Recently acquired Hexapods

[mskobier]

Hello all,
I am fairly new to robotics, so please bear with me. I do have a very good working knowledge of electronics and mechanics. This past Sat, as I made my weekly journey through the local metal salvage yard, I was pleasantly surprised to locate not only one but two hexapods in the aluminum scrap pile!. Needless to say, they followed me home. I was able to acquire them for the scrap aluminum price. Needless to say, it did not cost much!. Anyway, here are the specs of what I found.

The first is an almost complete is a AH3-R, in black. The second is a Phoenix,. The Phoenix has the lower portions of three of the legs broken off at the servo bell crank. The remaining servos appear to be in operable condition. It is also missing the Bot Board II. The SSC-32 is still there and appears to not be physically damaged.

The AH3 has a little bit of minor bending of the main frames, and is missing one of the rubber foot covers. Otherwise it appears to be complete. It also has the SCC-32 and the Bot Board II with what appears to be a Basic Atom Pro installed.

I have already disassembled both of the hexapods and straightened the main frame on the AH3. It also has a couple of bent servo mounts. Nothing bad, and if I can not straighten them, I will use a couple from the Phoenix. Hopefully, I’ll have the mechanicals reassembled in the next week or so.

The specs I have been able to find on the SCC-32 board is that the boards have a rev date of 2008, and they have the Atmega168 chip installed. They are not marked with the V2.

I have downloaded all of the build directions and software that I will need to get this up and running. I will still have to buy a controller plug for a tethered PS2 console for initial setup and testing.

I have been reading the various tutorials, and think I have learned what I need to know to test the SSC and Bot Board. What I want to do is just a basic electronic test of these boards to determine if I need to order new boards. My plan is to hook up just the boards to the serial port, and power, and run a basic response test. If that checks out, then I will hook the boards back up to the AH3, connect the servos and do a function test. Is there any reason I should not do these test the way I have described? If so, can someone point me in the right direction?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
Mitch

[cbenson]

That is incredibly lucky… the guys at the scrap yard must not have had any idea what they were.
You can simply plug in power to the SSC-32 to power it up and test it using a single servo. If they were open to the elements, it’s best to disconnect everything else from them as they may be corroded. Can you upload some images?

[mskobier]

Coleman,
Thanks for the reply and the guidance on testing the SSC boards. I was able to test and verify the function of the SSC boards last night. From all appearances, both of the SSC boards I have are fully functional. I was also able to test the BBII/AtomPro this evening. It appears that that board is good also. At least the portion that allows it to play sounds. I was able to get it to program it with some test codes I found on this forum. It has been almost 34 years since I tried to program anything in basic. Its going to be a long process learning to program again. Anyway, the code I was able to program into the atom pro plays a simple tune. Anyway, that appears to work perfectly. I tried to program it so it would directly move a servo, but I didn’t have much luck. I could tell something was happening with the servo, as it would resist me trying to move the bell crank by hand. I just need to learn how to get it to move a servo back and forth over most of the servos range. I’ll get it figured out eventually. But again, I was able to get it to take a program and do what it was supposed to do. I consider these feats significant accomplishments on my part.

As for pictures, I have already disassembled both of the hexapods down to the major sub assemblies. I will take some pictures of the two piles of parts tomorrow evening when I get home from work. I still need to order some misc parts to get the AH3 up and running.

I think I have also decided to rebuild the Phoenix with my 10 year old grandson as a project. That way I can introduce him to some engineering he would otherwise not get exposed to. Hopefully it will light a flame in him to go into a science based field as he gets older. He is pretty smart, just need to get those energies moving in the right direction. So I guess I will need to order some parts for the Phoenix too.

I almost forgot, when testing the SCC boards, I was able to read the version info from the chip using Lynxterm. Anyway, the version number is SSC32-V2.01XE. Is this the latest firmware version? Do I need to purchase newer chips, or is the firmware available to upgrade the chips if they are not the latest version?

Again, thanks for the help
Mitch

[cbenson]

I think we’re all curious how much you paid for these… and were they left outside in the elements?

Unless you find things don’t work, you don’t need to change the firmware, though it is a bit outdated:
lynxmotion.com/p-395-ssc-32- … oller.aspx

[kurte]

Nice find!

On the SSC-32s, it depends on what software you wish to run on your hexapods. Most of our current code bases (Phoenix) uses the SSC-32 in binary mode, which requires an updated version of the firmware. Most of the software can still be configured to not use it in binary mode.

Should not need new chips. Firmware can be updated using Lynxterm as mentioned in the manual: lynxmotion.com/images/html/b … tm#firmupg

Kurt

[keyboard]

awesome why dont i ever find stuff like this lol

may i ask what did you pay for them?

some pics please

kind regards,
codemaster

[mskobier]

All,
Thanks for the help. I should not take too long to get the AH3 up and running.

Ok, time for a confession. When I first saw the hexapods in the aluminum pile at the salvage yard, I really did not know what they were or what the possible value of them were. I did immediately recognize the servos, and figured I could salvage the servos and possible make a little play money selling them. It was after I got them home that I figured out what I had actually found. Anyway, that’s why I originally saved them from the scrap heap. I’m really glad I did! No thoughts of selling the pieces now!

Ok, time to answer the couple of questions. The guys at the salvage yard charged me $10.00 for them.

