Ball Balance Machine II

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Exhibition
1

This project is incredible :o :o :o

Have a look here: Ball Balance Machine II - YouTube
I really hope that the autor will accept to give more information here

2

:o :o :o :o :o man thats sweeeeeet i sure hope he shares the code :sunglasses: that looks like a cool project and i have plenty of old servos laying around :wink:

3

That is extremely impressive.

I love seeing things like this done with Arduino!

4

ABC-King, TchnclFl, and everybody

I suggest you leave a message on youtube
We need this guy here ::slight_smile: ::slight_smile:

5

I suggest you leave a message on youtube

I left one saying how impressive it was. I saw another (yours?) saying he should come to the forums.

6

Hello - thanks for mentioning this here. I've been meaning to get it documented but haven't gotten around to it - so thanks for the inspiration.
I've put up a page with more details including the code, but need to include the link in my next post.

7

It's at David Thomasson
If you want more details, I'm happy to give them.

8

Fantastic. :smiley: Your page is full of geeky goodness.
The plot of the actual vs expected is great.

Thanks for following up with all of this!

9

Hi 0zimbra0

Welcome to the forum, thanks for being here :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

I noticed that you connections with the servos are made of plastic material, why is it so?
I would possibly expect rigidity issues with this design

Thanks for this very creative project
Yves

10

Thanks for the welcome.
Yeah, the plastic is not the best but I don't have any serious tools for cutting a nice slot in aluminium.
As a result, there is a bit of sloppiness in the servo connections which must be contributing to inaccuracies in the control calculations.
If I make another version, I think I'll send out for some parts to be made properly.

11

I would think that using linkages as are used in radio control planes would be less problematic.
They are designed to be slop free and friction free.

Clevises or ball links, and some all thread rod in between.

Go to towerhobbies.com
search for 2-56 threaded studs (20 or so for under $3)
Then search for a clevis or ball link. Check in the tech notes that the link threads on to a 2-56 rod.

12

Good stuff - much appreciated.
One advantage of the screw-in-the-slot approach is that it restricts lateral movement, but it could definitely be done better with proper linkages like you suggest.
Thanks for the info.

13

Awesome, thanks for sharing the implementation of your design!

14

This is totally cool. I wish I had the mechanical skills to build such a stage. I saw someone (sparkfun.com?) showing a similar stage with a maze on top and possibly use a wii remote to guide the ball through the maze. Will you build a maze and use your balancing routine to solve it with some guidelines?

15

Wow, that's a really inventive way of using the Arduino! Like it :smiley: