Month: February 2015

News Tutorials

Maker Tip: Labels on all your Custom Pieces

2015-02-27 Dan

I’m a big fan of Kaizen, the process of continual refinement. Opportunity is everywhere if you’re looking for it. Sometimes it’s obvious like “hey man, I think you should put a link to X on page Y of your tutorial!” …Ok! Sometimes it’s more subtle, like when a customer on the phone tries to describe a part for which they have no name.

On the good suggestion of Sarah Petkus​ of RobotArmy I’ve started putting part numbers right on all my laser cut pieces. Now I realize it was a hole in my inventory control system. I had a separate inventory number for every item in the store, but the laser cut parts were clumped together as “laser cut parts for kit X”. Now that I have separate part numbers I can… (more…)

News

Yale’s Open Hand Project

2015-02-25 Dan

Yale Open Hand Model T

If you know me, you know I’ve been obsessed with robot arms for a long time. People ask me “what will you put for a hand?” and I used to say “Who cares? It could be any tool you like.” Well, now I have a better answer.

Yale’s Open Hand Project aims to make an open source robot hand that anyone can download and build. It even comes with adapters for several popular robots already on the market.

I think my favorite part is their Hybrid Deposition Manufacturing (HDM) technique: The finger bones come out of the printer with built in pockets into which you pour a urethane solution. When the urethane hardens to a rubber consistency, the pockets break open and you’re left with a 2-material, super flexible shape. Genius!

Tutorials

Introduction to Joysticks

2015-02-24 Dan

Today, I’m going to show you a little bit more of the joystick with an Arduino and what exactly a deadzone is. Let’s hop right in! A deadzone lets you see into people’s future and tell if they’re going to be the next Hitler or not. Wait, no, hold on. That’s the Stephen King novel. Let me start again.

Programming-wise, a deadzone is a region at the center of the joystick that is not recognized by the device. What’s this mean? On most joysticks, there’s going to be a small area where moving the stick does not result in movement of the device. This deadzone area varies from model to model, but it can usually be adjusted. Let’s play with that today.

A photo posted by Dan Royer (@imakerobots) on

Take a look at the joystick we get to play with. It’s fairly similar to the kind you’ll see on your XBOX or PS3 controller. It’s got an x-axis, a y-axis, and if you push straight down you get a button. You’ll remember that we used this joystick in our tetris game.
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