When I saw Zentas creation called Phoenix I knew I just had to offer a kit like it. Zenta graciously allowed me to craft a robot based on his design! He even provided the dimensions for the body and leg pieces. I added a little Lynxmotion to the creature, but the dims are the same. Now this robot is just a prototype made from Lexan. I am getting quotes on the aluminum parts to make this into a cool kit. I am kicking around the idea of doing anodized colors like red, blue, green, or purple. 8)
Now Zentas generosity didnât stop at giving me the drawings for his bot. He is also giving us the spreadsheet that he used to generate the sequences.
I am very happy to be able to make this kit a reality for our customers. I want to make a point to thank the kind and generous people like Zenta who pour their heart into their hobby and donât stop there, they help others to achieve what they have. Thank you Zenta!
Yes, good look to it. However the Tibia is a single plate instead of a âCâ member (yoke) as in other SES robots? How is that working? Obviously youâve got it under control!
Yeah, RED should go over good!
Weâll need a way to generate Atom code from the sequences. Probably CSV files already, but I havenât figured out how to** IMPORT CSV** data into SIM yet. I believe I saw some early sequences.
Any idea when the kit will be out, and a price range? When I turn 18 in nov, Iâll have to shred my credit card as soon as possible so I donât get into debt T_T Lynxmotion + Sparkfun = major debt T_T Soo many goodies!
I look forward to this kit and learning more about this spreadsheet business.
Finally! Very nice and well done Jim! Wow! Isnât she a beauty?
Oh! Different colors? Sounds very cool, especially red⊠Remember Phoenix is a sheâŠ
I mounted the tibia leg part on the opposite side of the tibia servo. The intention was to get the tibia part as close to the femur leg part (and the center of the ballbearings in the tibia servo) as possible. I think this is a way to reduce the âtwisting load?â on the servos.
Anyway, Iâm looking forward to see some cool videos
She indeed Shes very beautiful. Jim, make sure to take some exotic poses of 'er
Zenta, I forgot, did you use a different plastic than lexan? The Lynxmotion version looks a little shiny while yours has a very nice black finish to it.
Iâm not sure what kind of plastic material I used, but I will ask the people in the store next time. But the material is a bit difficult to cut because it has a sad tendency to melt caused by the friction of the sawblade.
The main reason for selecting this material was the skintexture⊠8)
The leg design provides a very slender look. It looks awesome, kind of reminds me of a black widow spider, infact you could all it the Lynxmotion âBlack Widowâ hex
The material Zenta used is Expanded PVC. Trade names for this are Sintra or Verscell. The material is half the weight of an equal thickness of Lexan. So itâs common to use 6mm PVC for bots which is roughly the same weight as our 3mm Lexan. To take it one step further 1.5mm thick aluminum is roughly the same weight as 3mm Lexan or 6mm PVC. Our Phoenix will have 1.5mm aluminum body parts (torso) with 3mm aluminum femur and tibia. The later will probably weigh in a little heavier then Zentas original.
Note this prototype is just that a prototype. It will never walk. The femur and tibia made from 3mm Lexan is way to flexible. When I get the parts made from aluminum it will be more than strong enough to walk.
Well this robot will never be able to carry the same payload and the SES based hexapods. Furthermore, the Phoenix style hexapod has more range in its joints. So itâs a design tradeoff between dexterity and coolness vs. utility.
Ah you have a good eye for detail. The coxa made from the ASB-04âs is a little different. The tibia can mount to the front or the back of the servo, but in this case it was closer to mount it to the rear. I am still playing around with the idea of mounting the femur plate on the underside of the aluminum servo horn to reduce flex as well. It would require a bit more machining for countersinking the screws.
What are you talking about? I donât see any differences except the material used and the part that connects the leg to body is uglier on the lynxmotion version (no offense).
They look cute together! Think you might be able to adapt the CH3-R leg design onto the pheonix?
The Phoenix is smaller then the CH3-R (by what %?); and the body has the appearance of being longer. Are the legs still equally angled about a circle and able to use the same BASIC Atom control program (with leg length changes, of course)?
It has almost an âinlineâ quality about it. Strangely, my oldest son looked at the pix of the CH3-R and something like the BH3 and was more interested in the BH3, thinking it was more âbug likeâ. But after seeing a CH3-R video, he was more then pleased with its moves.
It doesnât walk yet? I wondered about that after studying the tibia.
Think of this as a clay model. Itâs only purpose is to get a feel for the look you are going for. I may still tweak some lines, but the overal size and dimensions will remain as they are.
If you are only interested in a comparison of the torso, the CH3-R is 11.75" where the Phoenix is 6.0" x 7.5" oval shaped. So I dunno, looks like the Phoenix is about 51% to 64% of the CH3-R size. However the legs are longer on the Phoenix, so itâs hard to say exactlyâŠ
The new âlookâ DOES give you the potential of a whole new family!
OK, a prototype. I guess I do things the other way 'round (EE). I go for functionality before the esthetics. I just assumed that it was a working model! But after going to all the trouble mounting servos and an SSC32 (didnât see a âBot controller board or batteries, view?), Iâd be itchinâ to make it walk!
Those are useful numbers. However the legs on the CH3-R appear to be longer? The femur, anyway; the tibia on the Phoenix looks like it could be longer; but itâs hard to say.
I would worry about the âswingâ or travel of the coax (Hip horz) servo. In a coordinated move there would be less of a problem, and I suppose you could scale or limit the travel as needed anyway.