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Asked — Edited

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Hey guys. As I am closing in on the finishing line on my Gargantuan project, I’m lining up the remainder of the year with a few projects. I have a budget for a couple more projects. I’d like your input as to what you’d like to see me build the most.

I’m due to return for reshoots for Avengers 4 in September and then there is a question mark about Guardians of the Galaxy 3 as they fired my director?! That was to begin in January. So I may in fact have a lot more robot time on my hands than I originally thought.

But here are some things that I’ve been either working on designing, thinking about or just might be really cool to tackle.

1) A body for Alan. ( all the sourcing has been done for this)

2) New version of Alan’s Head. Like an advanced model , expressions, blink, new face design et.

3) A biped 24 inch walking robot

4) A tank tread robot

5) Back pack robot that unfurls

6) Robot Dog like Boston dynamics

-Please pick one or two at most-


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USA
#17  
Some really great thoughts and input....you got my gears spinning..
PRO
USA
#18  
Will,

not nice, teasing the community !:)

1) I would love to see your ideas / improvements applied to JD Humanoid (walk movement).

2) Tank bot is nice, although a mars rover (rocker-bogie suspension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker-bogie) works everywhere.

3) Alan - add emotional face elements, neck movements additional mobility similar to (Jiibo)
#19  
@fxrtst I guess whatever you touch will be gold! BUT the idea of a You Tube channel seems to be a game changer for me...you are very good in keeping this community up to date with all the progress. So you would widen your audience a great deal! This would benefit future projects, Kickstarters etc...
Plus, since you are working within the film industry, you know more than anyone about whats going on in a variety of fields!
I a pretty sure you'd know how to set up a good show in the FXRTST CAVE!:D

You could even use it to promote Alan and Alena further, by being Co Hosts in your show...

@ptp I am still working with Unity a great deal these days, there is a lot of very interesting possibilities within this platform! I just stopped to develop the JD App because it seemed to be impossible to animate a walking gait for him, but I am still thinking the JD App would be great for kids and EZ-Robot enthusiasts at the same time!
Currently I am working on an Android App for my robot, which I hope to showcase soon! I think all of this could be very well integrated in @fxrtst 's future projects too since the Unity/EZ-B connect that you developed worked flawless!
PRO
USA
#20  
@mickey666maus , Thanks! The idea of a Youtube channel is growing on me. I sat down this weekend to run thru all the possible directions to take a channel. I'm thinking it will be robot focused but I may encompass makeup effects as well. The issue with such a large en devour, it will be very time consuming. I will need a way to monetize it to match my current wages, which means I'll probably have to review products as well. Like a Tech Tuesday or something like that. Probably I will have a sponsorship video here and there and alot of affiliate links. The good thing is I don't think there is a channel on youtube that would be like mine.
PRO
United Kingdom
#21  
Hi Will, these ideas are fabulous. but a 2 foot walker will need some heavy duty servos and the big problem with all walkers is the you cannot really do any odometry so simple mapping and accurate movement is very difficult. Alan is so amazing that adding a moving body would be incredible! What I did with the ALTAIR EZ:1 is to make the lower part look like legs but still use skid/steer which can do very accurate movement and mechanically is very easy to do. The EZ:1 has 32000 clicks/clocks per wheel revolution and works really well the Kangaroo X2. Here are some pics

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Hope this is of some help. Tony
#22  
@fxrtst ...I would not mind you reviewing products at all, it is the right attitude trying to get paid for the effort you put in!
Plus there might be some good stuff out there for us, which we would miss otherwise!
I am very aware of the time consumption social media is taking of you, if you are up to get to the point where it pays back!

If you are willing to put the time in, I am sure it will be a great channel!:)
PRO
USA
#23  
@toymaker Thanks for the info in how the robots locomotion works. I’ve spent some time designing and test different designs and have definitely decided to incorporate a sort of Alan riding a Segway approach. These scooter wheels I’ve sourced are so cool, the ones where the stator and rotor are within the wheel design. And they are cheap!

