Resurrection - Another Full Sized Lost In Space B9 Robot coming to life

Thanks EzAng. It's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to this part of the build.

I'm coming down the home stretch and hope to be sending this old guy home soon.

I'm currently working on the final stage of this robot, the arms. Other then computer work and programing most everything else is finished. It's been almost 1.5 years since I received this B9 and I'm sure his owner is anxious to get him back home.

Here's the latest YouTube vids of the work I've done to this point on the arms. This is Part 2 video and is of the building of the rail system that delivers the arm out of the torso. It's a simplistic horizontal straight out system build with underdrawer mounted slides I got at Home Depot.

This is where I am to date. Please enjoy! More videos to follow of this arm build so stay tuned! I'll list the other ones below as I complete a building stage:

Part 2 - New Arm Rail system:

 

great build Dave,

thanks,


EzAng

Thanks EzAng for watching. I'm glad yo enjoyed it.

Just completed this fine B9 Claw kit. I'm showing them powered and running! It only took me a month to paint these things. The claws are 3D printed out of carbon fiber and are strong as heck. I've never finished carbon fiber 3D printing. It was a whole new thing for me. Not as straight forward as I had thought. I took a lot of video of that process but have not edited it yet. Lots of bondo filling, sanding, glazing, priming, sanding and top coat painting. 

Funny story (not really) is that after all that prep the red top coat of the claws crackled up twice. Seems I didn't wait a week to let all the undercoats of primer and bondo cure properly. After resending and prepping again I waited a full week to apply the red top coat and all went well. 

Claws and centers by Robert Rossi: http://www.b9robotbuildersclub.com/pub/parts/B90694/index.html

Fiberglass light weight wrists by Craig Reinbrecht:
http://www.b9robotbuildersclub.com/pub/parts/B90032/index.html

Thanks guys! What a gas!

Wow carbon fiber printing? As a muscle car guy I find this Fascinating! Some carbon Fiber race car body parts would be interesting to make!

Robo Rad, They are strong but crazy hard. Takes a lot to sand down any imperfections. Here they are in the raw:

I was rereading past posts. I saw in post #89 that I mentioned I was going to reuse the claws that came with this robot. After seeing their condition I'm glad I went with the kit that just came available! It's a much better end result.

That is why race cars like carbon fiber,lighter than metal and super strong! My 86 Fiero Gt is a mix of strange factory hard plastic and Fiber glass. Would love to reproduce some parts with carbon Fiber.

Dave,
  The claws look awesome, I didn't know you could print carbon fiber.
Movement seems very smooth also.
Enjoy your updates.
Steve S

Always great work, my robot friend

Thanks guys! I appreciate the interest and nice words. 

I know nothing about 3D printing and what can and can not be printed. All I know is it's as close to a Star Trek Replicator I've seen (quote from Will Huff. LOL).  I'm so glad people are pushing the limits of this technology. One day when it's all plug and play and I can get a great print most of the time I'll probably get into it.

I've been working on this rebuild of a neglected B9 for a while now. I'm coming down to the finish line hopefully. There seems always to be more I notice needing to be done to this poor old guy.

One of the final items I have to complete are the arms.

These arms simply move straight in and out of the torso and are tipped and crowned off by B9 Robot Builders club vendors Robert Rossi's motorized and rotation claw kits and Craig Reinbrecht's light weight weight fiberglass wrists.

I've got one arm fully built and it's parts fully tested. It slides into place through the torso's arm holes and easily bolts down into place on a shelf attached to the CSS. Once I get this one arm complete to my satisfaction I'll be able to quickly build the second one.

What is different about my design from others I've seen is that it's driven by a finely machined lead screw and powered through a 90 degree gearbox that's powered by a Planetary Gear Motor with an encoder mounted on the rear shaft. It's a little slower then I would like but will do nicely. I love the arms to snap out quickly. This could easily be changed by swopping out a faster motor.

I have one more hurtle to jump with this design. That's cable management. I'm kind of scratching my head on this one. I need to run three servo cables out to the claw to control and power them. With the carriage sliding in and out in a linear motion I need to be able to feed about 12" of cable in and out along with the claws. I was thinking maybe bungee cord to keep things tight, Springs or maybe a drag chain. Space is a huge factor. A drag chain would be ideal but I don't think I can fit it in there.

I'll attach some pictures for your approval. Enjoy. A video may come later when I get this worked out. Thanks!!

I want to thank fellow B9 Builder Steve Neal from Down Under for his help in the early concepts on this design. The insight and skill he shared was invaluable.

I've made a big step on this arm build. I figured out how to manage the wiring issue. A drag chain was the answer to handle getting the wire in and out along with the claw. It's the same part used by 3D printers to handle their wires. With this solved I was able to pretty much complete the remainder of the build. After jumping a few other minor obstacles I've got my arm to the point of adding the control system. I plan to use a Sabertooth with a Kangaroo X2 to control it through ARC.

More to come on that part. In the mean time here's a video of where I am at now:

Looking great Dave sure will be fun to see it all together and moving those arms!:D
Danger Wil Robinson,Danger! That will be cool to re create.

Dave,
  Great solution for your wiring, works perfect.
Thanks for posting updates.
Steve S

@Robo rad, thanks! It is fun seeing these big robots come to life. Actually I did that Danger, Danger animation with my personal robot. It was a thrill watching him do that iconic scene from the show. Here it is: 
 

@Steve, as always, thanks for your kind words. It's always great to hear from you. Yes, that drag chain solution was a real God send. I wasn't sure I would be able to pull it off. Luckily I was able to find a small enough chain to fit into the space and large enough to hole the three servo cables. 7mmx7mm is what I used and seems to be the smallest size available in my searching. 

Amazon is the best (for me)! Just $10 USD:
Black Plastic Cable Wire Carrier Drag Chain 1M Length

lol, always great robot stuff Dave,

Will Robinson

watch last night the new "Lost In Space" -  very different robot

miss the one you build  :-)

ever see the real out of space videos?
https://youtu.be/taoHiZFYHkA 

https://youtu.be/EBIMZVRfmz4

Looking great Dave! Been so busy havent had the chance to checkin and see your progress!

Yep, you sure got the voice and animation bang on authentic, that must be great at sci Fi comicon shows!:)