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I have decided to start my InMoov project. I think I will call him Spock out of respect to Leonard Nimoy who passed away on the day that I started this project.
I am editing this post so as not to confuse people with the current configuration. I continue to update this post with the latest photos. If you are reading this for the first time, don't be confused. There have been a lot of changes to the InMoov over the past couple of years including starting over.
https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/7398&page=21 Post 203 starts the rebuild of the InMoov.
I have decided to use an onboard computer. I chose the Latte Panda due to it having an onboard arduino Leonardo and also because it uses little power.
I used 2 EZ-B controllers connected via the camera port to Adafruit FTDI friend boards. This allows the Latte Panda to have a non-wifi dependent connection to the EZ-B's. I use a powered USB hub connected to the USB3 port on the Latte Panda to attach other items.
The Omron HVC-P is used to identify people, emotions, human bodies, hands, age and gender. It is attached to the Latte Panda via an FTDI friend which is then connected to the powered USB hub. It is mounted in the chest of the InMoov. I also use a 3 element microphone which is a MXL AC-404 microphone. It is disassembled and the board and microphone elements are mounted in the chest of the InMoov. This mic board is connected to the Latte Panda via a usb cable which is attached to the powered USB hub. There is a USB camera in the eye of the InMoov which is connected to the Latte Panda via the powered USB hub.
I chose to use the Flexy hand with the InMoov. The design is far more rugged than the original hand and works very well. There are 4 EZ-Robot Micro Servos in the palm of each hand which controls the main fingers. The thumb is controlled by an EZ-Robot HD servo. The wrist waves and uses an EZ-Robot HD servo to do this motion. I use the standard Rotational wrist.
I have castle BEC's for power in the following locations set to the following voltages. Forearm's - 6.2 V - Controls fingers, wrist and elbows Custom power distribution board (2) set to 6.2 V controlling head, neck and Shoulder servos. EZ-B's - set to 6.1 V - it is mounted in the controller mounting plate and connects to the EZ-B fused power boards from a power base. Latte Panda - Set to 5.1 V and is mounted to the EZ-B controller mounting plate. Waist - set to 6.2 V and is mounted in the lower right side of the back. This provides power to the lean and pivot waist motors..
There are some custom power and signal distribution boards. These are in the forearms, lower back and in the upper back. The upper back or main board connects to these distribution points via USB cables to provide signal to the other boards for servos. The main board also has servo connector pins that are for the neck, head and shoulders. This allows the power to be distributed between multiple BEC's and also allows the servo signal cables to be shorter and more protected via the USB cables.
For power I use a LiFePo4 battery that is rated at 30 amps. It has the balanced charging circuit built into the battery and also has a low voltage shutoff built into the battery. This protects the battery and allows the battery to be charged with standard car chargers.
I put switches on the back on the InMoov which are rated at 20 amps at 12 volts. These are rocker switches that allow the user to pretty much slap the switch to turn it off. There are two of these switches. The servos for the elbows and fingers are on one switch. The latte panda, neck, shoulders, EZ-B's, waist motors and some lighting is on the other switch.
I also added a fuse block. This allows 20 amp fuses to be put in line to help protect things. The switches above drive the fuses for each of of the motors listed in that section.
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Other robots from Synthiam community
Doombot's Doombot V1.0
Herg62123's Omnibot 5402 Project - Code Name: Minion 8
BTW have you tried the IO Tiny with adding one servo at a time to see how much data 115k will support when using it via uart and usb? I' not sure how much of a bottle neck 115k would be and how many servos that would support.
Got it thanks Richard! Is there a physical limit on how many ports can be added before you see a bottle neck of data?
Yea, each EZ-B will be connected to the computer via USB. In my tests that are a part of the next show, this produces the most consistent results but it isn't the fastest results. It gives about 800 digital reads or writes to the EZ-B per second, which is good enough for my purposes. With Wifi on a good computer I hit over 20K, but it fluctuates more than the reads and writes via the usb port.
@Will USB can support speeds way higher than 115k... An iOtiny attached to USB will function as normal. There shouldn't be any bottle neck... Are you asking because of the fact you use dynamixel servos instead of regular ones?
USB and the EZ-B can support up to 921K baud.
@ Richard I read that when DJ implemented the USB function on the IO tiny it is limited to 115k. I wonder how many servos can function on the Tiny with that limited bandwidth. I'm asking because im thinking about full body for Alan and putting IO tiny in small places would be beneficial.
@David, yes i have my EZBs connected directly via USB and using the 921k data rate
The IOTiny uses the same chip I think, but could be wrong. See what happens when you try to connect at 921K. IDK, I didnt see that but you are probably correct.
I am going to go look at the datasheet to see if it mentions anything.
Well, it seems that the datasheet has moved. Doing some digging to see if I can find where it is these days.