#robotics Logs

Nov 21 2013

05:28 Pdgeorge I'm working on a 4 wheeled robot. Currently Got turning on the spot (one side goes forward, other side goes backwards) however after the weight got increased, it no longer will turn. I think it's because of the width of the wheels and the friction/drag (It works fine when I lift it off the ground and there is no load). Since I can't use more powerful motors at this stage and I can't cut weight
05:28 Pdgeorge down and further, would using thinner wheels with a larger radius help me solve this problem?
06:00 joga Pdgeorge, how big (and heavy) is it?
06:00 joga motors getting enough power or are they simply too weak?
12:21 mastercoder37 Hi everybody :)
12:22 mastercoder37 Can anybody help me with the basics? Where to start? What to learn? From where to learn? :)
12:22 mastercoder37 I would really appreciate if somebody help me :)
12:38 mastercoder37 Can anyone help me with the basics? :)
12:39 mastercoder37 I really want to learn robotics, but I don't know from where to start and what to learn :)
12:39 mastercoder37 I would really appreciate if someone helps me :)
12:46 mastercoder37 Anyone willing to help? :)
13:05 GuShH mastercoder37: no
13:07 mastercoder37 Hmm, why are you so unkind?
13:09 mastercoder37 GushH: ?
13:09 DagoRed mastercoder37: Your questions are vague which are characteristic of many annoying people on IRC.
13:09 GuShH mastercoder37: I was molested by several angry aliens
13:10 DagoRed Now he's just being an asshol.e
13:10 GargantuaSauce independent research is key
13:10 goRed
13:10 GuShH lol
13:10 mastercoder37 What is annoying here? I was just asking for help
13:10 DagoRed mastercoder37: find out what kind of robot you want to make. I would start with a basic rover.
13:11 DagoRed You're asking for help of "Teach me to do everything. Go!" It doesn't work that way. Not to mention it's an unofficial commit of time to you which no one wants to do.
13:11 mastercoder37 DagoRed: I was just asking for materials or something
13:12 DagoRed mastercoder37: don't PM people without asking for permission first.
13:12 GuShH BAN HAMMER
13:12 GargantuaSauce here's two books on electronics http://xn--d-bga.su/GSIE.pdf http://xn--d-bga.su/TAOE.pdf
13:12 GuShH I'll show you how it's done!
13:12 GuShH DagoRed: Can I PM you?
13:12 DagoRed mastercoder37: Sure thing.
13:12 DagoRed GuShH: yes
13:12 mastercoder37 Okey
13:12 mastercoder37 Sorry everyone for me being so rude :/
13:12 GuShH You should've said no :(
13:13 DagoRed Yeah but it's you GuShH. I was hoping for a funny PM.
13:13 mastercoder37 GargantuaSauce: Thank you!
13:13 GuShH So much pressure
13:13 DagoRed Get my hopes up and squash it like a bug...
13:13 mastercoder37 That's what I'm asking for
13:13 mastercoder37 pdf files or something to read
13:13 mastercoder37 I don't want anyone to spend his time teaching me
13:14 DagoRed mastercoder37: I would recommend something like this... but that is just me: http://www.wpi.edu/academics/robotics/
13:14 DagoRed .title
13:14 makepi DagoRed: Robotics Engineering - WPI
13:14 goRed p
13:15 mastercoder37 DagoRed: Thank you very much :)
15:31 MrCurious just dissassembled a BLU e-cig. has a nicec aaaa sized li-po in it
15:31 MrCurious 1wh
16:11 GuShH MrCurious: do you even smoke?
16:11 MrCurious no
16:11 GuShH so?
16:11 MrCurious but i dont think li-po batteries need to go in th garbage
16:11 GuShH heh
16:11 MrCurious but others do.... and if you ccan redirect their spent rounds...
16:12 MrCurious you get free lipo and nice aluminum tubes
16:12 GuShH kinda small tubes
16:12 MrCurious sometimes we build things smaller than tanks
16:12 GuShH I don't!
16:14 GuShH I only build things bigger than tanks!
16:14 ShH hands MrCurious an aircraft car
16:15 MrCurious its the wrong shape...
