Again great job!
I like the others can not wait to see a video of it in operation.
Kurt
Hey guys, I’m still getting the electronics all sorted out for my bot but I had another question.
When I bought my servos about a year ago I also bought the metal servo horns to go with them. Now that everything is installed it is very easy to see that the horns don’t mate very well with the servos. There is a gross amount of play: a few degrees per servo. This amounts to almost a centimeter of play at the foot before the servos actually catch.
Anyone experience this? Have a solution?
Can you indicate which servo you purchased and confirm you are using either the HMSH-02 (Hitec Spline Metal Servo Horn) or the FMSH-01 (Futaba).
I’ve seen this issue with the HMSH-02 several times. I solved this by using just a little amount of locktite inside the spline of the servo horn. I remember talking to Jim about this a while ago. I believe the newer batches got a little tighter fit, not sure though since several of the horns that came with my Lynxmotion A-pod also included several horns with a lot of play, but some of the horns did have a good fit though.
Talking about servo horns. The best horns I’ve seen so far are the original aluminium servo horns that came with the 5990’s, extremely tight fit!
Thanks for the follow up guys. Coleman, I’ve got the HS-5685MH’s with the HMSH-02’s.
Zenta, I’d thought about this but was afraid of making a permanent connection? It’s worked out alright for you?
Yes, a permanent connection is a risk… Use a very small amount, use a Q-tip to dry off most of the locktite. You probably need to do a test to see how it work out for you.
We’ll take a look and see if our current stock has the issue with a sample of the 5685s. You may wan to consider trying PTFE Thread Seal Tape (incredibly thin - used to connect pipe fittings) to fill the gap between the servo spline and the metal horn.
I like that idea, Coleman. I think I’ll try that before trying the locktite.
Yes ptfe is a good idea. I use it and the great thing is its reversible.
The circuit board for the controller is in the works. Waiting on a few components for it so I’ll probably devote more time to programming at the moment. The board has 4 8-channel adc’s, and connection for an xbee and Lcd.
Your using a different spindle to do that ?
Look good, i want to do some PCB myself… just didn’t have time to get into that… lol
Same spindle, just using a V-carving bit. Doing the isolation is pretty easy. If you already know how to use Eagle there is a script you can download that will generate the g-code for you.
Finished my controller board and started wiring the controller. I’m writing the code for controller right now. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to get some test motions started this coming week.
Is there something you can’t do…
You ■■■■ me off…
(fantastic)
looks like you favour Christmas tree construction look at all those wires 
if i may ask what are the 4 chips connected to the propeller doing, are they multipexers?
looking great cant wait to see it walk. :mrgreen:
Haha, thanks, Eric. I’ll take that as a compliment. And thanks to you too, codemaster and robotfanatic.
Those four chips are MCP3208s. They’re 8-channel analog to digital converters. The prop is good at many things, but reading analog input is not one of them. They use serial communication so I’m able to condense 32 inputs into 12 pins.
Wireless data transmission: Successful.
I’ve got my controller working. I’m working on speeding up the code at the moment, I don’t know how to write in assembly language yet so hopefully I’ll be able to do alright with just SPIN. I’m hoping to be able to send all the controller data around 60 times a second.
Update: I think I fried my controller board 
Dialfonzo, you were wondering what I coudln’t do. Apparently, forgetting to shield battery terminals, then accidentally shorting them is something I’m not good at. That or I can’t size supply traces correctly.
At least my code works… 
I guess I’ll explain the symptoms. When I plug my battery in, my voltage regulator gets very hot very quickly. I changed out the voltage regulator thinking it was the problem, but the same symptoms remain. Changed out the capacitors on the voltage regulator and still the same symptoms. I looked for other shorts on the board but can’t find any. Any advice?
I just hope I didn’t burn out my prop and xbee.
It’s a feature even professional manufacturers do not always include in their products - connecting the battery the wrong way can fry a board very quickly. It would be great to hear that yours can be revived.