Category: Project

  • PIR module on the inMoov Robot

    PIR module on the inMoov Robot

    The inMoov will be fitted with a PIR module. This Passive Infrared Sensor measures the infrared light radiates from object it’s pointed at. A PIR module can be used to detect if somebody is in front of the inMoov robot. I am thinking of using the sensor to power up the inmoov robot so it can reduce power when nobody is in front of it.

    I used a simple module what can be purchased on several web shops around the world.

    IMG_3465

    This module has a footprint of 32,5 mm x 24,5 mm x 25 mm and has three pins. One pin is for 5V power and one ground pin. The third pin is the data pin and is High when motion is detected. The modules as two potentiometers. The left potentiometer is for the sensitivity and the right is for the duration the pin should be high after motion is detected. The sensitivity is depending on your situation. For the duration I used the shortest setting because I don’t expect I to miss this trigger.

    The picture below shows how the PIR module is connected with an Arduino. I used this to test the module.

    IMG_3498

    The PIR module has it’s own connection on the Nervo Board. It’s located next to pin A15, D44 and D46. I made a ribbon cable to connect the sensor to the board. The pins on the PIR module and the Nervo Board are not in the same order. I needed to swap the vcc pin and the signal pin on one end as you can see in the picture below.

    IMG_6018

    To test the PIR module and it connections I used a little piece of Arduino code.  The signal pin of the PIR module is connected to pin 23 on the Nervo Board. The code is checking every second if motion is detected and prints the results in the Serial Monitor.

    [code lang=”cpp”]
    /*
    * This is an example of how to use a PIR sensor with an Arduino.
    * www.swanrobotics.com
    */

    // Define pin 23 as input for the sensor
    #define MOTION_PIN 23

    int reading;

    void setup()
    {
    // Setup Motion pin
    pinMode(MOTION_PIN, INPUT);

    // Initilize serial link for debugging
    Serial.begin(9600);
    delay(1000); // 1 second delay to open the serial monitor after uploading
    Serial.println (“Start”);
    }

    void loop()
    {

    reading = digitalRead(MOTION_PIN);
    if (reading == HIGH) {
    Serial.println (“Motion Detected”);
    } else {
    Serial.println (“No Motion Detected”);
    }

    // Wait a second
    delay(1000);
    }

    [/code]

    I have printed the MiddleChest+PIRV1 part which has a space for the PIR sensor. This part is already mounted on my inMoov so I only had to hotglue the PIR module in place.

    IMG_6025 IMG_6024

    This picture below shows the final result in the chest of the inMoov robot

    IMG_6034

    To show you how the PIR is mounted in the inMoov robot I made a small video.

    All this was not possible by the creator of the inMoov robot. Please visit his website www.inmoov.fr

  • Nervo Boards

    Nervo Boards

    The summertime was not the best time to work on my inMoov robot, because of outdoor activities. But now it is getting cold and the Dutch weather is keeping me inside. It is time to moving forward again.

    I ordered the Nervo Boards from the www.inMoov.fr website. I first ordered one set, because I wanted to see what the quality was. This was what I received.

    01inmoovprints

    I was happy with the quality so I ordered the second set also. First I had to figure out how the all boards supposed to fit together. For now I don’t want to use the finger sensors, but they are on the left side on the picture below.

    02Printssorted

    At first I took an Arduino Mega compatible board (Funduino) and inserted the pins needed for the Nervo Board. This is done to be sure that the pins are straight and on the right position. Beware: not all the pins on the Arduino Mega board are used, so leave those position empty.

    03Pins

    Next I fitted the main Nervo Board over the pins on the Arduino Mega. The pins 8 till 13 didn’t fit perfectly. I don’t know of this was caused by the Nervo board or the Funduino. I had to lift one side up to bring the pin closer to the hole.

    04Pins with board

    I soldered all together.

    05pinssolder

    06solderbottom

    My inMoov will use the same Voltage for all the servos, so I soldered the 3 connections on the top side of the board. The solder did stick very well on the pads at bottom right on the picture. A little piece of wire was needed to make a solid connection.

    07bridge

    I removed the head and neck pins from the main board, because I was afraid to burn the headers on the top board. I was easier to solder the pins on the top breakout board first and then solder the 12 pin connectors. Now it was easy to solder the breakout board on the Nervo main board.

