Did any of you ever notice that a drummer (flesh/blood kind) does not hold his sticks at the very end? He holds them somewhere between halfway and one tenth of the length. I am guessing (not being a drummerboy myself) that this improves the rebounce of the stick from the drumskin. Because the bottom end of the stick balances (both weight and inertia) the business end. Try it out with a pencil on the tabletop. (nb: will destroy pencil)
Did you ever consider placing the motor higher up the drum stick?
I myself am a band geek, and I have to say, you were pretty close. Percussionists (aka "drummerboys") hold their sticks about 1 tenth of the way, this is ONLY if so they can perform what is commonly called a roll. Other instruments percucionists play (like the quads, which is 4 drums strapped onto the player) have the sticks held closer to the ends. However, for the drummer bot, you might want to make the stick rotate on one axis freely, but have it limitied so it can only wiggle a bit. this will give a sound similar to a roll. That… or it will function exactly the same.
The case with a real drummer is that he has pretty much extra power, the stick is easy to lift.
The setups from the YDM has almost not enough power to swing the stick, the stick needs to be light material, very light. Having a longer stick, thushaving to move more mass would be a bad descission; THis is not a question about balance, but about power / force / strength.
And it would be harder to make, and take up more space.
little motors - with spring? I’ve been wondering about those little motors GM10. Are they fitted with a little (torsion) spring that bring the drumstick back to its inital position? Or do you program the bot to turn it and then turn it back?
Yeah, they have a small spring to bring it back to neutral when the power is off. It can swing about 60 degrees in either direction, but if you only need it to go one direction (like a drumstick) then all it takes is a transistor to switch it on and off.
It is like a servo because it turns your thingey about 60 degrees. But it also is not because you do not get the same control/feedback over the exact angle. A bit like an "angular solenoid" with an on/off switch.
Speed could be controlled (if needed) by sending more/less power (voltage of pwm).
I take it the spring comes off easily to "hack" it into a "continuous rotation non-servo".
