• Music-Loving BeagleBone Blue

    7 days ago • 0 comments

    From @Inderpreet Singh on the Hackaday blog:

    Music-Loving BeagleBone

    Robotic control can get very complicated when multiple actuators need to work in coordination with each other. A simple robotic arm will require each joint to be controlled in sequence to attain a particular position. The BeagleBone Blue comes armed with motor drivers, sensor inputs, and wireless and is built for robotics.

    [Andy] has prepared a musical robot called the BeagleBone Blue Electro-Mechanical Glockenspiel using the single board computer. The hardware consists of eight servo motors each with a mallet stick attached to them. The motors themselves are mounted on 3D-printed brackets allowing them to be mounted at the correct height. The servos connect to the main board for position control, however, an external supply had to be used to supply the necessary current to all the motors.

    SystemDiagram (1)

    The software side has programs to translate notes into servo positions as well as connect to a web brower via MQTT and websockets. The basic user interface is simple and has buttons to connect to and send the keystrokes.

    The source code and OpenSCAD designs are available on GitHub:

    Workshopshed/musicController

    A music controller to control servos from a web page

    Check out @Andy from Workshopshed's blog for more information on the project:

    BeagleBone Blue Music Player

    I wanted to do a mini project with the BeagleBone Blue that would utilise all of its servo capabilities. So I came up with the idea of a mechanical glockenspiel.

  • BeagleMAV 3D-printed Hexacopter

    04/04/2017 at 22:00 • 0 comments

    From the DroneLab at the University of California in San Diego:

    BeagleMAV

    BeagleMAV is a 3D-printed hexacopter that derives its extremely low weight of 500 grams (1.1 pounds) from its unique monocoque structure that was designed iteratively with modal finite element analysis. The monocoque frame design emphasizes simplicity of assembly and safety of indoor flight.

    ucsd_dronelab_platforms_beaglemav_2

    With the BeagleBone Black and Robotics cape at its heart structurally and electrically, the drone’s flight controller is based on the same software environment used for most DroneLab robotics projects (to maintain interoperability). Since the control system is based on a Linux operating system, it becomes possible to connect the BeagleMAV with a wide range of sensors and network interfaces — with minimal modification.

    platform-beaglemav3

    Additional information has been shared on GitHub:

    StrawsonDesign/BeagleMAV

  • True Color 3D Printing with BeagleBone and MachineKit

    03/29/2017 at 19:07 • 0 comments

    We were very excited to see that the full color Arcus 3D printer by @Daren Schwenke at Midwest RepRap Fest is powered by MachineKit on a BeagleBone Black. Brian Benchoff of Hackaday wrote article about Arcus3D:

    http://hackaday.com/2017/03/26/mrrf-17-true-color-3d-printing/

    MRRF 17: True Color 3D Printing

    3D printing has evolved to a point where dual extrusion isn’t really that special anymore. A few yearsago, a two-color frog print would have been impressive, but this isn’t the case anymore. The Midwest RepRap Festival is all about the bleeding edge of what 3D printers are capable of, and this year…

    http://hackaday.com/2017/03/26/mrrf-17-true-color-3d-printing/

    Here is a video of the Arcus3D M2 printing full color rainbow vase:

    Here's a photo of the BeagleBone Black and CRAMPS cape inside the Arcus3D: