and there’s a lot of weight behind it falling on just one servo.
I have some spare servo gear sets so I’m fixing it now.
Other than that, the forward and turning gaits look really slick. I have to keep setting it to maximum travel for the vertical and maximum speed. It walks alot better like that.
And I keep loosing my servo offsets. There are 4 legs with offsets built into the program. Sometimes I start it up and they all look identical, other times, those 4 legs sit off center like the offsets aren’t working. Weird.
It does walk though. It’s mostly just software that needs to be worked out now.
If you made any modifications to the code remember… The servo offsets must only be sent one time! If you send the PO more than one time it can break the PO command and you can get wierd results. Also this could be happening if your processor is resetting but the SSC-32 is not.
All I did was setupt he hex in powerpod and made a program in Powerpod with my offsets I needed. Then I compared the offset values in the Powerpod .Bas file with the values in the Atom Pro Tripod Gait program I got from Kurte. I then changed the offset values in Kurte Program to the values my Powerpod program had.
I also changed the leg dimensions.
Sometimes the offsets are there when I start up. And sometimes after walking a bit, they seem to be gone and a few of the legs are off a bit.
A good way to check your offsets is to press the “O” button on the PS2 controller. This sets all servos to 1.5mS and the legs should be perfect, unless the SSC-32 has reset and lost it’s PO settings. I can’t think of any other reason this could be happening.
So if that is the case, do I just need to provide a separate power source for the VL on the SSC-32? Will it work when I first start it or do I need to change my program or reload it onto the botboard?
Sometimes when I press “O” the legs all line up properly. Other times after it’s walking for a bit, I press “O” and 3 or 4 of the legs are offset a bit.
Yes powering the SSC-32’s VL (logic) seperately should prevent the SSC-32 from browning out (resetting), if that is what is happening. It will prevent it from loosing the servo offsets that are sent to it when you start the machine. Also remember to make sure the SSC-32 is on before you start the Atom. No you don’t need to change your program or reload it.
When the Bot Board is powered up, one of the first things it does is sends the SSC-32 the servo position offsets. The SSC-32 will remember these until it is powered off. So if the SSC-32 resets, you wouldn’t necessarily see anything unusual because the Bot Board is sending servo position updates constantly.
The other 1/4 pounds was shaved by using the new Servo Case hinges since they add considerably less material to the servo than the old clamp on ones. And I’m using less hardware to assemble the legs now. We will see what she weights when it’s back together. I’m building the lipo packs for it now as well.
