I am working with Solidworks for several years now, these are some of design I made.
The buggy was made for fun, but the hand was designed during my internship at the University Of Plymouth for a biped robot (Bioloid)
I have been part of the robotic team of my engineering school ESEO in France (http://robot-eseo.fr). I was responsible of the mechanical design and the assembling of the robot. In 2010 we finished at the fifth place over 140 teams with this guy :
View with protection case
View with protection case
View without protection case
Front view
Lift detail front
Lift detail rear
Gripper detail
Exploded view
Gripper
Lift assembled
Complete assembling
And the result in action !
Here are some parts I made.
I used to be part of the Yumantech robotic team : http://www.yumantech.org/ and the first machined parts were for the robot.
I have also some videos showing the machining :
The electronic of the CNC is quite simple. You need a power supply, a motor controller and a variable speed drive for the spindle.
I search a long time for the motor driver, I first use a TB6560 controller but it was a disaster, it never worked 😦
So I switched for a Gecko G540. I chose this controller for 2 main reasons :
- The configuration is directly available in Linux EMC² (this save time).
- There no added functions, it just drive the motors as needed, and it does it very well.
This costs a bit (300$) but it definitely worth it !
The documentation is complete and well explained, I succeed to make it work it a day. The Gecko is plug and play, you just have to put a resistance into the db9 connector if you are using motors below 3.5A (See user manual).
Then, just follow the schematic and that’s it 😉
Gecko g540 wiring
Gecko g540 wiring
I also made a case for the electronic parts (all machined with the CNC) :
Electronic Case
Electronic Components
Gecko g540
The advantage of aluminium shapes is that it’s easy to use and to integrate. You have a very strong structure with a reasonable weight.
I started by fixing the linear guides and the ball bearings on the lower structure :
Then I fixed the Y gantry :
CNC – Y gantry
CNC – Y gantry
CNC – Y gantry
CNC – Y gantry
And finally the Z axis :
For the driving screws I used normal screws that you can find in any DIY shop. I chose them because they are cheap, and they have a low pitch (advance in mm per rotation) . Here I have 1.5mm per rotation, which leads to a better precision, but it is also easier to find or make a driving nut. For the nuts I used a block of PEHD I made myself an then threaded with a standard tap. For blocking the driving screws I used Nylon Hex Locknuts which are pushed against a nylon washer. This system is easy to integrate and I didn’t had any problem with this solution.
After fixing the cables carriers, here is the final result :
Since a long time I wanted to be able to do my own parts for my robots, so I decided to make my own CNC Machine (Computerized Numerical Control). It is also an advantage compared to online machining because it’s faster, cheaper if you make a lot of parts.
I first checked on internet to get inspiration and ideas, and I came up with this modelisation :
The structure is simple, because I think that more the design is simple, more it will be efficient (for the CNC at least).
The structure is composed of :
- Aluminium profiles from www.technic-achat.com and www.damencnc.com
- Linear guides I bought on eBay with ball bearings for a very cheap price (~160€)
- Aluminium shapes I made on SolidWorks then cut online on BigBlueSaw
- A spindle holder
The electronic is composed of :
- The spindle is a Kress FM 530
- The motors are Nema 17 from eBay
- The motor driver is a Gecko G540
- The power supply (24v , 14.6A) comes also from eBay
I use the following software :
Here we go, after several years of hesitation and lack of time, I finally decided to make my blog.
So welcome to Animabot !!
Animabot is the name I gave to my Hexapod robot which was my first big personal project, so I thought it was a pretty good name for the blog 🙂
Here, I will share this project of course, but also others like my CNC machine, a 3D printer and some other DIY stuff 😉
I hope you will enjoy it !
Anim4Bot 