a step closer to robots

well, I'm back.

"back with a 3d printer" kind of back.

took a week off earlier this month for a stay-cation, and during this time of peace, I decided it was the right time to get my hands on one.

behold, the Monoprice Select Mini.
thoughts so far:
- very inexpensive for today's standards (got it for $200)
- produces great prints
- very non-proprietary

this review convinced me in the end that this printer is the one.

by the way, the above picture shows the 3d printer with the "sample filament," which I soon realized was way, way too little to do anything.

I honestly didn't know what I should do with it at first, trying to find 3D models to print in the internet, until I stumbled into this.

an open-source, 3D-printable robot.

it's always been a dream of sorts for me to build a controllable hand.
it was my intention to build something like that during one of my college projects, but it ended up being something else (software) that is controlled (the glove controller remained).

now, this printable robot offered a printable hand (and forearm, and bicep, and shoulder, and head...).

at this point, I've actually already printed a lot of parts and am pretty well-into the process of building this.

I will elaborate my progress so far in the next post.

Comments

json messaging (2/2)

Took a good 2 hours to change all the messages into JSON format and make it work. But it is done. All is JSON. Using it like a map, currently with three key-value pairs: "id" : for entering a session ID of another session if needed. Currently used for the web client to receive a acknowledge response to confirm that the target received the message (mainly for testing purposes). "type" : probably the most functional data going through all this. Current types are STARTUP_TYPE - for when the target sends its initial message, the server uses this to mark which session is the target. REQUEST_TYPE - for when the web client sends a request to the target. Server uses this to send request to target. ACK_TYPE - for when the target finishes carrying out the requests and sends an acknowledgement of the completion of the request to the server. Server uses this to send confirmation to the web client MISC_MSG_TYPE - for anything else. DEBUG_TYPE - current...

come back

The last couple of weeks have been quite refreshing. The drive for learning and trying out new things has never been higher. Currently fascinated with Node.js; Javascript truly isn't the make-a-website-pretty script I had known anymore. Playing around with back-end and front-end frameworks. Currently playing around with Sails.js, and once I get used to that, I am looking forward to trying out Angular.JS as a front-end framework. Other than that, currently have couple of other random APIs (non-Node.js) I would like to play around with, but I'm just keeping them up in my browser tabs to that I'll get to them eventually. In addition, I reviewed the Android Developer tutorial again--hoping to try making something in that end as well.

adding a servo

Since I don't have any lock that works based on a digital signal, it seemed appropriate to at least have something in place that would emulate the behavior of such a lock, and I thought that a servo would be a good substitute. (note: a servo is a device with which one can control a specific rotational position) Connecting a servo to the current circuit isn't too much of a challenge, as it just requires a single output connection along with the ground/power. Making the servo also just requires an addition of a few lines of code, using the Servo library . A simple video of the servo in action: Now, at least with a locking behavior in place, the one visible functionality that needs to be addressed is the device's ability to distinguish between a "standby" state (no alcohol/no breathing in: should be in "lock" mode) and a "open" state (no alcohol/breathing in: should be in "open" mode).

the quest for robots

Search This Blog