16:15 GuShH noooo
16:16 GargantuaSauce i am holding out for a star destroyer
16:17 MrCurious now a death star would be a project that we could unite the world behind. end war in teh name of planetar defense and galactic conquest
16:41 GuShH MrCurious: we should build two deathstars... and a bra
16:42 MrCurious ...a death-bra... doesnt geneva have rules barring just that sort of thing?
17:05 MrCurious i hate having to judge when a cat is ready to meet its end
17:07 MrCurious would be easier if they didnt hide pain so well
17:10 wildmage when they stop wanting to get touched or socialize is probably a good time
17:13 MrCurious somewhat
17:13 MrCurious tough call
17:33 ablegreen tom_idx: we're trying to program the encoder now but the output is only giving 1 when running this small code: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/412b90abd44a2f756ddd
17:33 ablegreen while rotating the wheel
17:33 ablegreen we also see a red light so we know there's power going to it
17:35 ablegreen oops forgot to add "int n = LOW" at the top in that file
17:35 ablegreen same result though
17:51 MrCurious why arent you edge triggering on that using an interupt
17:52 MrCurious as i suspect you are realy ony interested in state change events
17:52 MrCurious and completely unrelated, why cant i find a 1/8 collet for my porter cable router!
17:54 GargantuaSauce because i flew over there, broke into your house, and stole all of them
17:54 MrCurious thats not it. suhc animals appear not to exist
17:57 Tom_itx ablegreen do you recall something about pullup resistors?
17:57 Tom_itx (i knew that would come back to bite)
17:57 Tom_itx MrCurious i doubt they know how
17:58 MrCurious so i have a 1/2" router for my cnc, and a 1/2, 1/4 collet for it
17:58 MrCurious i want to mill pcb, but all the v bit are 1/8 collet
17:59 Tom_itx seems you got a problem
18:09 MrCurious how bout that they do exist, but they prefer to be called 3.175 and not 1/8
18:10 Tom_itx duh
18:14 GuShH MrCurious: so your favorite HF store doesn't carry any of the collets you desire?
18:14 MrCurious HF?
18:14 MrCurious Hong Fong?
18:15 GuShH harbor freight
18:15 GuShH just mill one for now and get it over with.
18:15 MrCurious hmmm
18:15 GuShH you do have a milling machine.
18:16 GuShH not the ideal tool for the first intermediary steps, but doable.
18:16 MrCurious :)
18:16 MrCurious i think i will punt this down the road
18:17 MrCurious ignore the pcb goal for now
18:17 Tom_itx if you 'punt this down the road' you will just trip over it later
18:18 MrCurious yup
18:19 GargantuaSauce okay
18:19 GargantuaSauce my halfassed hexapod control protocol works
18:20 GargantuaSauce time to plug the servos back into the controller
18:20 GargantuaSauce and then maybe walkies!
18:24 MrCurious ok, $54 for a 1/8 collet kit
18:25 Tom_itx how many boards could you have etched for that?
18:25 MrCurious in all likely hood likely more than i will lifetime make
18:26 MrCurious bookmarked and forgotten :)
18:28 GargantuaSauce etched for what?
18:28 GuShH winamp dies the 20th?
18:33 MrCurious yup
18:33 Tom_itx winamp?
18:33 MrCurious really chaffs the lamas ass no?
18:33 MrCurious or is that cchaps
18:43 GuShH I thought it was "whips"
18:46 armyofevilrobots any way about it, Llama gets no satisfaction, starting the 20th.
18:48 Tom_itx i can't get no satisfactshun....
18:50 GargantuaSauce well shit
18:51 GargantuaSauce need to do a new controller
18:51 GargantuaSauce i knew this one was garbage but i thought i'd get at least a little more function out of it
18:51 GuShH did it release it's magic smoke?
18:51 Tom_itx not enough io?
18:51 GargantuaSauce there's at least one cold joint in the signal path
18:51 GargantuaSauce sooo pulses get missed by one or more shift register
18:52 GargantuaSauce and the obvious happens
18:52 GargantuaSauce vibration makes it worse so there's a bit of a feedback loop where it just freaks the fuck out
18:56 GargantuaSauce might try halving the SPI frequency
18:56 Tom_itx how long are the wires?
18:56 Tom_itx are they shielded?
