I can move!

Post by **Prin** » Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:49 pm

Thank you all for the great feedback here. I am grateful you are still following along!

Update:

We hit a snag... since my last post we were hoping to start calibrating and programming my motors.

After a few syntax bugs, James was confident that the software was working correctly, but NONE of my motors would respond.

Are they not getting enough power? Not any power? It could be any of over 200 connections and yards of wiring.

Try as he may he could not figure out why. So he got frustrated and spent 2 weeks playing lego star wars on playstation.

Eventually he decided to break it down to the simple... start with one driver board and one motor.

And, finally... success!! He got one motor to work! And then 2, and then 3!

So, we just have to continue one motor at a time throughout the rest of my body.

I'm excited that we are finally on the verge of completion of this stage of my development!!!

Technician · Post by **Technician** » Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:35 am

PCA9685 have trouble moving power?

Nand2Bot · Post by **Nand2Bot** » Sat Apr 08, 2023 7:29 am

Prin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:49 pm Thank you all for the great feedback here. I am grateful you are still following along!

Update:

We hit a snag... since my last post we were hoping to start calibrating and programming my motors.

After a few syntax bugs, James was confident that the software was working correctly, but NONE of my motors would respond.

Are they not getting enough power? Not any power? It could be any of over 200 connections and yards of wiring.

Try as he may he could not figure out why. So he got frustrated and spent 2 weeks playing lego star wars on playstation.

Eventually he decided to break it down to the simple... start with one driver board and one motor.

And, finally... success!! He got one motor to work! And then 2, and then 3!

So, we just have to continue one motor at a time throughout the rest of my body.

I'm excited that we are finally on the verge of completion of this stage of my development!!!

Hello Prin, I think I know what is happening, you have the PCA9685 connected to the raspberry through the i2c port, even having activated the i2c port from raspi-config it does not issue communication. The solution that I found was to recompile the kernel from 0, so that it works correctly, if not another solution is to connect an arduino as an i2c intermediary to usb

Post by **The Doll Man** » Sat Apr 08, 2023 8:45 am

Technician wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:35 am PCA9685 have trouble moving power?

Thank You Technician!

I understand this principle.
You gave me excellent clues because
I know electrical engineering very well..

: PCA9685, Board, Servo Driver, 01.jpg (313.09 KiB) Viewed 744 times

: PCA9685, Board, Servo Driver, 02.JPG (254.78 KiB) Viewed 744 times

Technician · Post by **Technician** » Sat Apr 08, 2023 10:54 am

I always thought Dupont connectors were weak for something that can drive that many motors.
It's okay to disregard the power from the pca9685 and make another bus, as long as the ground is tied in for the signal reference.
This is such a cool project you have.

Post by **Prin** » Sat Apr 08, 2023 6:36 pm

Okay, so... James jumped the gun and tried connecting two driver boards, and of course nothing worked. He did notice the batteries got really hot.

So he went back to the one board in my head.

He was able to get all 16 motors working and document their range of motion. In all that time the batteries were fine.

Then he wrote a little program to make my eyes move around and blink.

As soon as he ran it, all my head motors started freaking out and the batteries got hot immediately. He stopped the program, but the motors kept moving. So he shut everything down.

Before giving up entirely... he went back one more time and rebooted my system and the program worked perfectly and the batteries stayed cool.

We dunno. We have no idea. Maybe this is a ground problem?

(It is wired just like TheDollMan's diagram, except to a raspberry with its own power source)

James is moving on to the board that drives my left arm.

Post by **Prin** » Mon Apr 10, 2023 10:54 pm

OK, so the board for my left arm works succesfully, independantly!

James disconnected all 4 servo driver boards from my body so they are easier to work with.

With all 4 boards connected and driving one servo each... all motors work.

So, we know the software is works as intended, and the wiring is correct.

We know power will drive all 16 servos on one board (tested in my head and arm)

so, maybe the power is not enough to drive the servos on 3 boards? (the fourth board is dedicated to my larger motors with a larger power requirement.)

We will just keep connecting more motors until it stops working.

