Thanks to you all for keeping this thread alive. Just wish I had more time to work on my bots. Seems as though there are always so many things that need to be done after I get home from work. And even when I find a little time, I'm just to tired to get motivated. Guess I should feel blessed that I have a good job. Life has a funny way of putting a damper on your dreams. Just makes it seem hopeless sometimes. tired

Watching you guys develop your robots gives me and others lots of inspiration. Your designs are outstanding!

@R2D2 Those look like a great find on servos. Very good looking arm.

@robotmaker Do the gear motors behave and control/maintain position as well as as servo does when you set it up this way? Would love to see videos and pictures.

@bret That robot is coming along nicely. Can't wait to see him in action. More videos

rgordon they are made the same as servo's,if you take apart a servo you will see a gear box,dc motor and control board and feedback pot,so you are making the same design,but with higher torque motors feedback is very important the pot must be on the last gear the best servo board easy to modify and there is a schematic on it is FUTUBA S3003 plus very cheap from CHINA on ebay about $4 each or less

Did you know this one from Festo, it's pneumatic, but very impressive. I thinkl it could be made of servo driven steel ropes too.

Marc

@Cobra71

Yeah I have seen that one and I really like it. I have thought about trying something like this using miniature linear actuators and the steel cables used on lawn mowers (the ones that position the choke or throttle).

I think Spiderman used to fight that guy all of the time. It's good to see DocOc got an honest job.

@rgordon

Now I have seen your avatar....your maximillian always have added a pair of festo arms....I've not seen this before.

I think four steel cables for the Arm, driven bei two servos should make up/down/left/right, but I think you need the same again for the wrist and one servo for the Hand. So we need at least five Servos for one arm, but it seems to be an interesting experiment.

EDIT: I read the complete thread now, I think strong RC-Servos are really expensive. In my opinion the better way is to use a servo elektronik and a strong motor with (planet)gearbox and pot. I looked for "servoelektronik" on google and found a two channel servo elektronik that can handle motors with 10A. You can get the electronic for 6V, 12V or 24V, but it seems that is fixed and have to be ordered with the needed voltage. It's a german site, but I think there would be others in the web:

5. Servocontroller

Here is another electronic, called "Thor15 Servo" that can handle up to 12V/18A.

Thor15 Servo

Here's a diy schematic for a one channel servo electronic for 24V/15A with MosFet's:

ServoController 24V/15A

Marc

I'm Printing up the InMoov robot since I got my 3d printer working again. Stay away from solidoodle. It has been nothing but trouble for me since it arrived, and suport is bad at best. Also, if it breaks the first week, like mine did, they don't have any obligation to fix it.

--Thomas

Here is an AIMEC:EZ1 arm with 5 DOF just before the wiring loom has been added. We had to develop our own shoulder servo which has a massive 200 kg.cm torque.