I am currently printing parts for a programmable robot head. I am pretty weak on electronics and circuit boards and was wondering if there is anyone who could give me some help with this part. Also interested in just exchanging ideas in general regarding robotics.
You need to look at Arduino. It’s a company. It’s a microcontroller. It’s a programming language. What started off as a ways and means of teaching electronics and programming to elementary and secondary school students has now evolved to college level courses.
The first thing you do is buy a starter kit. The ELEGOO UNO Project Super Starter Kit is a good one.
I would also suggest watching Paul McWhorter’s Arduino Tutorial series on YouTube.
1 Like
Hi Tim, thanks for the reply. I bought the Youbionics head kit on sale which has the STL files, assembly instructions, drawings and programming code. I bought the servo motors suggested. However the information on the control board is confusing. The robot head has 9 servos, but the board suggested is a 32 bit 64 channel one. Is this necessary? I would like to get a standard PCA9685 16 channel 12 bit board because they’re cheap on Amazon. Would this work to control the robot?
Wow! That kit, assembled, is almost $4,000 CAD on the RobotShop site. I assume, if you have STL’s, you bought the cheaper unassembled kit. Good thinking.
Anyway, if all you are controlling is servo’s and less than 16 of them, the PCA9685 is a better choice for you. The fancy controller that comes with the kit (AFAIK) handles steppers as well as servo’s and is intended as a whole robot motor controller (not just the head).
Ok, if I get that would I still need a control board with usb to PC connection? Forgive the noob question, I’m very new to all this! BTW, I’m in Waterloo and have cycled through Elmira several times.
Yes. The PCA9685 is not intelligent: you still need a controller to handle commands. You also need to think about how you will controll the head: interface something like some joysticks, etc. for manual control, or will you just program a sequence.
Well the software package includes some different kinds of code. I was going to connect to a pc via usb and run it from there. Robot shop has a board called SSC-32U USB servo controller that may be a good choice to connect the servos and then to pc? Would you mind exchanging messages by direct email? It would be easier and faster? Mine is dieter.spiller839@gmail.com
Email sent.
Hi Tim, did you send it to my Gmail? I don’t see it.