As for were they exposed to the weather, I believe that question is yes. How long I do not know. I do know that a couple of days before, we had a couple of really heavy rain showers. Most of the steel fasteners had some minor surface rust on them, as well as some of the bearings. No enough to hurt anything, but rust nevertheless. I soaked the rusted parts in Evapo Rust overnight to remove the rust, then sprayed them down with WD-40. The anodized main aluminum frame on the AH3 shows either wear or weathering. The black anodization seems to be kind of thin over a large portion of the surfaces. The AH3 frame should be solid black, which they obviously are not. The legs and all the parts of the Phoenix have much better color. With the electronics boards being fully operational, they must not have set out in the weather for too long. OF course, we have not had any rain for a couple of months. Here are some pictures of what I have.

Mitch

[keyboard]

the parts look quiet ok for being left in the rain it looks like you are missing 3 tibia’s and femurs of the pheonix legs and couple of end caps not bad considering.
might i suggest taking apart the servos and cleaning and drying them before adding power, you can put the servo boards in rice to get the moister out because that are the most expencive part of the kit and to buy new will be disappointing .

keep us posted,
Codemaster

[mskobier]

Coolmaster,
Thanks for the reply and advice. I have already dried out the SSC and BB2 boards. They tested ok. I even installed the new firmware for the SSC boards this evening. I did open up a couple of the servos and did not notice any moisture. Its also been close to 100 degrees the past few days with very low humidity. I’ll take a couple more servos apart and check for moisture. At this point, I believe everything is dry, but I will check again. I also pulled and reset the BA28 as well as the ATMEGA168 chips to ensure there was no possible corrosion due to moisture. Anyway, as I said, everything checks out good. Hopefully there will be no surprises.

Also, I go to the salvage yard most every Sat morning. Due to the Labor day weekend, the yard was not open the weekend before I found them, so the boards could not have been setting out at the yard for more than a couple of weeks at the most. Where they were before that, is anyone’s guess.

Mitch

[keyboard]

hello

i saw that the ahrs body panels is is in quiet bad condition you could always wire brush the panels to remove the andizing and have a nice shine silver bot

good as new

regards,
codemaster

[mskobier]

codemaster,
Actually, the body panels are not in bad physical shape at all. There is no corrosion, and only a few minor scrapes. What you are seeing is that the black dye from when it was anodized has faded. The anodize coating is still in very good shape. The interesting thing is that both insides and outsides of the body panels are faded equally. This confuses me somewhat. If it was faded from weather exposure, then I would think that it would only be the upward facing surfaces. It is a known fact that some anodizing dyes, especially black will fade over time as well with exposure to the sun. It has also been documented that some dyes will fade under fluorescent lights. It might also have been just a bad anodizing job from the factory. At this point I really do not know. I have found a product called Insta-black that is a wipe on product and supposedly gives good results re-blackening anodized aluminum. I have ordered a sample to test. Hopefully it will be here in the next week or so. If it does not arrive in a timely manner, I will probably just paint it black or possibly have a friend powder coat it for me. Either way, it will again be solid black.

Mitch

[cbenson]

Really wonder what the story is if someone spent so much on these two robots only to throw them away. You got one great deal indeed and we hope you get both of them up and running.

[mskobier]

Coleman,
I have an idea of where they originally came from. Where I live, there is a very large government facility with a number of contractors doing work for the government. I know at least one of the contractors has or at least had a robotics research dept. The salvage yard I frequent often has materials from one of more of these contractors that had been sent in as scrap. I have seen some robotic materials (small tracked vehicle) in the scrap pile before. Nothing that I could make use of though. Now with the current round of budget cuts across many governmental agencies, it would not surprise me that some group lost their funding, and were told to clear everything out. So they probably backed up a dumpster, loaded out what they thought was scrap, and to the salvage yard it went. Anyway, that’s how I think they ended up in the scrap yard.

Mitch

[mskobier]

Yesterday, I ordered up all the necessary components to re-assemble the Phoenix I acquired. Hopefully the parts will arrived in the next week or so. Any one part doesn’t cost much, but when added together, it sure adds up fast. I am now into the two hexapods a bit over $300.00. Still way less than buying the kits new!

I have not yet told my grandson that he will get to build a robot. I’m sure he will get a kick out of it though. He was quite interested when he saw them the other weekend. Even if he does not develop a strong interest, and only learns one thing, I believe it will have been money well spent.

Mitch

[keyboard]

its good to hear the robots are coming together I hope you didn’t forget anything like ps2 bb2 connecters or wiring harneses

kind regards,
codemaster

[mskobier]

Codemaster, all,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I have been unable to post anything for the past few days. The admins got it sorted.

I think I have everything ordered to get both the hexapods back up and running. I have been playing with the bat28 and the ssc boards while waiting for parts to arrive. I think I am just going to put a good coat of paint on the AH# frames and call it good. The frames on the phoenix are still has a very dark black finish. I had thought about stripping the old anodizing, but It was more than I wanted to undertake at this time. Who Knows, I might do it anyway. 

Early next week the parts are supposed to arrive. I already have acquired some 5000mAhr 6v NiMh battery packs. That should give me plenty of run time on the hexapods. They are sub C hump packs and I have verified they will fit the AH3 just fine. I will have to modify a 6 cell flat A flat pack I have to remove one of the cells to reduce the voltage for the phoienix. That pack is rated at 3700 mAhr. I already have a couple of 6v-12v automatic battery chargers like the ones they sell on the Lynxmotion page.

I’ll keep you guys posted on my progress. My grandson should be here this weekend and we will start putting the phoenix back together. That should be lots of fun for him and me too!

Mitch

[keyboard]

looking forward to any updates