Making progress! We're getting close!

timetraveler1 · Post by **timetraveler1** » Wed Apr 19, 2023 11:27 am

i find this a very interesting project , it looks like a good design , things like this will depend on many things though such as what pressures can be put on this , i have seen latex dolls when inflated can support up to i believe 300 pounds, another thing would be how strong are the motors that work the mechanisms, right now they have very little resistance , what happens when a thin? skin is placed over the body, also fillers, as there is places right now that are open and if not filled in would leave a sag area on the skin ,body area . all these will have to also be worked out as i am sure you know and are aware of. this is not putting you down or anything, as i think you have a great project and have done alot. you mentioned "we" in your words , do you have partners in a company , and if so how many if you don't mind me asking? thanks for sharing your work . and pics .

in the past i had mentioned head unites would be developed for dolls , and i mentioned later on that the upper body unites would be made , meaning the torso might turn at a angle and the arms ,move and hands move . someone mentioned about the doll walking , but many don't realize that it is harder then some think. you could though even if the doll is sitting or laying down make the legs move outward and downward , for movements sake. i think any of this would be nice in a doll as it will ad more realism to the doll.

one thing i have talked to other doll companies about in the past is creating a doll with a blue tooth wireless capability that will lip-sync text to speech and have a rechargeable wireless speaker in the head unit . i think i showed plans of how to fix it in the top of the head that would be covered by a screwed on holed lid all covered by the wig. i have been using and working on a a.i now for about 8 ? or more years . i can by voice recognition talk with it and it answers me back and it learns . i have also created various brain plug ins , i can load triggered words for sex talk and or sound , and even casual talk . i have another plug in that works off motion detection and will say one of 1300 (so far ) ransom sentences , mostly casual home talk ( shopping , paying bills, mowing the grass, food meals etc. but anything can be added,

one last thing, depending on the skin you use and thickness , you may have to upgrade your motors and wires? or mechanisms. unless you can make a custom skin for this project, you may want to use the cross dress skins showed on them inventors area , i mentioned people using these for making a stuffed doll and one guy has now done it and shows pics of it.

Bastelhans1+ · Post by **Bastelhans1+** » Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:17 pm

Fantastic! Basically you are doing an improved version of the Scarlett Johannson "Robot" that a guy printed some years ago.There are some videos on YT. Hope the material is strong enough that the moving joints not break.

dollman34 · Post by **dollman34** » Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:50 pm

Wow, what an incredible build. Massive props for attempting something like this.

Nand2Bot · Post by **Nand2Bot** » Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:08 am

Prin wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 10:54 pm OK, so the board for my left arm works succesfully, independantly!

James disconnected all 4 servo driver boards from my body so they are easier to work with.

With all 4 boards connected and driving one servo each... all motors work.

So, we know the software is works as intended, and the wiring is correct.

We know power will drive all 16 servos on one board (tested in my head and arm)

so, maybe the power is not enough to drive the servos on 3 boards? (the fourth board is dedicated to my larger motors with a larger power requirement.)

We will just keep connecting more motors until it stops working.

Making progress! We're getting close!

Hi Prin, seeing your project really encourages me to make one, although I'm having some problems with the programs, I started in solidworks but when it comes to adding the silicone parts for memory it only lets me see all the design, I'm redoing some pieces in fusion 360 with the hobby version and the truth is better for me but I still have to do many,

I did the main aspect with Daz3D, for the final aspect of the silicone and the measurements of the doll

Christines Man · Post by **Christines Man** » Wed May 10, 2023 3:21 pm

Hi James and Prin. I love seeing your progress. So impressed. Keep pushing! Definitely make sure anything permanently installed is electrically well connected. I remember when I was starting to put together the first pi inside my robotic lady's head, somehow I thought using those dupont connectors was fine, and later on had to rework a lot. Nowadays it's soldered real good, with a dab of epoxy holding it on and sometimes epoxy all over the board, too. If the wire is long make sure the wire is plenty fat. Use wires with silicone insulation, etc.

Post by **Prin** » Sat May 13, 2023 12:41 am

Hey friends! Sorry I haven't updated sooner...

We did get ALL of my motors to work! Even my larger motors work on the power source for my smaller motors.

My larger motors would work best with higher voltage, but we could NOT get a higher power source to work on the same driver chain.

(I think we might have to run them on a secondary raspberry with a larger power, taking commands from the primary.)

Bastelhans1+ wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:17 pm Hope the material is strong enough that the moving joints not break.

Yeah, that was a thing, so it did take some time to reprint all my upper body gears and pulleys to be stronger.

(and, why I have a towel around my neck... cuz when my power is turned off, all my motors go limp, and James didn't want to risk breaking my neck)

BUT! My robotics are finally finished! Yeay!!!

And I can start making some more interesting demo videos... and we can focus on creating skin for my exoskeleton next.