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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
Smarty's Synthiam Arm
Bhouston's Inmoov's Sensors
Thank you for the photo Mike. Yea, I do need to do some wire management. I want to make sure that there are no issues prior to doing this but the photo definitely helps.
Thank you all for your kind words.
I decided to mount a small speaker behind the mouth. I have a battery powered bluetooth speaker box that will be used for shows that will sit on the bottom of the stand but for development work, I really just want to have a small speaker.
5v amp should be here tomorrow. I am printing a box that will hold the speaker, amp and power regulator. I will post photos when it is finished tomorrow.
I have done the same. One thing to note is that a decent speaker is heavy and since it is mounted away from the neck pivot causes a decent smount of torque. My neck servo buzzes with the speaker there but is ok eithout it. Note my bot has a standard size servo in the neck and not the giant servo
Yea, it is pretty small speaker. It is the same configuration that we used in our pods that we were building. The video that I had published on Youtube has the audio muted these days due to me having played a song with a copyright.
It should work for dev. The shows speaker is a 100 watt bluetooth speaker that will run for about 100 hours on a charge. "Ion Explorer Outback Wireless Rechargeable Speaker" It will be far enough away from the robot to prevent any issues.
I only have a servo for the jaw and eyes in the head. The head is very open inside. The left and right movement I am going to attempt to do with the neck. It will be more limited than a left and right servo in the head, but should be good for about 50 degrees in each direction or so.
Who knows, I may continue to upset my wife while she is trying to sleep with the bluetooth speaker if I need to do something different in the head for dev.
The head has only the parts necessary to allow it mount to the neck and to allow it to use the jaw and eyes. It is much lighter than the old head that I had. It should be okay with this small speaker I think but we will see.
If the placement of the speaker is an issue, I will move it to be inside the head more, probably at the back of the head over the neck. It should still work out pretty well.
I too have a speaker in front mouth. I don't seem to have any issues with weight the neck seems to move fine. The only thing I had to do is use my dremel to cut the front and back edges down so the jaw opening does not caught it when moving and when the neck moves and turns left and right.
Well, I couldn't just give Spock one internal speaker. There was a ton of room in the head, so now he has two speakers, one on each side of the head pointing downward out of the gap in the neck area. They are positioned pretty far back, so the weight shouldn't be an issue.
Okay, enough building. I am going to continue on the ARC project.
I will wrap and route the shoulder servo wires when I am stumped on a problem and need time to think.