[MagnusWootton]

So this is the first robot ive ever put together,   Its this -> https://www.robotgear.com.au/Product.aspx/Details/603-Dagu-Hexapod-Robot-Chassis-Kit

My issues.

* It was a little tricky to put together,  very fiddly screw work,  and the whole thing is all off kilter at the end of it, but I'm not worried about that yet.

* The red arduino board it came with didnt work!  It was initially the cable that was stuffed,  but then when it finally connected it flat died!  So I replaced it with a blue funduino,    It reminded me of stars wars when RED-1 blew up  "Its got a bad motivator"  then blue R2-D2 got baught by Luke SkyWalker.

* The blue funduino has no direct servo connectors,  so I had to put together a big bodge job using chopped off resistor legs connected by a rats nest of wires.   It was terriible but gave it a nice technical look to it! haha The problem with that was the connections were so bad, I initially thought it wasnt going to work completely,    So I ripped it all apart, and just managed to get 2 motors working, and the connection is really bad it seems.

I dont recommend that,  it took me an hour with a soldering iron,  and with connectors it would take less than a minute... big waste of time.

* The arduino programming is simple, the library is really nice and straight forward!

The code I was using was

Code

#include <Servo.h>
#define SERVOS 12

Servo servo[SERVOS];
int servopin[SERVOS]={31,33,35,37,39,41,43,45,47,49,51,53};

void setup() 
{
 Serial.begin(9600);int i;for(i=0;i<SERVOS;i++){servo[i].attach(servopin[i]);}
}

void loop() 
{
 int i;
 for(i=0;i<SERVOS;i++)
 {
  if(rand()%2==1){servo[i].write(0);}
             else{servo[i].write(165);}
 }
}

Which just produces random movements of full hard left and right.

* It also is pretty weak,  at the wrong angle the servos stall.  <EDIT>  i put up the amps and it was alot stronger and quicker!!  but i better be careful not to fry it!  </EDIT>


So I need to have a think of how  I'm going to connect the servos properly,  then I should get the whole thing thrashing around as hard as it can.

Had fun.

[MagnusWootton]

So I worked out something critical,  that one short positive to negative and the whole thing turns off and is completely inactive!
And when I turn the current up on my power supply, then the whole thing gets going!  And thats because of the /HINGES current going to them all at once, so they chew up lots of current!

So running them off a beginners power supply (100watt) is actually kinda decent when your first starting, because u can see the power enter the legs and u get a fair bit,  just make sure u dont exceed 5 volts (C.C.) and u shouldnt be frying the motors!

This isnt full strength yet -  But its pointless me getting it going full tilt until i solidify the connection properly, and get rid of all the shorts. and i need a longer arduino plug.  But im fairly impressed with those little dinky servos!  they can actually take a bit more amps than I thought!

I actually want to see if itll actually flip upside down if i put it at max strength, see what happens.