As I have now sent quite a few Bosh motors to friends here on the forum (Steve, yours are on their way) and also after reading Dave's well written review, I thought it would be good to give more information on these motors to the group.
Without modification the motors have 100 degree of movement, once you cut off the actuator arm (to get the 6mm spindle) the motor will rotate 360 degrees there are no internal stops. The internal pot is only active for the 100 degrees.
I needed 180 degrees turn on the EZ:1 and EZ:2 head pan smart servo (shown below) and I achieved this by modifying the smart servo firmware so that when the smart servo controller gets 2 to 99 it accurately moves through the whole 100 degrees and if I send 1 or 100 then the controller sends the motor 40 degrees past the 100 degrees in both directions. Centering the servo (back to 50) always accurately re-syncs the motor position as it is half way into the pots travel.
To get the original actuator arm off, very carefully with a hacksaw blade cut down one side of the actuator to reveal one side of the spindle, once this is clear then with a gentle prying from below the actuator the arm usually just pulls off.
Here are the 6mm hubs that fit the motor spindle.
www.lynxmotion.com/p-114-universal-hub-6mm-pair.aspx
Here is the plastic box that holds the smart servo PCB.
uk.farnell.com/multicomp/hbt3w/box-abs-white/dp/645692?Ntt=645692
Here is more info on the motor drives
Hope this is of use.
Tony
Here's are most of the parts Tony is pointing to that are cheaper and available from The Robot Shop here in the USA and other countries:
Large 6mm Set Screw Hub
Small 6mm Set Screw Hub
Aluminum Large "C" servo Bracket
Aluminum Long "C" servo Bracket
0.770" Clamping Hubs
0.625" Aluminum Clamping Hubs
Thanks Dave, for the additional information.
For those on the group that may have not seen these Bosch motors in action, here is a video of the EZ:1 5DOF arm in action.
Each smart servo has a blue LED status/debug indicator and they do relay a lot of information on what is happening with the servo itself.
I would like some feedback from the group on these LEDs, do you think they currently look too much (like a Christmas tree) or do you think they look ok? I am wondering about reducing the flashing or using duller colours that do not stand out so much. Thanks in advance to anyone who gives their opinion!
Tony
Keep the lights just as they are. People love lights. It make the bot look functional, processing information and ties it into what people expect from robots. All the classic robots from the past has blinking lights.
Duller lights are a matter of taste. I love lights but don't like them to blind. Sometimes less is more. Anyway, can you add a user controlled dimmer? That totally puts the decision in the hands of the end user.
You should give your bot a British accent. You guys over there sound so cool when you talk. The ladies sound sexy. I have my GPS in the car set to a female British voice. It sounds just like Claudia Black in Farscape.
Sorry for going off subject but Claudia flips my switch.
But isn't she Australian? She sounds Australian to me.
Agree with dschulpius ... my thoughts exactly.
That's a British accent...
Aussies are cool also. That's another accident I love. The Scots got it going also but it's hard for me to understand that one.
Australian ! Close enough