Make Motors Move

Let's get together and learn about the one thing every robot needs: Some way to MOVE!

This meetup will cover motors and motor systems and get interested parties some Servos, Arduinos, and Power supplies plus the code for programming them. In a later meetup we are hoping to continue on to building the MeArm robotic arm.

TOPICS:

1. Review Arduino -> PWM -> Servos and introduce analog feedback to the Arduino, from the special Adafruit servos.
   https://www.adafruit.com/products/1449

This will be hands on if you want it to be, with the parts we can bring (see below) including

• soldering on headers (soldering irons provided or bring your own),

• connecting servos,

• programming Arduinos,

• power supplies. For power, with the Adafruit Pro Trinket, you can run one (little) servo on your Laptops USB port (0.5 amp), for more, bring a USB charger (1 or 2 amp), or 4 AA batteries and a holder (many amp). We will supply some battery holders and cables. (see below) If you have a 5v bench supply, bring that.

James will demo a cute little tail wagger made from a Trinket, servo, USB battery, old cell phone holster, and a crochet tail.

2. Quick overview of Stepper Motors. Motion controller -> Step, Direction -> Driver -> Motor. No feedback. I'll demo a simple setup and have some stepper driver kits available if anyone is interested.

3. Adding a disk encoder to a motor, including DC or brushless, and PID control loop. (Jon will may be able to demo this part)

STRANGE IDEAS: And we can talk about some fun weird ideas:

http://techref.massmind.org/techref/new/letter/news0312.htm

http://techref.massmind.org/techref/io/sensor/pos/enc/greycodes.htm

HAND ON ITEMS: If you want to do more than talk, we will have some supplies for hands on work... please let us know when you RSVP which items you want to purchase, or if you can bring your own please do!

#1. Analog Feedback Micro Servos $10
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1449

#2. Trinket Pro Arduinos with USB cable (Can use external battery, PC USB, or USB charger) $10
https://www.adafruit.com/products/2000

#3. USB cables (A to mini B) $5

#4. Battery holders for 4 cells, 6 volts (bring 4 recharagle AA cells) $2

#5. Linistepper stepper motor driver kits. Ultra smooth, quiet drivers $20 (normally $25)
http://www.ecomorder.com/techref/ecomprice.asp?p=416015

#6. THB6064AH stepper motor driver kits. 200watts of castle printing power $25 (normally $35)
http://www.ecomorder.com/techref/ecomprice.asp?p=416074