Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!mcsun!julienas!polytechnique!poly.polytechnique.fr!stjohn
From: stjohn@poly.polytechnique.fr (Chris StJohn)
Subject: Re: cheap (toy) arms?
Message-ID: <C7MK1p.Cw0@polytechnique.fr>
Sender: news@polytechnique.fr (USENET News System)
Organization: X: Ecole POLYTECHNIQUE, Palaiseau, FRANCE
References: <1993May18.214354.11984@cs.rochester.edu> <1993May25.183913.21862@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Wed, 26 May 1993 08:10:37 GMT
Lines: 45

In article <1993May25.183913.21862@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>, jeremi@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca (William Jeremiah) writes:
|> Bulent Murtezaoglu (mucit@cs.rochester.edu) wrote:
|> 
|> : A friend of mine is looking for a [possibly 2] cheap arm[s] possibly with
|> : simple grippers for a Church activity.  The aim is hooking up the arm[s]
|> : to a PC and having the kids enter stuff to the PC (co-ordinates maybe, 
|> : nothing fancy) to make the arms move and do things.  If anyone knows where 
|> : to find such beasts, and has ideas about getting kids interested in robotics 
|> : through hands-on experience in general please contact
|> 
|> : Daniel Marcellus by e-mail at 76476.3603@compuserve.com.
|> 
|> : Thanks.
|> 
|> : -M
|> :  
|> 
|> Ok.  I have what Radio Shack sold as the Armatron way back when.  And Radio
|> Shack published an article on modifying it to work from a parallel port.
|> 
|> I'm not sure where you can get this Armatron anymore though.
|> 
|> Jerry
|> --
|> "Look ma! No .signature!"

Wait a minute! I _bought_ one of those Armatrons, and upon getting it home I
opened it up to find that it all worked off of 1 motor and a cunning set of
springs and gears that connect the single motor to the various drive shafts.
How do Radio Shack suggest you should modify it to work from a parallel port??
(apart from buying 4 or 5 servo motors?)


There was a book published in the UK sometime ago called "Build Your Own Robot"
(or something along those lines - this was nearly 10 years ago!) that showed
you how to construct a robot arm out of balsa wood and also gave the design for
the controller card which hooks up to a PC or a BBC micro. The arm just had
a gripper, an elbow and a shoulder I think. I was 13 at the time and it was a
class project to build one. (forgive my failing memory as time goes past ;-)

  ,--,             Chris StJohn, LIX, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128
 /    /_  __' _    Palaiseau, Cedex, FRANCE. (+33) 1.69.33.45.93
(____/ (_/ (_/_).
---------------    "Just because you're paranoid
                   Don't mean they're not after you" -- Nirvana
