Adding Hall Effect Sensor Switchs To My Robot'S Arm Rails.
A few weeks ago I posted part one of this video showing how I was going to add a little Hall Effect sensor board to the rails of my robot arm. These rails move my robot's arms in and out of his torso. There is very little room in this space so I thought this little board would be ideal. As it turns out that small board was still too big and bulky. I ended up ordering just the lone sensor and used that along with a 10K pull up resistor. It is such a simple circuit and when I was done it was no bigger then a long piece of thick spaghetti. It fit right in on top of my rail and had such a low profile that the arm carriage glides right over it. If you're interested have a look at the result with my explanation. I must add that ARC really makes the control of my setup so easy and professional looking.
Hey Dave that was a great video demo! A Real feat of engineering you got in that B9,keep up the great work!
Thanks Robo Rad!
For sure sometimes I just catch the building bug and stay up all night figuring out codes and adjusting robot or computer settings. The one you got must really freak people out, so much detail to the real Movie B9,must be hard to relax at times. Even now i am done but still thinking ahead what to work on next, just exhausted and another storm is approaching. The Voice Alert from my weather phone app keeps going crazy, sort of like the "Danger Danger Wil robinson!"
Stray dry and safe.
Awesome video! I could see where these sensors could come in handy for me in future projects. I really enjoy seeing the "guts" of awesome robots like yours.
Dave, I have to say, you are my official "cable management" inspiration now! I thought I had pretty good cable management skills, but I always start out well intentioned with a project then wires start routing everywhere as parts, ideas and plans change. When a robot as complex as yours can have cable management as neat and clean as yours, I'm inspired!!
Thanks Justin. I really appreacheate all your kind words.
As far as cable management, I don't know if I am worthy of your praise. My method has been much like yours for many of the same reasons. I have over a decade of "layers" of wiring circuits in this robot. I've at least tried to keep everything neat over the years by keeping colors consistent for power, grounds, neutrals and then using different colored wires for signals. However in congested areas like the lower chambers where everything meets things get sketchy. Because I didn't make good circuit drawings as I went, I now need to trace out wires if I need to fix or change things. To exasperate things I thought it was a good idea to zip lock tie bunches of wires together. In tight areas that I cant access well (like the before mentioned lower areas) it's very hard to follow one wire when I have 20 tied together. I'm feeling this pain now that I'm doing a lot of upgrades and replacing devices. I've seen other robot builders that use low voltage shielded multi-wired signal cable that can plug into ethernet outlets or even other common outlets used with computers. This seems like a superior method for the signal circuits if I had the talent and planning skills it do it. Added to all that, I had no idea what I was doing when I started building this robot. LOL. I've been working in industrial electricity construction for 40 years and have some other hobbies that I have given me a lot of skills I needed for this stuff. However, when I started I had no idea how to even move a servo. LOL.
I don't want to sound self deprecating but I really owe a lot of my success in robotics to people like you and others in this forum (and other forum) over these past years helping to show me the way. Also, I really cant put a value on the genus and vison that DJ put into EZ Robots in the early years and his development of the control software, ARC, which has now grown into ARC. ARC has literally allowed me an easy to understand way to bring my Lost In Space B9 Robot to life in the way I remember him to be when I was a kid watching that show back in the mid 60's. It has always a dream of mine to have a fully functioning, full sized B9 robot I could interact with like the one I watched on TV way back then. I think I'm pretty close now.
Thanks everyone!