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Posted by Robert Davidson on July 30, 2006, 10:51 pm
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I see your idea for this. The only problem would be getting the actuator to
send some feed back like in a servo. Then the controler could judge the
distance the actuator has extended. Another great idea would be to get some
feed back on current draw as well then the controler could judge the weight
or load on the actuator. At the very least you could put in some bump/stop
switches to tell if the actuator has fully extended or fully retracted.
Anybody else putting more thought into this...
> How about using linear actuators to drive a robot arm instead of
> stepper motors or servos? The big 340+ oz/inch servos cost a fortune
> and are incapable of lifting a measly five pounds with an 18 inch arm
> length.
>
> 12V actuators are down to $59 on feeBay and that's less than the price
> of the large servos.
>
> Of course an actuator would weigh a lot more than a servo but so what -
> they lift 300 pounds. Heck, you could jack up your car with it.
>
> Caveats I see is actuators are a lot slower and eat current. Full
> extension on an actuator is maybe 45 secs and they can draw 5 amps but
> I suspect that lighter loads would not consume so much.
>
> Any thoughts on this infallible idea?
>
> Pokey.
>
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> stepper motors or servos? The big 340+ oz/inch servos cost a fortune
> and are incapable of lifting a measly five pounds with an 18 inch arm
> length.
>
> 12V actuators are down to $59 on feeBay and that's less than the price
> of the large servos.
>
> Of course an actuator would weigh a lot more than a servo but so what -
> they lift 300 pounds. Heck, you could jack up your car with it.
>
> Caveats I see is actuators are a lot slower and eat current. Full
> extension on an actuator is maybe 45 secs and they can draw 5 amps but
> I suspect that lighter loads would not consume so much.
>
> Any thoughts on this infallible idea?
>
> Pokey.
>