    08pinsupper 09upperboards
    After an evening of soldering the result is very nice. The right board doesn’t have the neck and Stomach breakout board on it. You can use an Arduino Uno instead of an Arduino Mega. You never can have enough io. šŸ˜‰

    10allboard

    To mount the Nervo Board assemblies on my inMoov robot I printed a Mount from Thingiverse. [http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30270]. It didn’t fit. I remove the rim around the board because I didn’t want to print another one.

    11megamount

    I used two 3 x 16 mm screws to mount the assemblies on the back of the inMoov. There is not a dedicated spot for it, so I looked at a spot where the two screws would fit.

    12oninmoov13With board

     

     

     

  • inMoov has a Chest

    inMoov has a Chest

    The world is unfair. My Ultimaker printer had to do more then 70 hours of printing and it took me only 1 hour to put the parts on the inMoov robot. šŸ˜‰ Below you can see all the parts from the Chest.

    Chestparts

    From left to right and from top to bottom you can see the following parts:

    • ChestTopAttachV1 (right and left part)
    • ChestTopV1 (right and left part)
    • SideRibsCoverV1 (right and left part)
    • ChestRightV1
    • InMrightV1HollowV1 (orange)
    • InMleftV1HollowV1 (orange)
    • ChestLeftV1
    • BottomChestV1(right and left part)
    • MiddleChest+PIRV1
    • UnderKinectV1 (right and left part in black)

    I am very happy with the results of these prints and they fit really well. The easiest way to mount the chestparts is starting with the ChestRight and ChestLeft together with the InMrightV1Hollow and InMleftHollow. After this you can mount the MiddleChest+PIR and the Kinect. The Kinect is mounted with the UnderKinect parts. I had to push it in with a little bit force to fit it together. I think this was caused by some warping of the prints.

    The inMoov robot gets a PIR sensor to react on people moving by. This is not done yet so you can see a nice hole where the PIR sensor should.

    inMoovChest1 inMoovChest2 inMoovChest3

    Make sure you check the website fromĀ Gael Langevin at www.inmoov.fr.

  • Schoulder Inmoov

    Schoulder Inmoov

    The shoulder of the inMoov robot exists of several parts. In this post I describe the build of the parts responsible for the up and down motion of the arm en the back and forward rotation.

    My Ultimaker original with a heated bed prints clean partsĀ most of the time. Only the first layer leaves some burr so I use a file and a knife to remove it.

    The PivWorm part need a lot more work to make it ready to use.Ā First you have to remove the support needed for the worm shape. I used pliers to remove the big parts by breaking it with a little bit of force.

    schoulder1

    After this I needed a knive to remove the supports sticking to the worm part itself. Also the bottom side of the worm needed a file to remove the irregularities.

    schoulder2

    After mounting the PivWorm in it’s casing and adding the PivGear part it did fit as I expected. The strange thing was that the Tooth of the gear where hitting the end of the worm at end closest to the servo. On the InMoov forum this was discussed a few time but it seems not a lot of people experience this problem. I fixed it by using the file again. On the picture below you can see clearly the work I have to make it fit.

    schoulder3

    After this was done it was time to wear it in a little bit. I connected the servo and make it run for 30 minutes and cleaned it afterwards.

    schoulder4

    The gear and worm received a big amount of grease and the housing was closed. The potentiometer was mounted in the square PivPotentio part which is Ā available on Thingiverse at http://www.thingiverse.com/hairygael/collections/inmoov-parts-and-derivatives. I used a servo motor driver and current meter to see if it worked. At first it did work at it supposed to be and almost break the potentiometer on the right side. The two outside wires on potentiometer should be switched because the angle was measured the wrong way around.

    schoulder5

    A bit of hot glue to secure the wires and prevent the bare wires to touch each other.

    schoulder6

    Next the servo was put in the ServoHolster and the PistionClavi was mounted on the Servo.

    schoulder7

    Then the two parts where connected to each other with the two servoholder parts.

    schoulder8

    On the pictures below you can see the mounted parts on the torso. I also used the square version from potentiometer holder from Thingiverse.

    schoulder9

    schoulder10

    schoulder11

    schoulder9b

    The final result is with the two shoulders attached to the InMoov torso. This is nice progress.

    schoulder12

    Make sure you check the website fromĀ Gael Langevin at www.inmoov.fr.

  • InMoov follows own progress

    InMoov follows own progress

    A nice picture of my InMoov robot following it’s own progress.

    immoovfollowsprogress

     

    Can you guess what part the Ultimaker is making?

    Be sure you check the website fromĀ Gael Langevin at www.inmoov.fr.

