All the kits online are way to expensive for me, I am trying to build one for about $100, if it’s not possible, please help me find the cheapest prices.
For the frame of the hexapod, I believe I can make it myself but I need to know what pieces to make.
I have found some cheap servos from RC Helicopters, 18 of them cost about $40. They look like this: goo.gl/4o6fRL
I also found these servos, if they are better: goo.gl/2yMAzA
I was also hoping I could control it by a wireless remote like a PlayStation Dual-Shock controller.
I found a 7.4v lithium battery for $7.
I found a 20 channel servo controller with ps2 controller possibility for $25 and a 32-Channel Servo Controller Driver Board for Arduino Robot Projects ($35): goo.gl/UjOUNw goo.gl/dPYmdU
I don’t know if I need it but people say you need an IO expansion shield. I found a FUNDUINO Arduino Xbee IO Expansion Shield for $11.
Please let me know if you find cheaper items, if i’m missing anything, if you find all the pieces I need to make the frame, the coding…
What is the capacity and discharge rate of the battery you found? Note that each of these servos can consume about 0.75A each.
If you want to save money, you’ll need to design the frame yourself, and choose an inexpensive robot controller. The hard part will be that most controllers don’t have any code for hexapods.
Yes, you can build a hexapod with 9G sevoes. Those have the lowest possible price.
You can make all the mechanical parts with plastic yourself. If yo salvage the plastics from junk, like CD jewel case covers then it is free.
Even exotics materials in the size we need is cheap. One really good free material is the fiber glass used to make circuit boards. Remove the un wanted components with a hot plate, or even an old frying pan. or toaster oven. The material is very strong and comes in different thinkneses. Cut on an old PC motherboard for the base and old cell phones for small parts.
Also many old cell phones still have good batteries you can repurpose.
If the current lowest cost line of controllers is offered by TI. I’m certain they ar selling them at a loss. ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/launchpads.html
The “tiva C” is very powerful and costs only $13.
The problem many people run into is they don’t understand the technology well enough to design their own hexapod and write their own control software. If you CAN do that then the above could get you a complete working hexapod for about $80. If you CAN NOT do the design work then you pretty much have to buy a working controller and associated electronics and also make an exact dimensional mechanical copy of the hexapod because if you change any of the lengths shapes the IK logic in the controller will no longer work right.
My solution has two parts:
(1) the mechanical part: I just bought a box of $2.40 9G servos and will build one leg on a “bot” and verify I can control it with software I write. I will then build a bigger version of one leg and test it for payload caging ability, mechanical flex and reliability. I may build more then one of these before I find a design I like. I do already think I like fiberglass parts but I will see… Styrene sheets look good also. I can cut out 2D shapes and then use glue to make 3D shapes.
(2) I am writing a hexapod controller in Java using Eclipse on my Mac. The will drive a simulated robot and let me work out ideas very fast. (One idea is a gait generator that stores the gait parted in a compact set of floating point parameters.)
Eventually I will find a way to run the Java controller on the robot. Likely use a “beagle board”
