Jonus from the south of England, Currently working with my Lynx 5 arm and trying to upgrade the end effector as I have the old push rod type which, as most of you will know is just not good enough!
A UK distributor wants £41 for the upgraded gripper only kit and at that price I think it is worth trying to build one myself! If I have any success I will post it here.
In the past I have built two robots based on the Basic Bug (the early version with copper tubes for legs), one with cut Perspex for legs and body panels and a rover with modified micro servos for drive and IR obstacle avoidance all driven by a Basic Stamp 2.
My most recent project, and the one I am most proud of, is a multiple automatic firework launching system, using a Basic Stamp 2P40, decoded to drive up to 120 individual relays to supply 12V to home made tungsten filament igniters. There is something exciting about the mix of electronics and explosives!
I also subscribe to Make Magazine, which is my favourite read.
That gripper hasn’t been in distribution for a long time. I do know it was a bit finicky to set up, but once done it worked very well. I actually liked the fact that the gripper used a full size servo but didn’y have to bear the weight of it. My customers asked me to put a microservo right on the gripper and it works well, but the gears can break if you try to close to tightly on a large object. Here is the link to the old style gripper fix. Please try it, you may find it works well enough you don’t need to replace anything. lynxmotion.com/images/html/proj052.htm
I hope you don’t think I was being derogatory towards your design. That was far from my intention!
I have tweaked the system so it can perform adequately, but I find that it is just too flimsy, there are too many components with a little give, which adds up to a lot of give. My lynx 5 arm was a second hand buy on eBay so I think a complete rebuild and set up from scratch is necessary, be fore I try anything too spectacular. I am going to try to put a wrist rotate function on too, as this adds another dimension (no pun intended) to the arms ability.
The winter is here so its time to retire to the workshop!
