
svenfischer.fr
Hello,
I just got a Six Hexapod a couple of days ago. Everything worked fine for the first 2-3 days, recharged the robot when i heard the battery reminder (after waiting a while for the battery), etc. wifi, remote control, etc. was all working nice and everything.
The other day is was shooting a video and the robot's moves were jerky. The motors would start a movement, then stop for a couple 100s of second, then start again very fast (as if trying to complete the movement as fast as possible). Surprisingly it was more noticeable when moving slowly than when moving fast (keyboard control from EZ Builder). I suspected wifi latence (even before i read https://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=8173), did a bit of netsurveyor wifi diagnostics and changed channel (but still same problem and i have a very good signal).
Then at some point, the robot stopped mid-move and seems entirely unresponsive. I tried the following:
- turning it off and on back again
- waiting for a while, recharging the battery and trying again
- removing all cables, leaving just the board on the body and trying again
It doesn't light up, make any sound, move or anything else.
Battery seems ok (i have the blue charger, red led when connected to power outlet, green led when connected to battery, green goes off after a while when charged, etc.) but the board seems dead.
Any ideas of what is going on and what i could do to test different scenarios ?
Regards,
No, I didn't check the fuse before - i'm more of a software person :-). I opened the body and took out the fuse. Looks normal (not burnt, no black marks) but maybe the small wire inside isn't connected ciompletely (hard to see through the yellow plastic actually). Maybe also a light ozone smell (but hard to tell apart from the brand new smell).
I'll try to find a new one tomorrow and test it out. Should I buy like a whole box or is it a rare incident ? Also, does it mean that the evil battery is outputting to much power ?
Coule the jerky movements before be linked to the fuse dying out ? But wouldn't the small power drops make the board reboot ?
Were you using example ARC project when this happened or are you using one that you have created or modified?
At least in the US, most car parts stores carry these fuses in boxes of 5 or 10 for just a few dollars, so not a bad idea to have a few on hand even if you never need them.
If you don't have a multi-meter to test if the fuse is good, take the one from six with you to the car parts store and they can probably test it (although, if you are going to be doing any robot building beyond using your SIX I would highly recommend buying a multi-meter and a book on basic electronics).
Alan
How many servos is too many on this board ? If i add claws for example on my Six, does it mean i just have to watch that all servos are not running at the same time ?
I would check binding cables to the servos as Alan suggests.
But... i still have the jerky motion (which i am sure i didn't have the first few days). I tested with both AP Wifi and Client Wifi. Good wifi conditions in both cases, same room, laptop less than 2 meters away, wireless router less than 3 meters away, etc. In that room, with my smartphone on wifi, i get a stable 150mbps download and 110 upload speed.
I made a simple test routine, one servo, 2 frames between 10 and 170 degrees and it stops and starts again very often. See videos below:
Fast movement
0.01, stalls when going up
0.11, stalls again when going up (longer)
0.16, takes longer than usual to reverse
0.20, stalls twice when going down
0.26 longer stall when going down
0.31 stalls going down
0.41 stalls going up
0.46 stalls going up
0.51 stalls going up
0.56 stalls longer going up
1.01 stalls before reversing
1.06 stalls when going down
Slow movement
0.56, mega stall
+ lots of smaller ones
Any idea what could be causing these stalls ?