@mickey666maus I’ve been looking at some of the most successful YouTubers like Casey Neistat, his editing style and great youtube cinema photographers like Peter McKinnin, and of course shows like Tested. These channels promote the style and in the case of Tested the content, of what I’d like to produce. I could prolly get subscribers pretty quick by having Zoe On! Lol. It’s alot of work but could be a doorway.
United Kingdom
#24  
These scooter wheels I’ve sourced are so cool, the ones where the stator and rotor are within the wheel design

Will,

Sounds interesting for something I’m looking at for my InMoov, could you share the link where you sourced these from?

Cheers
Chris.
PRO
USA
#25  
@cem,

You can find new wheels on ebay for as little as $27 each! Here is a link and example:


Ebay hover wheel replacement

Here is a video converting it over to an hbridge control.


This interesting link will deconstruct the wheel so you can explore its inner workings. Also the thread this is connected to is a users group for this amazing controller this guy created called the ODrive controller. He continues to develop and will eventually have a PWM option. Serial i believe is already supported.


Deconstruction and ODRIVE
#26  
I am working with hover board motors now using this controller board qs-909.
I ended up buying a completely different set of drive motors and controller because I couldn't get them to work. They have a ton of torque and can hold a lot of weight. I haven't given up on them, they are just a pain in the butt.
PRO
USA
#27  
Update on the Odrive driver board. As of 15 days ago the creator has released firmware that now officially supports PWM and hoverboard wheels with hall sensors. These boards are pricey at $125 but thats for 2 channels up to 48v and 100 amps peak.

Here is a fun project using both:




#28  
This is awesome! Thanks for the info! I'll have to pick up a Odrive driver board
PRO
USA
#29  
Im so using those for next robot:)
#30  
Looks like a nice board. It's comparable to a Roboclaw or a Sabertooth with a Kangaroo attached. It will be good to see if this board is as durable as the two I mentioned. It's good to have options.
PRO
USA
#31  
I forgot to add a link to the control board. Here are some of the specs.

KEY SPECS
Controls two motors.
24V and 48V versions available.
Peak current >100A per motor.
Continuous current depends on cooling: Details.
Encoder feedback for arbitrarily precise movements.
Supports two braking modes:
Brake resistor.
Regenerative braking.
Optional use of a battery means you can achieve very high peak power output with only a modest power supply.
Open source: Hardware, Software

INTERFACES
USB -- Custom protocol, open source
PC, RaspberryPi, etc.
ROS node (coming soon).
Step/direction -- Existing motion controllers
UART -- Arduino (with library), mBed, etc.
Servo PWM/PPM -- RC Recievers, Arduino, etc.
CAN -- CANOpen and CiA 402 is a possibility.
Some general purpose digital and analogue pins

PROTOCOLS
Many types of command modes
Goto (position control with trajectory planning)
Position commands
Velocity command
Torque command



ODrive
PRO
USA
#32  
...also circling back to my first post in this thread. Guardians 3 has officially been cancelled for 2019. This opens up my schedule and should included lots more robot building!
#33  
Which is sad, but a blessing for the community at the same time!:)
#34  
Sucks about Gard3. I was really excited about seeing it. Good though for you having more free time for robot building. Can't wait to see what pops out of your fertil mind.

I really like the specs of this board. Only drawback I can see that it doesn't support 12v. Kinda cuts out a lot of motors found in robotics. :)
PRO
USA
#35  
@dave I havent forgotten about your pinball machine...we will just have to wait a little longer to get those autographs! It might happen in 2020! Fingers crossed.

As for the board...the author of the board says: ODrive 48V can operate at a bus voltage 12V to 48V. I think he misunderstood the question, but i assume the 24v will work 12-24 volt as well?!

EDIT: From the website DC power voltage input range:

24V version: 12V to 24V.
48V version: 12V to 48V.

@Mickey Thanks!
#36  
No worries on the autographs. Thanks for remembering. I'm honored. No hurry at all.

Great news about the voltage. I appreciate that you cleared that up. :)
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