So I clearly have not been writing on this blog for at least a month.... Sorry. Of course I'm sure no one really reads this much anyway.
I meant to leave a blog post a while back saying that the Scooter Booter idea was a bust. Unfortunately, I didn't have the proper tools to carry out the project with accuracy. I was able to briefly run it a few times for a few seconds each when the bolts on the wheel didn't catch the aluminum framing. Even when I did, I realized that the "boot" was so heavy that it was rather hard to manipulate your leg. Getting the proper angle of the wheel touching the ground was hard, and when I did get it right, I couldn't hold my leg very well. The let itself wanted to go forward instead of pulling me with the scooter on it.
So with that said, I was caught up with summer gen ed classes, but now I've purchased a hub to build a simple rig of directly attaching a CIMple box on my scooter and seeing how that works out.
I also couldn't resist buying myself an Andy Mark suprise pack along with it... I can't wait to recieve that!
A current project I'm working on is going to be reparing the arm I mentioned in my first post. All of the information about the project can be found here: http://ieee.illinois.edu/wiki/Robotic_Eating_Assistant. I will admit the information is a wee bit out of date.
The past couple of days, I've disassembled quite a bit of the arm as pictured below, but I've been making some progress. I've finally tested the two motors that were not operational at the start of last school year, but they are at least running now. One of the issues was a poorly charged battery that wouldn't allow the base to spin. The other was an issue with a gear box I diagnosed this morning. In addition to the gearbox, there was also an issue of plastic expanding or rust build up, I couldn't tell, but an axle for a sensor was not working either. I have worked that issue out too. I have one last mechanical issue, other than just reassembly that I need to work on and I think the arm will be mechanically in good shape.
I do have to worry about the electronics on the arm though. I had previously though that some of the issues revolved around faulty wiring because of the breadboards we had used, but that might have been a bad assumption. Regardless, I had removed the breadboards, and I am instead using prototyping perfboard to redo the wiring, I believe proper soldering should leave no doubts anymore.
Finally over this summer, I've also been working on a website, irobotics.org, the awesome robotics club at UIUC that I'm proud to be a part of. It's still being worked on, so don't start hatin' on it yet.
Actually, I don't think I feel like taking photos tonight, I'll be doing that tomorrow.
I meant to leave a blog post a while back saying that the Scooter Booter idea was a bust. Unfortunately, I didn't have the proper tools to carry out the project with accuracy. I was able to briefly run it a few times for a few seconds each when the bolts on the wheel didn't catch the aluminum framing. Even when I did, I realized that the "boot" was so heavy that it was rather hard to manipulate your leg. Getting the proper angle of the wheel touching the ground was hard, and when I did get it right, I couldn't hold my leg very well. The let itself wanted to go forward instead of pulling me with the scooter on it.
So with that said, I was caught up with summer gen ed classes, but now I've purchased a hub to build a simple rig of directly attaching a CIMple box on my scooter and seeing how that works out.
I also couldn't resist buying myself an Andy Mark suprise pack along with it... I can't wait to recieve that!
A current project I'm working on is going to be reparing the arm I mentioned in my first post. All of the information about the project can be found here: http://ieee.illinois.edu/wiki/Robotic_Eating_Assistant. I will admit the information is a wee bit out of date.
The past couple of days, I've disassembled quite a bit of the arm as pictured below, but I've been making some progress. I've finally tested the two motors that were not operational at the start of last school year, but they are at least running now. One of the issues was a poorly charged battery that wouldn't allow the base to spin. The other was an issue with a gear box I diagnosed this morning. In addition to the gearbox, there was also an issue of plastic expanding or rust build up, I couldn't tell, but an axle for a sensor was not working either. I have worked that issue out too. I have one last mechanical issue, other than just reassembly that I need to work on and I think the arm will be mechanically in good shape.
I do have to worry about the electronics on the arm though. I had previously though that some of the issues revolved around faulty wiring because of the breadboards we had used, but that might have been a bad assumption. Regardless, I had removed the breadboards, and I am instead using prototyping perfboard to redo the wiring, I believe proper soldering should leave no doubts anymore.
Finally over this summer, I've also been working on a website, irobotics.org, the awesome robotics club at UIUC that I'm proud to be a part of. It's still being worked on, so don't start hatin' on it yet.
Actually, I don't think I feel like taking photos tonight, I'll be doing that tomorrow.
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