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My progress on the creation of my mind controlled field of dancing delta robots…

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Delta Array : Ready Set Shake

Ok… So I wired up my completed mini delta this morning. Everything was looking swell until I ran the code, and with one energetic swoop… all the arms fell off. That was fine, I had to screw them into the motors, right… no biggie. After I did this I ran the code again only to realize that the mini motors from Hong Kong weren’t exactly up to par. They work alright but are jittery as hell. My robot looks like it has Parkinson’s. Damn it. Let us take a moment to mourn on behalf of this setback with some pictures of me making light of the situation:

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Delta Array : Joints and End Effector

Today I went to a real hardware store. Not Home Depot and not a hobby shop… but a place that has isle upon isle of bits and pieces mysterious and unknown to me. It was here that I solved my connection conundrum… I found 2-56 size washers, nuts, screws, and threaded rods ftw. These are all the things I needed to get robot into one piece. I had everyone in the store on their toes, but I learned a bunch and saved money too. I win! Connecting the servo paddles to the swivel ball joints: To do this I cut inch long pieces of threaded rod and pushed them through the ball end of the joints. I then used washers as spacers and put nuts on the ends to keep things from slipping around. I created another ‘triangle’ from a plastic togo box and mounted my LED housing (little container…

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Delta Array : Base and Servos Installed

I realize it’s been a while since my last post. Now that my summer vacation is over I can focus once more on my bots and post the progress reports I’ve neglected to do. Yay! It took weeks of waiting but my mini motors finally arrived in the mail (which was actually about two weeks ago). The package was stamped from Hong Kong so I guess that explains why it took so long to get here. They are even smaller than I imagined. Aren’t they cute? So far I’ve Attached the arms (that I cut from the black plastic hangers) to the mini servos: I cut the clearance slots for the arms into the base and installed the motors as so. Note that I attached plastic tabs to the motors with plastic glue in order to have a large enough surface area to screw them onto the base: …And repeated the…

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Delta Array : Materials Cometh

I stood staring out the window as the mailman pulled the little red package from his basket of spam. I knew it was mine and had only to wait until he finished stuffing the mailbox full of crap before I had those LEDs and tiny red boards in my hands. And so, I received my baggie of RGB SUPER FLUX piranhas… and a stack of tiny 5×5 protoboards to mount them too. They fit right in the center and look smashing: These guys will go on the end effector of each delta with a clear lens over them. Yesterday out of sheer curiosity I wandered inside of this strange place called The Container Store… and was pleasantly surprised to find that in spite of the lame name, it provided me with a zillion creative material options. I got my electrical housing (I’ll be using the flat cylindrical lids for mounting…

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Delta Robot : Success-ish

I’d like to call my first Delta robot finished. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a prototype… so what evs. What I learned: The skinny arms attached to the head need to be EXACTLY the same length… or else they will twist all wonky. This doesn’t impair movement really… but it just makes the thing look like it’s drunk. Also, if you’re using plastic, make sure it wont give at all. Tupperware was an ok start, but any give in your connections will make movement a lot less sharp… and the robot again moves like its drunk. So next time I’ll take it slower and make sure all my measurements are precise, and my connections are STRONG. The hobby ball joints worked alright, I’m likely to try out swivel ball links instead for my next trick… and I’m going to knock my pushrod size down from 4-40 to 2-56. My next delta…

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Delta Robot : LED lens “Mood Bubble”

So this is the lens cap I concocted for the head of my delta. It’s made from a plastic paint jar that I bought in a pack which I sanded the hell out of it so it would catch the light nicely. Also, I found this excellent example of a delta controlled by the iphone’s accelerometer. This is what I would like to nail down next as I move from controlling mine with the wiiChuck. I wish I understood enough about programming and the math that goes into making a delta robot do its thing, but for now I’m relying on what’s out there in the ether. Awesome example: I am ultimately trying to control my delta’s movement with an XY slider, and the LED on top with the iphone’s accelerometer  through touchOSC… but It’s in progress.

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Delta Robot : WiiChuck Controlled Prototype

I’m getting there. This evening I permanently connected the ball joints to the rods and recreated the head of the delta out of some pretty black plastic! It’s come a long way from crappy cardboard and twisted legs to the sexy thing it is now: Haha…. The thing hooks my glasses half way through this video. Teehee… All and all I am pretty satisfied with my progress today. So far I have it running with a GUI in processing for full control, and a code I found for the wiiChuck. (however slow the movement may be). For the wiiChuck code I used, check out this site. They pretty much outline their whole project and offer helpful information: Delta Robot controlled with WiiChuck Also, there is some information on Don’t Buy, Make! Next I will get the LED working on top… that’s all icing.

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Delta Robot : Base and Arms 2

Ok, so I uploaded some test code to the robot yesterday after all was assembled to find out rather quickly that I had attached the motors wrong. The arms were sticking out at all the wrong angels causing the whole thing to look like it had fallen down stairs. I have no idea how I didn’t realize earlier that this design was going to fail, or why I even aligned them the way I did in the first place, but lesson learned. When attaching your servos to the base here is what to do and what not to do… if for some reason you think like me: I did remake a new base today out of a take-home container. We have millions of them around my house so I chose a shallow circular dish with a flat bottom I drew an equilateral triangle in the middle and then cut out…

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Delta Robot : The Base and Arms

Today I made the arms for my delta robot ! I originally was planning on using aluminum for these pieces but it was a pain grinding through the material with my mighty Dremel… It took me more than a few minutes to make each cut and the metal heated up quite a bit. I was getting discouraged about the prospect of drilling free handedly through this stuff, so I went on youtube to find out any tips on drilling through metal. It was around then that I saw a black plastic hanger laying on the ground near my bed and decided to use it to make my arms instead. The video above is me testing out the structure so far with a code which allows you to control the robot with a GUI in processing. For the code I used, check out this guy’s blog: Matt Greensmith’s Ramblings TOMORROW…… Delta will…

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Sad Delta Prototype

Yes, that sad looking thing held together by electrical tape, paper clips and rubber bands is none other than my mighty attempted to make a working prototype of my delta robot. I don’t have any metal. No scraps, no salvaged pieces, and even if I did I wouldn’t have a place to make any mods at the moment. So yeah, I used cardboard. I really don’t see this working too well…. but I wanted to make sure I was on the right track with measurements and all. At least I have push rods and ball joints right now. Tomorrow I will hit Home Depot and start searching for stuff. If anyone knows a good place to buy metal shapes…. let me know.