18:56 GuShH regular servo wires are not
18:56 GuShH not even twisted pairs
18:56 GargantuaSauce its not the controller->servos thats the problem
18:57 GargantuaSauce they're not long but it's one mcu output driving four cmos inputs
18:57 GargantuaSauce and i did it all with sold core wires and bad solder
19:19 ablegreen tom_itx: we got it to work. we changed the pullup resistors from 2.6k to 2.7k
19:19 ablegreen which is bizarre
19:20 ablegreen anyway, the position reads fine but the velocity...it's almost always 0
19:25 GargantuaSauce yeah halving the frequency fixed it
19:25 GargantuaSauce which of course also halves the resolution but eh i'll take what i can get
19:25 ShH hands GargantuaSauce some sausage ---- tak
19:26 rgantuaSauce grasps the meat cylinder and brandishes it suggesti
19:28 Tom_itx so try shielding the wires and doubling the frequency now
19:28 Tom_itx with twisted pairs
19:33 GargantuaSauce i dont quite understand how i'm supposed to shield wires that are strung around a perfboard
19:33 GargantuaSauce 21MHz is probably too much to ask of that application anyway
19:34 GargantuaSauce it's working anyway, i just need to add feet
19:34 GargantuaSauce the motion control is working well enough so that the last brackets are almost perfectly parallel to the floor so it doesnt even have enough traction to overcome its inertia
19:34 GargantuaSauce which rules
19:43 m_itx gives GargantuaSauce socks for the
19:44 GargantuaSauce about to cut a bunch of rubber balls in half
19:45 Faek Gotta be careful, one day it's rubber balls, the next it's random passerby's
19:45 Faek It's a very slippery slop
19:45 Faek E
19:47 GargantuaSauce so that...that smells pretty bad
19:47 GargantuaSauce heated knife through bouncy ball
19:48 Jak_o_Shadows http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/9-Metal-Rolling-Balls-360-Manual-Hand-Massager-Glove-Body-Cares-Beauty-3-Color-/161125674874?pt=AU_Massage_Beauty_Equipment&hash=item2583d6af7a is what I think i would use for a small robot
19:51 Faek Go to sleep Jak
20:05 GuShH Hmmm the guys in India are starting to make bikes that don't look like crap, well.. "starting" being the keyword here http://mla-s2-p.mlstatic.com/bajaj-rouser-180-sport-2012-titular-8506-MLA20005346988_112013-O.jpg
20:07 GuShH GargantuaSauce: bouncy balls were cheaper than heading to the "all things rubber" store and buying proper rubber feet?
20:08 GuShH funny enough every time I go to the rubber store the guy claims he doesn't sell o-rings, that I should go to an "o-ring store" .... he's either trolling me or he's borderline insane. he does have most of the standard o-ring sizes
20:08 GuShH but only in nitrile
20:08 GargantuaSauce i live in a city of 35000 people
20:08 GuShH and?
20:08 GargantuaSauce there is no "all things rubber" store
20:08 GuShH I'm in friggin Argentina
20:09 GuShH Well it's called "all rubber" in fact, but there should be a rubber store where you live.
20:09 GargantuaSauce you apparently have hardware stores that are useful for something other than redoing your kitchen
20:09 GuShH brands are irrelevant.
20:09 GuShH ah, no... actually our equivalent "home depot" are useless
20:09 GuShH you can't even find an M3 tap
20:09 GuShH actually home depot ran away from the country a few years ago
20:09 GuShH we're left with Chilean franchises
20:10 GargantuaSauce i couldn't get m3 SCREWS at most places i checked
20:10 GuShH there isn't much of "home improvement" you can do in those places anyway, they sell shit.
20:10 GuShH well, regular hardware stores don't tend to carry bolts around here
20:10 GargantuaSauce anyway my hexapod just took its first steps :)
20:10 GuShH let me know when it says "momma"
20:11 GargantuaSauce was being weird for a bit because the hip joints' angles were backwards
20:11 Tom_itx it'd have to be a run down piece of crap shack for there to be 'improvements'
20:11 GuShH everything they sell in those places is crap, everything. plus it's overpriced and whatever you're looking for, they don't have it nor ever will.
20:11 GuShH the clerks are dipshits
20:12 GuShH now they even tried a self-serve system for checking out
20:12 GuShH you can see 4 to 7 employees standing and doing nothing, while they expect you to scan and bag your shit.
20:12 GuShH last time I went there I insulted just about everyone wearing a red shirt.
20:13 GuShH they get paid to watch you do their job.
