Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

RE: Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

DAB — Fri, 10 May 2019 19:06:27 GMT

Yes, any time you work with mechanical systems, it does pay to do a bit of physics to make sure you have enough force, torque and smooth system operation.

DAB

RE: Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

dubbie — Fri, 10 May 2019 09:07:37 GMT

Donald,

A good description of putting together the robot arm. I purchased an xArm from LewanSoul a few months ago now and encountered much the same problems as you have outlined. However, you must be much better at the mechanical stuff as it took me much much longer to get it together. I did enjoy the assembly process so I did go slowly to extend the enjoyment. It probably took me over three hours to put the base together and in the end I think I had to disassemble it twice to get it right. I'm impressed that you could work out how to assemble it without looking at the videos, at least to start with. I was completely lost and couldn't have done it without the videos.

A good solution to the handle slipping problem. Turning the handle also illustrates one of the problems of robots in that with this particular structure of arm it is quite difficult to get the gripper to rotate in a circular fashion in a flat plane. I'm surprised that it worked at all.

Dubbie

RE: Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

fmilburn — Fri, 10 May 2019 05:44:15 GMT

Hi Donald,

I enjoyed reading your description of this kit as I have been wanting to try something similar.

RE: Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

jw0752 — Fri, 10 May 2019 03:44:27 GMT

Hi Donald,

I thought you did a great job showing the proof of concept. I suspect that you could make an extension for the 1:1 shaft so the the handle could clear the lower shaft. If the arm can turn the 1:8 it certainly would be able to turn the 1:1. I have seen extensions for wood drill bits that might give an idea of how to design an easy extension.

https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-88702-6-Extension-Bit/dp/B00004YO9Y/ref=asc_df_B00004YO9Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309811990469&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18080219277944814535&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019035&hvtargid=pla-570738585810&psc=1

John

RE: Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

shabaz — Thu, 09 May 2019 22:53:12 GMT

Hi Donald.

This is a really clever idea, and something that lends itself perfectly to automation like this. Coil winding is so tedious : ) It's really awesome seeing an arm perform a real task like this.

The software looks really good too.

It's a shame there is a massive gap between the cost of hobby robot arms, and decent functioning ones, and not much in-between. At a trade show last year, I had a low-cost hobby robot arm doing a demo, and it started smoking when the servo motion was accidentally restrained : ) The Pi servo HATs don't have current monitoring either. Thankfully there was a spare that day.

RE: Walter the Coil Winding Robot Arm

genebren — Thu, 09 May 2019 22:36:17 GMT

Too bad the heavy wire was a bit too much of a load, but otherwise a well conceived and constructed robot. Nice when you can build a useful and automated application.

Well done!

Gene