[Coco] CoCo robotics?

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 10 February 2006 18:00, George's Coco Address wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Gene Heskett"
>
>> Talk to George Ramsower, he's been playing with teeny milling
>> machine type projects I believe.
>>
>> --
>>
>> On Friday 10 February 2006 16:04, Jim Cox wrote:
>>>To follow up Art's test to the list, I'll ask a rhetorical
>>>question just get a resonse;
>>>
>>>Is anyone out there currently doing anything closely
>>>related to robotics with the CoCo?
>>>
>>>I have a small robot arm that I was thinking of hooking up
>>>one day and playing around with, but as with many of my
>>>ideas/plans/goals, it will be some time before it happens.
>>>
>>>-Jim
>
> I was thinking about responding to this.
>
> Thank you Gene, for sparking me.
>
>Jim.
>
> I need to know how this robot arm is wired.
>
> I'm pretty sure that it uses permanent magnet DC motors. This isn't a
>problem, but would be very different than if it used stepper motors.
>
> With stepping motors, you can calculate where it is simply by knowing
> what you tell it to do... providing it actually does as told.
> With DC motors, it is required that some form of feedback is
> provided.
>
> If you DON'T want REALLY precise movements on a DC motor with
> feedback, a joystick port would suffice. (0-64)
> If you NEED precision, then you will need a good A/D converter. My
> favorite is an old chip design that can handle eight channels with 12
> bit resolution. I will have to go look to see what the part number
> is.
>
> In both cases, you will be required to build a circuit board to
> interface the coco to the machine.
>
> I have such a system that allows the coco to use eight address spaces
> to provide four, eight bit output latches and four, eight bit input
> buffers. With this board, I can connect other things that I design,
> such as something that you might need in robotics.
> My TINY CNC machine requires some power switching to make it work.
>Therefore, it has another box that plugs into the board I just
> mentioned.
>
> The BOX has a power supply to provide the power needed to run
> stepping motors, big transistors and some other stuff. It also
> provides a path for feedback from my TINY CNC machine.
>
> I'll post some info about this on one of my websites. (requires
> photos)
>
> Hmm..
>
> Maybe I'll put some info on other COCO projects there also.
>
> How about a CC3 with a built-in switching power supply, 3.5 inch
> floppy and controller and you can still plug stuff into the expansion
> slot?
>
> Did it and I still have it.
>
> Film at eleven..
>
I'll be watching. :)  My psu is outboard, a cannibalized old AT supply, 
feeds everything but the monitor.  cc3, with a 63C09 & 2 megs runs dead 
cold even with furniture blankets toss over it but not the psu of 
course.  It & the mpi are hooked up with those old 4 pin trailer 
connectors.

> George

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.