Marginally Clever Robots’ website has just been upgraded. Please use the contact form at the bottom of every page to tell us if you spot something amiss. Read on for all the nitty gritty.
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Evil Minion, our five axis robot arm, now has a functioning claw tool.
We’re using a normal camera quick release for this robot arm because we want to follow the KISS principle. With these diagrams in millimeters [and inches] you should be able to model the adapter and then 3D print it, mill it, add it to a tool design, or more. The only rule to remember with the adapter is this: your tool should never go “below” the top edge of the adapter, or the arm might not be able to grab the adapter.
So what kind of tools could you make for your robot arm? Here are a few suggestions:
A Dremel mount:
A 3D printer nozzle:
A gripper:
A vacuum nozzle with a suction cup:
A vacuum nozzle with a balloon full of coffee grouns:
I’ve already made a bottle opener.
If you can make a tool, share it in our Evil Minion forum or bring it to the World Maker Fair 2015. I’d love to see what you can do.
Marginally Clever’s very own Luke Brooks has been working overtime. Not only is he designing a 3D printer, not only does he film and edit all Marginally Clever videos, not only did he help on the Giant Wall of LEDs (coming to World Maker Faire 2015), but he also designs cool portable speaker systems. Made from laser cut parts, hot glue, and determination. At a moderate volume they’ll play for nearly 10 hours. That means it will outlast your phone battery!
Get all the details and the step-by-step pictures on the Vancouver Hack Space forums.
The electronic parts used in the kit are available here:
[products skus=’elec-0031, elec-0032, ELEC-0037, ELEC-0057′]
I used the Arduino Starter Kit tutorials for building your own game of Tetris and modified them just enough to run the game with WS2811 full color LEDs.
For added authenticity I added wall kicks (turning a piece close to the edge pushes it away from the edge) and increasing difficulty (finish a row, game gets faster).
You can grab the code from the LED8x16tetris github repository I just pushed.
You can try the game live June 6-7 at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire at the PNE fairground in Vancouver, BC, Canada. We’ll have stuff you can build, stuff you can buy, stuff you can play, and smiles for everybody. It should be a beautiful weekend, so come on out and make the most of it.