20:13 GuShH whenever you need something, they run away and hide like roaches.
20:13 GuShH I swear they were smoking pot behind a door.
20:13 Tom_itx here.. let me _help_ you check out...
20:15 ShH twit
20:15 GuShH I've had my issues with "security" guys in similar stores as well
20:17 Faek I dont have problem with self serve checkouts
20:17 Faek As long as they encourage a limit on items
20:17 GuShH you shouldn't be doing their job
20:17 GuShH I told her to do it, she refused.
20:17 GuShH people behind me just walked away to the only regular line
20:17 GuShH they would rather wait than do their job.
20:18 Faek The self serve checkouts should only be for purchases of small amounts of items - that way it's quick
20:18 Faek Cause they're quicker than the low number of items isles even
20:18 GuShH people don't know how to use the system in the first place
20:18 GuShH there's nobody to tell them how
20:18 GuShH so it's even slower than a regular checkout
20:19 Faek That is a problem, here they're usually 1 person standing around helping
20:19 Faek (for about 6 checkouts)
20:19 GuShH They're probably paid to help out, but they just stand and watch from far back
20:19 GuShH Which is why I get pissed off at this kind of thing.
20:19 GuShH Security guy issues.... Either walking out with something expensive I just clearly bought and have them stop me and show them the receipt while they nose around the stuff I just bought... Or have them tell me I can't enter because they're "about to close"...
20:21 GuShH I confronted one of those idiots once, he said it was for inventory reasons, I said he's got no right to do what he's doing, at that point he ganged up with another useless "security guard" so I had to let it slip.
20:24 GuShH Let's see... another incident, a handicapped woman was trying to park at the only remaining handicap spot, but a shopping cart was placed across, so I removed it. To which the security guard runs toward me and screams "you can't do that", I show him the woman's truck, he claims she's not handicapped (later on I saw the sticker and I helped her step out of the vehicle, she had multiple surgeries on her spine) anyway the coward ga
20:24 GuShH nged up as well and threatened to "arrest" me which is funny since they have no real authority whatsoever, but I walked away seeing they just wanted trouble.
20:25 GuShH It's funny how they employ these idiots, they're not even armed and they have no real experience on the field... THERES A REASON YOU ARE ATTENDING THIS PARKING LOT AND IM NOT, DUDE!
20:25 ShH takes some of flyback's pills and walks
20:27 Tom_itx should have consulted his manager
20:28 GuShH I've done that as well
20:28 GuShH The manager was as retarded as the other employees
20:28 Tom_itx so then i call the head office
20:28 GuShH And I wasn't the only one with a frowny face, there were two other customers with the same issue
20:29 Tom_itx and yes i have done that
20:29 GuShH I could have, but they resolved it after WE ganged up against the guy.
20:29 GuShH It's not nice when a bunch of strangers threaten you.
20:29 GuShH They had it coming
20:30 GuShH We basically started laying out how the other company does things and the fact that we would never recommend nor come back to the store after the incident, to which point they resolved the guy's issue and mine.
20:30 GuShH I don't know what the third guy was in for, maybe replacing a defective product like I was
20:30 GuShH (drill press with massive play on the spindle)
20:31 GuShH they had a policy where if you didn't like it you could return it and they would give your money back, or another unit.
20:31 GuShH they've changed it, no more money back guarantee.
20:31 GuShH I guess it's OK to a certain point, you need qualified people to determine whether the product is actually defective or if they were milking / abusing the system
20:42 Tom_L http://www.electronicproducts.com/Packaging_and_Hardware/Prototyping_Tools_Equipment_Services/This_3D_printer_exclusively_makes_PCBs.aspx
20:45 GuShH it should pick, place and solder as well, pft.
22:56 MrCurious sudo make robot
23:00 GuShH MrCurious: it's best if you first call sudo make millions
23:00 MrCurious oh yeah
23:17 MrCurious GuShH: try to find a home for the kitten
23:17 MrCurious it wil eventually grow old and reqquire you to euthanize it. which blows
23:18 GuShH wat
23:18 GuShH I have an interested person, but I don't trust they'll take good care of it
23:22 GuShH MrCurious: I could have it gone by tomorrow if I said yes
23:22 GuShH otoh I might deworm it first, or begin to.
23:22 GuShH it's old enough now