I've been playing around with Nybble, trying to diagnose some traction problems, and making plans for trying some new gaits later. To work on gaits, though, I'm thinking I'll need a stand that can support Nybble and let me load up any frame of a pose over serial. ( I'm not sure if there's a command for that already, but easy enough to write if not; the problem is making a stand! ) I could use cardboard, or wood, but then thought maybe I could just bend a coat hanger into shape. I drew up a rough idea of what I thought might work and then started bending a coat-hanger with pliers.
I'd bend a bit, hold it next to cat then bend some more.
But it started to seem like it wasn't going to work but after bending and bending and bending, I got it to look like this:
There wasn't enough wire to complete the far side of the stand, but maybe if I cut it... and then mount it onto a board later?
Slowly taking shape. literally "taking shape" :P
I don't have a clear picture, but, before nailing the hanger to the board, I wrapped some electrical tape around the top, just to provide a bit of insulation and cushion.
First time the little level on my pen came in handy!
I've been trying to identify a problem my Nybble's had with skidding, and the first time I ran it on the cradle it was clear... there's a slight stutter with the left rear leg ( aha! I suspect I've been a bit too rough with Nybble :P
To be sure it was the servo and not code, I figured I'd swap out one of the head servos for the rear thigh. ( continued ... )
I came across your post a while ago and today I wanted to make my own coathanger cat stand only to find out I have no hangers of this type :)
Hi Rongzhong, Thanks! :) I've been having great fun with Nybble the past few weeks! And still a bunch more ideas to try coming up :) So far I don't think I've used the servos too many hours. I built the kit at start of February and have changed the batteries maybe 7-8 times? ( I'm estimating high. Could be more like 5-6 but maybe I'm deceived, you don't notice when having fun). But I have been a bit rough with Nybble too; I probably need to start playing a bit more gentle (and keep her out of the snow :P Troy ps - I am so impressed with Nybble's design: the 3D puzzle design, the Nyboard, the code... it's all brilliant! Thanks Rongzhong! I been wanting to play with walking robots for years (decades even) and this is great fun :)
Another clip showing the stutter ( left rear leg on far side ):
So I pulled off the servo for the head tilt and swapped that in for the thigh, just to verify, and the gait looks pretty good! :D
So I think later this week I'll dismantle and move the tail servo to use as the left-rear thigh. Then I need to revisit the variable speed Nybble code by Mark DeNies with the new thigh! :D I've got that code running on Nyboard V1_0, but results were affected by the leg skidding problem. Now that that's corrected I'm excited to try that code again... next weekend's project! :D