Saturday 3 November 2012

He Moves

Got to work early with James this morning and cleared the meetings room. :)  Plan was to test inside on the carpet and then move into the courtyard if that went well.

So we connected the foot drives, all legs on, batteries charged and it was time to try driving. :)

I had the turn code right first off, so swapped that back, slowed the max speed and acc in fast mode to stop the wheelies giving me mini heart attacks, and it all worked like a charm.  Worked fine on the carpet, spinning on the spot was no trouble, my 2 73 mm casters turn fine.  And not sure if im happy or not but the flashing LED caster wheels in the centre didn't flash no matter how fast i went (they really were sold as plain, honest, i didn't want pimp my ride :) ).

Driving in 2 stick mode was tricky, i assumed that would be the most natural, but the 1 stick mode is great, and the fast or slow mode works great, slow is max speed of a medium pace walk and a slower acceleration and fast is almost flat out, i trimmed it in a bit, i think that will help extend the batteries a little.

Then tried the other stuff, and a dead wire to the dome drive stopped that working on the new wire up, and the I2C line into the dome needed swapping, but other than that it all worked as expected.  So we took it outside and took some proof. :)  It really was an awesome day, and i am so pleased with the way it works, need a few more miles testing, but great so far, and its so quiet, the chains are not as bad as i had thought they would be.


We also got James' R2 hooked up and all the drive and electronics worked great, but i will let him update you on that one.



James has offered to redo the studs that keep going lose on the 2-3-2 shoulders, they will be much better once redone, and will stay locked up tight, can also lock them in from inside the droid then too.  

The other issues i spotted are that the Actuator brackets need to be a better fit, if i were to try driving in 2 leg mode as it is, it wouldn't be great, it will also really help with the wobble and walk options, James might help me with that too. :D  Also the outer feet have more ability to change angle than id like, i think some of this will be cured by the new studs, but also i think i will brace the control rods into the legs to minimise the flex.

So after all that progress he is in bits again already, but not long till NEC, so need to crack on.  I hope to be able to get the body only 2-3-2 testing and LCD screen swap needed next, then get the bits back and test the full 2-3-2 for then, so lots to be doing. :)  Also need to help James to get his pad set-up working and get control of the MP3s, Lights etc.

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