Hey, I was wondering if anyone here can help me. I bought a robotic arm at a thrift shop but I cant seem to figure out how to use it. I found the manufacturer online but no one answered the phone when I called. I know i’m missing software (I use Mac) , and probably some sort of whatever to usb converter. If any one could help, let me know. Heres a link to the manufacturers site: http://www.goldenrodresearch.com/roboarm.htm and Here are some images:
http://postimg.org/image/53vgo495t/
http://postimg.org/image/xusae6ezl/
http://postimg.org/image/6qko9cl7l/
http://postimg.org/image/5o5ftow2p/
http://postimg.org/image/sbkozubmp/
I really want to try and use this with my arduino…anything that i could buy from sparkfun to get it working??
Is there a separate power cord for the arm ? If so then I might guess from the available “packages” that you have the #6812 RoboArm (Windows Package for Serial Port). If that’s the case then the DE-9 connector you see is intended to plug into an old style PC serial port the communicates @ RS-232 voltage levels. To use w/a new PC you could get a old style serial card to plug in or a [USB to RS232 converter. To use with an Arduino you need to convert TTL level serial signals to RS232 levels. You could just get some BoB with the ever popular MAX232 IC on it or a shield.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11958
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11189
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/133 (these “level shifters” sometimes don’t work w/all devices)
Then you need the software to talk to it. Alas that seems to be something Goldenrod isn’t giving away. You can opt to buy the PC software and then decode it to understand how to command the arm from an Arduino. To do this you’d need to “sniff” the RS-232 lines from the PC to the Arm when commands are being sent. This could be done with your Arduino and one of the above RS-232 to serial converters. Might be a fun project, my guess is it’s certainly do-able with a little experience.
Otherwise you’ll need to search the Interwebzt for someone who has already figured out the message protocol and published it for you to use. The only info I could find in a quick search was the following .PS (Postscript) file which has some top level description of the Roboarm’s usage and messaging in their project. Not enough details to begin to program your Arduino but a good overview of what needs to happen. I converted it to a .PDF file but alas those aren’t allowed to be attached here. So here are the 6 pages in JPG format. Hopefully they’ll still be readable afer I upload them.
(click on to open)
](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11304)
And the other 3 pages.
(click on to open)
The gist of the message protocol seems to be:
The robot provides an RS-232 connection for
command messages. Each command message to
the robot consists of one or more bytes, the first
of which is the command byte. For commands
which indicate movement (except open and close),
a subsequent argument byte is sent representing the
number of degrees to move.
The arm has five degrees of freedom: the base (Motor 1),
the shoulder(Motor 2), the elbow (Motor 3), the wrist (Motor 4)
and the hand (Motor 5) [1]. The base axis is oriented vertically,
allowing 254 of left/right motion for the arm. The shoulder axis
is oriented horizontally allowing the \upper arm" 95 of movement
about the vertical. Approximately 30 of movement toward the
rear of the unit and approximately 65 toward the front are allowed.
The elbow axis is also oriented horizontally to allow the “forearm” to
move up or down from the horizontal. Total movement allowed for
the elbow is 85. The wrist axis runs parallel to the forearm, allowing
the hand to twist. This axis was not used in this project. The
hand motor allows opening and closing of a gripper attachment.
All motors in the RoboArm are free-running DC motors.
So deciphering the sniffed messages should be straight forward.
Wow, that response was amazing, thanks! In between the time that I wrote my original post and now, I have actually been in contact with the manufacturer. The guy was actually really cool, and told me that i don’t actually need the companies software to run it. He told me a serial command to send it that will reset it, and get it to start listening. He told me that the company sells a book for 40 bucks describing how to program it, but he also told me that i could just try sending it different numbers in serial to see what it does. Im going to buy that Arduino serial shield now - GREAT FIND. Thanks again!