Wonder if anyone had used these Servo Erector sets and built a scale model of those Japanese gundam models? 
Was wondering the feasibility of trying out this project but I’m not sure abt the torque/ pay load of the servos 
Assuming all the hardware/ batteries are onboard and controled via RF/ blue tooth
Or would modding a Robonova-1/ Robo-One kit be more cost effective? Since i do need some waist twisting and close to 70% of human articulation.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me?
Cheers
Well, I don’t know much about Gundam, but if you’re talking about taking custom-cut pieces of plastic and shaping them over the servos, it’s possible.
You’ll still be limited by the boxy shape of the servos, so don’t expect your final outcome to look like an action figure.
If you’re going to be putting a ton of plastic on a biped, I’d definitely suggest making your biped out of 5995TG servos ($115 per servo), or at the very least, 5645 servos ($55 per servo).
I guess it would be possible to plate hitec’s robonova, but I would advise against it.
The only reason that the servos that the Robonova uses works is because that biped is quite small and rather light.
If you put a bunch of weight on it, I doubt that it would be mobile.
Arh yes. Thank you for yr advice.
The plastic outer shell will probably weigh abt 1kg, made of styrofoam and some PE/ acrylics. Will use the thinnest possible or even thin sheets of transparencies and spray paint over them
Will be increasing the overall size of the robot so as not to have an out of proportion robot
The next best option is to use the design of the Biped Scout and create a “mechwarrior” style robot for land recon 
Then again, all electronic will be onboard and hence the load bearing will again be an issue.
Will need electronics such as direction finding, GPS, RF and multiple sensors (temp, proximity, light)
May i know if there are any templates of programs that i can use to mod?
Cheers
Hrrmm…
You aren’t going to be seeing too many programming examples for the biped and extra sensors for a while, since it just came out a little while ago.
GPS programming would be very tricky with a biped.
I’m pretty sure that most GPS systems would be way too heavy for a biped to carry, but you may be able to find a small one.
As to programming examples for GPS’s, I haven’t stumbled across any.
For the basic sensors (i.e. thermocouples, Ping sensors, photoresistors), you can find them quite easily.
The only problem is, all the ones that I’ve seen have been written for microcontrollers’ specific programming languages.
So, before you go looking for examples, you’ll need to decide how you’ll control your bot (the SSC-32 is only a servo controller, not a microcontroller; you need a microcontroller (or computer) to have autonomous behavior).
If you search these forums, you’ll find our discussions on the pros and cons of each microcontroller.
In brief, go with the Parallax Stamps if you want simplicity and lots of help, go with the BasicX microcontrollers if you want sheer processing speed, or go with the Atom Pro if you want a bit of both.
The other two options are to either put a small CPU on the bot itself, or to put a wireless network module (Bluetooth, Wiport [wibotics.com], etc.) and use a PC as the brain (a.k.a. telemetry).
The precursor has weight and power consumption issues, and the latter has network latency (wireless communication is slow, compared to CPU’s and microcontrollers) and slight power consumption issues.
Once you’ve decided that, you can go to the respective site and download their user manuals (I know that Parallax let’s you download their code examples and their manuals for free, but I’m not sure about the others).
If you go the microcontroller route, you’ll have a much easier time programming, as there are many examples and many people to ask questions from.
If you go the network/CPU route, you’ll find that it’s less so.
Personally, I’m going to be using an SSC-32 to move the servos, a Basic Stamp 2px to control that movement and to correct the balance with the pressure sensor data, a WiPort module to tell my laptop (and myself, of course) what’s going on, and my laptop to give overall directions to the microcontroller (i.e. “move foreward” and “go fetch me a beer, slave!”).
Keep in mind that more sensors will mean more current drawn, which will mean bigger and heavier batteries.
Typically, the smaller the piece of electronics and the less work that it does, the less current it will normally draw.
So, you can expect an onboard CPU to draw much more current than, say, a temperature sensor.
Instead of using NiCad batteries, you can go with the lighter NiMh, or the even lighter Lithiums.
Of course, that’ll mean more expense, but it’ll be necessary if you want your biped to survive a recon mission (let’s say two hours?).
To give you an idea, I was going through a pack of 6-cell NiMh’s every 45 minutes on my Biped Scout (the Humanoid has 5-6 more servos than the Scout’s 12 servos).
In all honesty, I’d seriously think about not using a biped for the kind of “missions” that you’ve described, if I were you.
You can get much better speed, survival time, GPS accuracy, yadda yadda yadda, with a rover.
If you’re thinking that a biped could successfully navigate over things that a rover can’t step over, you may be right.
However, you can easily modify a rover to be able to climb stairs, even, without nearly the hassle that you’ll have making a biped do it.
Hope this helps.
My oh my Nick, you writing a novel? 
Yep, that’ll be $14.95 USD or $17.95 CAD.
Caching!
yo, iam the bestest gundam fan in ga for 3 years in a roll
that said i dont think you well be happy with usa made bipeds
sorry to say big there are bigger and better of over seas, 
that being said the best thing to do is count all the joints on your model, and times that with the best servo that are small enoght for that you want
after that draw you a gundam that fix all the parts needed,
i been working on a gundam like robot for 3 years, i use up alot of money and burn out parts trying to make them move the way i wanted
now and of couse the caseing, is the hardest part, you need to find someone with a 3d printer, they cost money to own or rent, just the program to printer can cost up to $2000. +. the one i used, used small little boxs, about 4 by 4 inches, so in order to cover a area of say the chest that was about 6 by 3 inchs, i broke down the chest in to 4 parts like a real gundam model fix is
if you want a real gundam let me know i have out on real mechines that could help
Are you trying to do something like this?
http://www.robots-dreams.com/Image00329_small1.jpg
The way that most of the Robo-One bots do it without adding much weight is by vacuum forming. The process is amazingly simple, straightforward, and relatively low cost. The trick is in making the shapes to vacuum form around.
I’ve seen some very nice looking vacu-formed bots, but beware.
If you form too thin, it’ll bend under the biped’s normal weight.
If you form too thick, you’ll end up with a lot of weight.
You guys might want to PM tinman1.
I think he’s offered to vacuuform for others, before.
Vacuum forming is fairly easy. The trick is creating the “plugs”. These are the forms in which the plastic is drawn over to form the desired shape.
Nick is right the other trick is to get the material thickness correct, each application is different. So part of this project will be to decide on the “Goldilocks” formula to get something light and durable.
I am currently setting up my new shop in the third bay of my garage and working on some “universal” exoskeleton designs that will be compatible with Jims Lynxmotion erector set frames. Jim also wanted some domes for his new stuff, so I may do some of those since none of the vendors I spoke with seemed very willing to work with the requirements he wanted.
I am also starting the design work for some specific body parts for my biped.
As I get things put together I’ll post them and let you guys see what I have in mind.
If anyone is interested let me know.
Tinman
Yup 
Was thinking of build a similar one out of the servo eractors and cover up the internals.
However, after reading the previous post… I will need to go back to my drawing board and come out with something more feasible… in terms of weight and articulation…
Vaccum forming is a great idea!! It would be easier and more accurate to scale but pricing would be a major hurdle.
Thanks for all the suggestions and pointers 
Hey Tinman, are you planning to sell those parts?
