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Overview
This is a simple 4/5 servo robot arm. It is controlled by a vb.net app which sends out data over rs232 to a PIC.
The PIC then positions the servo to a position between 0 and 240. This version features gradual servo movement, and can support upto 12 servos in parallel.
This bot uses my BotBoard |
Software
VB.net 2008 application. This app uses code snippets from the SSB2 app. I have added webcam connect and preview support for 'real-time' video aquisition.
The bot is totally controlled by an external joysitck or joypad. The app uses DirectX DirectInput to get the data from a connected jystick. This data normally goes from -1000 to 0 to 1000, so some code was writted to re-map this to 1 to 127 to 200 (the servos range of travel). The joystics trigger button was re-mapped to some code that tells the trigger servo to goto X wait 10ms then go back to center.
The interface shows both the webcam video and the joysticks position and button status.
It's fun but totally pointless!
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Construction
This arm uses a total of 3 servos:
- 1 large (Futaba S3003): Main rotation
- 1 large (Futaba S3003): Main sholder Up/Down
- 1 mini (eSky): Trigger
I had had this foam fireing gun toy for a while, so it seemed a good idea to create a bot that used it. A simple pan & tilt bracket was made out of 3mm plasticard which mounted the gun to the servos.
A small servo was hooked upto the trigger mechanism. The gun bot is controlled via VB.net which reads the inputs from a joystick. The joystick X,Y data is converted to a 0 - 200 scale, which drives each x or y servo between these values. The joystick trigger button is mapped to some code that sets the servo from rest to a position that allows the trigger to work. It then takes the servo back to rest. If you hold your finger on the button this code repeats, creating an auto fire mode.
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Images
Here are the images relating to the project.
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