Robot & Technology Blog & Videos
Closing out the year with some holiday cheer!
In this short video, Meca500 trims the tree as Ned (mostly) looks on.
This is a simple teach-and-place method, nothing fancy. Here’s the code for the bauble placement:
You can watch the video on Youtube here
A big Thank You to Demonview.com for the video production!
Having a soldering iron, a few build-a-breadboard kits, and a precision robot, it was only a matter of time before I made a robotic soldering video.
In another video- Mecademic Meca 500 Diode Loading Demo – we saw how the Meca 500 had the precision and agility to pick ‘n’ place diodes with delicate, easily-bent legs. The key to placement, I found, was inserting a “shimmy” during the -Z motion; the EOAT essentially “shivers” to ensure the diode legs don’t hang up on the edges of the breadboard ports. Details & code available in my post, “Mecademic Diode Load“
I had intended to print a custom EOAT to grip the soldering iron, but had an extra-long print running at the time ( base adapter for our new Elephant Robot ); I ended up using a utility EOAT with through holes for zipties to securely attach the iron.
To determine TCP (tool center point), I measured EOAT length to center of iron for Z (35.55mm), and centerline of EOAT to tip of iron for X (96.0mm).
Fine-tuning the smooth motion necessary for the delicate job of soldering is a joy with the Meca 500’s ability to jog in extremely small increments; I practiced on both of the following boards, using the 10 LED board for the video:
10 LEDs Soldering Practice Board
Electronic Piano Soldering Kit
As mentioned before, I love this soldering iron kit; it’s great value for money as well:
I re-ran the motion sequence several times during filming with the iron off, to make sure the soldering tip wasn’t impacting the diode legs with too much force. I kept the blending value at 0 for the fine motion, as speed wasn’t the goal. The move / safe motion between diode legs is a little exaggerated, so it was more visible in the video.
The cold iron practice has a 1 second dwell at each diode leg. For the segment where I actually solder, I increased the dwell to 2 seconds per leg to make sure a good melt & solder joint was possible.
Here’s the code for both 1 sec and 2 sec dwell soldering sequences:
Here’s the link to the video on Youtube: RoboFiesta Mecademic Meca 500 Diode Soldering Practice
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Best of RoboFiesta – Originally published April 2024
Especially a robot with the exceptional precision & control of the Mecademic 500.
This was just a short trial run, me basically playing around to see if:
The first kalimba I tried is a nice basic unit with lovely tone, it’s been a lot of fun as an introduction to the instrument.
You can check it out on Amazon here: 17 Key Kalimba
I found that, though not a problem for humans, the tines required a bit too much force for the robot end effector. The 1.5mm aluminum probe tip kept bending after a few keystrokes.
A little searching online found another type of kalimba, this one with a specialized key design that required a lighter touch. It also came in more than 1 variety, with different numbers of tines.
This kalimba is more polished / professional; I purchased one from Amazon with 2 day delivery: MOOZICA 36 Keys Chromatic Kalimba
There wasn’t a ready-made .stp file or any CAD available for the kalimba, so I improvised in AutoCad Fusion to make a basic stage layout:
The tines are smaller and more rounded than the first kalimba, which made precision end effector placement & motion critical to tone. Just moving the EOAT vertically in a short rapid motion didn’t work; there needed to be a diagonal component, effectively “sliding” the probe tip off of the tine in a particular manner.
The robot motion was a sequence of move-to positions with some speed changes and delays to produce the timing of the tune. The move-to-safe motion is larger than it really needs to be, but I was concerned about clearances as I moved the blending values higher for smoother / more rapid motion. This is the code I programmed for the short video sequence:
I am working on a better CAD model of a kalimba, with the tines placed accurately. The whole stage could then be imported into a simulator like RoboDK to teach songs or melodies quickly. I did this one by eye, experimenting with different positions & motions to produce the best tones.
You can watch the YouTube video here: Mecademic Meca 500 Kalimba Concert 1
Product Links:
Robot stage
Optical Plate Flat Aluminum Honeycomb Breadboard: https://amzn.to/4aKMuYR
3D Printer
We highly recommend the Flashforge line of 3D printers for printing your robotic EOAT and staging parts:
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FLASHFORGE Adventurer 5M 3D Printer with Fully Auto Leveling
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FLASHFORGE 3D Printer Adventurer Series with Auto Leveling with Quick Removable Nozzle https://amzn.to/3PSmeDO
Disclaimer: As a participant in the Amazon Affiliate program, we earn a small commission if you make a purchase through one of these links, at no additional cost to you.
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