PLAYING with the kids

Away, sort of, from radio things I have indulged myself with a robot arm kit, the meArm. But there is a tiny nagging thought at the back of my mind - that is to control a set of these arms by radio, maybe using the ubiquitous 433MHz RX TX modules, and make them dance in harmony, fun eh?



The meArm sitting on my desk

So far I have done a little bit of Arduino programming to try it out, and written a library file to keep some of the functions in.

CODE "meArm.h"

// mearm.h
// v 0.5 20-7-17

#include "Servo.h"

Servo arm, left, right, grip;


// arm deg max = max, home = mid point, left = min
#define ARMMAX 180
#define ARMHOME 98
#define ARMMIN 0

// right deg min = in, max = out
#define RIGHTMIN 90
#define RIGHTMAX 180

// left deg min = in, max = out
#define LEFTMIN 50
#define LEFTMAX 140

// grip close = in, open = out
#define GRIPIN 65
#define GRIPOUT 10


// ============= BEGIN =============
void armBegin() {
  arm.attach(11);
  right.attach(10);
  left.attach(9);
  grip.attach(6);

  // start positions
  arm.write(ARMHOME);
  right.write(RIGHTMIN);
  left.write(LEFTMIN);
  grip.write(GRIPOUT);
}


// ============= ARM MOVEMENTS =============
// ARM steady move arm to pos 0-100 in ms steps
void armpos(int pos, int ms) {
  int m, r;

  pos = map(pos, 0, 100, ARMMIN, ARMMAX);
  r = arm.read();
  if (pos > r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m += 1) {
      arm.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
    return;
  }
  else if (pos < r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m -= 1) {
      arm.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
  }
  return;
}

// LEFT steady move left to pos in ms steps
void leftpos(int pos, int ms) {
  int m, r;

  pos = map(pos, 0, 100, LEFTMIN, LEFTMAX);
  r = arm.read();
  if (pos > r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m += 1) {
      left.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
    return;
  }
  else if (pos < r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m -= 1) {
      left.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
  }
  return;
}


// RIGHT steady move left to pos in ms steps
void rightpos(int pos, int ms) {
  int m, r;

  pos = map(pos, 0, 100, RIGHTMIN, RIGHTMAX);
  r = arm.read();
  if (pos > r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m += 1) {
      right.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
    return;
  }
  else if (pos < r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m -= 1) {
      right.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
  }
  return;
}

// GRIP move open close in ms steps
void grippos(int pos, int ms) {
  int m, r;

  pos = map(pos, 0, 100, GRIPOUT, GRIPIN);
  r = arm.read();
  if (pos > r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m += 1) {
      grip.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
    return;
  }
  else if (pos < r) {
    for (m = r; m != pos; m -= 1) {
      grip.write(m);
      delay(ms);
    }
  }
  return;
}

CODE FOR TESTING SERVOS

// move
// v0.5 20-7-17
// viewed from behind, range
// arm mid xx/98/xx
// right 80/xx/140
// left xx/xx/xx

#include "meArm.h"

void setup() {
  armBegin();     // attach servos, goto start positions
  delay(2000);
}

void loop() {
  armpos(80, 50); // move to 80%, 50ms steps%
  delay(5000);
  armpos(20, 50); // move to 60% in 100 ms steps
  delay(5000);

}