Lynxmotion Tech Support

Yeah this is good news. The plates I'm making will certainly work with the Mini-T extrusions. I've already ordered hundreds of the MicroRax extrusions. Am putting in my next order of plates for the servos, motors, etc. This should be ready to go in a few more weeks.

Project update. I finally found a good source for roller wheels. I was in Menards last weekend and happened to look in the hardware area and... viola! There it was. The answer to my nylon roller problem staring me right in the face. And for a whooping $1.50 each... They use bushing instead of bearings, but the price is right and they work pretty darn well to boot. In case you can't read the number on the bag it's 84252 and any Handi-Pack distributor should carry it. LOL

Hi Jim,

I'm really interested in these small-scale metric aluminum profiles. Two questions: will the extra parts that you're making be metric as well? Also, have you considered integrating parts from companies like http://compact-technik.de? They've got some really neat http://www.compact-technik.de/pages/en/component-program.php components that could be useful, but are difficult to get because in North America.

Thanks,

James

The parts are metric. The holes are 10mm apart and the extrusions are 10mm wide. I went there and looked. It looks interesting, but I could not find any dimensions. I don't know if the two are compatible or not.

While I haven't been able to get CAD drawings (the owner doesn't have them for release) there are dimensions on the price list. The list isn't as convenient as proper CAD drawings, but it's alright. Here is the price list (mixture of German and English) for the components:
http://www.compact-technik.de/media/pricelist.pdf

(I'm looking into getting some sample parts to take the measurements myself. )

Let me know what you measure. I can't get anything from the link. Sorry.

I've finally found some time to play around more with the MicroRAX extrusions and have been very pleased this far. I've used the extrusions to create a simple frame for a mecanum wheel robot I'm working on and I also picked up a few of the rollers Jim found and threw together a simple assembly to test them. The rollers work great and I'm very excited to use them for another project I've been planning involving a Lynxmotion arm.





I've created a new page on my site to document the various projects I've used MicroRAX with thus far and plan to add many more pictures as I continue to use these extrusions in my robots. I'm very anxious to play with some new brackets and hardware too. Any update on the estimated availability of MicroRAX parts through Lynxmotion?

http://sites.google.com/site/teamtobor/microrax

Nice work! Who makes the wheels?

I got the mecanum wheels from Fingertech Robotics. They offer "hobby" and "competition" versions of the wheels with the main difference being the stronger aluminum mounts and pins used in the "competition" version. It takes quite a bit of work to get the wheels to work correctly because they need to contact the ground equally and spin at the same speed which is not easy to do with cheap ESCs and gearmotors. I'm making progress and hope to implement a Bot Board and wireless PS2 controller in the final version. I actually started with this controller setup but was having problems with my custom mecanum drive code so I'm using a Spektrum transmitter/receiver temporarily.

http://www.fingertechrobotics.com/products.php?cat=Wheels+%26+Hubs

I recently ordered some servo gears and rack from ServoCity to create a linear motion system using MicroRAX. The rack is a perfect fit for the 10mm extrusions and can bolt on directly using the same MicroRAX hardware. I built a small assembly for the Lynxmotion rotational base and added the rollers discussed earlier in this thread. To accomplish linear motion I mounted a micro-size servo with a small gear which I hacked for continuous rotation. Right now the servo is temporarily attached to the outside of the base with double-sided tape but I plan to mount the servo inside the base for the final design.

Below you'll find a link to some pictures as well as a short video I created showing a test of the system. As you can see the rack and pinion system provides very accurate movement and can even operate at a significant incline. I'm very excited to reattach the arm to the base and get the entire system running. Progress has been rather slow as I wait for more hardware from MicroRAX but I'm excited to continue on this project as soon as possible.

http://sites.google.com/site/teamtobor/microrax#TOC-Rack-Pinion-Linear-Motion

This is very exciting. You've basically got a platform for a servo-driven CNC.