  • 2 weekend print result

    2 weekend print result

    Because of a holiday Ā in Turkey I could not print for one week and wasn’t able to share the results with you.

    Printresults

    The picture shows a lot of parts.Ā From left to right and from top to bottom:

    • robpart3V3
    • robpart4V3
    • lowarmsideV1_square
    • rotawrist3V2
    • rotawrist2 (black part)
    • PivPotholderV21b (two black parts)
    • rotawrist1V3
    • cableholderwristV4
    • WristGearsV4 (3Ā gears)
    • PivPotentioV3 (4 black parts)
    • servo-pulleyX5

    I did redo the lowarmsideV1, PivPotentioV3 and the PivPotholderV21 because I used the original one at frist and used a Dremel to make it fit. The potentiometers fit great is this new design so I made four of them.

    Be sure you check the website fromĀ Gael Langevin at www.inmoov.fr.

  • More prints

    More prints

    This weekend my Ultimaker delivered 4 parts. The first part was the LowarmsideV1. I also did this part last weekend, but now I printed it with a square potentiometer mount. The designer of the inMoov, Gael Langevin pointed me to this pieceĀ on www.wevolver.comĀ last week. You can find this design on Thingiverse at www.thingiverse.com/hairygael/collections/inmoov-parts-and-derivatives.Ā I like it, because with the left arm I had to modifyĀ the hole with my Dremel.

    MorePrints

     

    In the picture above you can see from left to right and from top to bottom the following pieces.

    • elbowshaftgearV1
    • robpart5V3
    • LowarmsideV1
    • pistonbaseantiV1

    The robpart5V3 is a part for the lower arm and took me over 11 hours to print. I want a nice result so it takes a while. The result is nice. I only removed the print support from the robpart5V3. The parts came out the printer as shown on the picture.

    Be sure you check the website fromĀ Gael Langevin at www.inmoov.fr.

     

  • 4 parts of inMoov robot

    4 parts of inMoov robot

    The Ultimaker Original printed 4 parts from the inMoov Robot this weekend. I wanted to do 2 more parts, but somehow I did not planned it very well.Ā On the picture you can see the 4 print in PLA that came out very nicely.

    • 2 x lowarmsideV1
    • PistonanticlockV1
    • servobaseV1

    inMoov4parts

    Just a few parts to go and the right bicep of the inMoov robot is printed. Make sure that you check out the great website from the designer of this nice robot (www.inmoov.fr).

  • 3 day weekend print

    3 day weekend print

    This weekend it was Easter and in the Nederlands it’s an official national holiday. This means that we have an extra day of free time on Monday. And what can you do when you are at home? Right! Use your printer to make some parts of the inMoov robot. You can see the result of the 3 day weekend on the picture below.

    inMoovLongWeekend

    From left to right and from top to bottom:

    • ServoholderV1
    • RotMitV2
    • 2x reinforcerV1
    • higharmsidev1
    • spacerV1
    • gearHolderV1
    • gearpotentioV1

    These are all part that can be used on both arms. In my case these are all for the right arm.Ā I was happy with the result and I also had time to print a part for a control box of my house. Maybe I write something about it also.

    If you want to make a inMoov robot, please check the designer at www.inmoov.fr

     

     

     

  • Servo hack 2

    Servo hack 2

    I wrote an articleĀ (Servo hack) about how to hack a servo forĀ use in the inMoov Robot a while ago. I did a few servo’s back then. Today I did a few more and there where a bit harder to do.

    The motor in the server from the previous batch came loose after a few taps, but with these servos this did not work. The motors where glued to it’sĀ casing.

    To remove the circuit board and the potentiometer I had to desolder the motor from the circuit board. With a small screwdriver under the circuit board and the soldering iron on the leads of the motor I gave it a gentle wiggle a few times from both sides. There are three connections to the motor. The third one is connected to the metal housing of the motor. In the picture below the screwdriver is hidden in my hand.

    IMG_3425

    The motor has big leads and the hole in the circuit board also large so there is also a lot of solder left, after removing the motor.Ā I used solder wick to remove the solder. On the picture below you can see me removing the solder of the third connection.

    IMG_3430

    After cleaning up the circuit board, the rest of the process of the hack is the same as the initial article. It’s time to build it together againĀ after modifying the wiring and the casing . The motor has to be soldered tot the circuit board again. Use enough solder.

    I did three servos and it took me about 1,5 hour.

    IMG_3438