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Day 9: Mounting the Nextion display

A project log for Building and improving the Thor+ robot arm

Building a 6-axis robot arm based on the AngelLM's Thor robot and the add-on's and improvements of dannyvandenheuvel.

sepioSepio 08/27/2017 at 15:0310 Comments

Today it was time to mount the Nextion Display in its frame. With a file I created a hole in the orange part so there is room to remove/insert Micro SD cart. I used a piece of all tape to smoothen the surface. This way it was easier to remove the cart.


I didn't like an unprotected bottom. Its to fragile. I created a bottom cover for the Nextion Display. It has an air intake on the bottom left side. An hole for the SD cart on the bottom side. And on the right side there is room for the warm air to escape. There is also a cable guide. 


Below the bottom part mounted. (The wires will be replace by shielded ones).


The air intake and the hole for the SD cart.

The covers can be downloaded here. I used Fusion 360. I included all possible export formats.

I Also created a top cover to protect the screen during the build. (But I'am going to reprint it because I left the black part in the sun and now it is curling up.

Discussions

dannyvandenheuvel wrote 08/30/2017 at 19:25 point

This is exactly what you need

look at my page https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/4311271502018604064.JPG

It works fine and you can order it at https://www.distrelec.be/

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dannyvandenheuvel wrote 08/30/2017 at 19:22 point

He Sepio, you say you gonna use a encoder for the 4th joint, I used a magnetic rotery encoder Vert-X 1601;

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dannyvandenheuvel wrote 08/28/2017 at 19:36 point

Step files Thor+ V2.03 online, grab it from my page :-)

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Olaf Baeyens wrote 08/28/2017 at 20:02 point

I have PETG and I am going to try this base in the weekend if I can find enough time :-)

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Sepio wrote 08/29/2017 at 05:19 point

Thank you for the step files.

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Olaf Baeyens wrote 08/27/2017 at 19:47 point

I am wondering if the flat angle of the Nextion display is a good angle. To have a good view you need to look from above and that is putting your head into the path of the robot ;-)  An angled one may be better.

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Olaf Baeyens wrote 08/27/2017 at 19:44 point

Always traveling the shortest path may not be possible in real life situations. This is why I have chosen not to use a slip ring at this moment. It forces me to think about the code from day one.

MPU9250 was initially what I was thing of instead to measure the position of the hand. The  3d printed plastic may not be that accurate when it moves. And it would reduce the number of wires and electronics. I do not know how the motors will affect the gyroscope.  Or if it could works.

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dannyvandenheuvel wrote 08/27/2017 at 15:14 point

Fantastic work! good idea to make a cover for the nextion display, Have to put it on my todo list :-)
Try to put everything online failed because lack of time, will try my best for next week.
Your building this robot arm very professional!

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Sepio wrote 08/27/2017 at 16:27 point

I have added the downloadable files and de stl's. I noticed that the square hole for the Nextion display isn't rectangular. The right side is a little bit higher then the left side. (The sides aren't perpendicular). So I had to sand the inner part of my protector a little bit to make the cover fit in the opening.

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Sepio wrote 08/27/2017 at 16:51 point

Thank you for your comment. I am going to add another slipping inside ART4TRANSMISSIONCOLUMN_01.stl. I have to make the hole a little bit bigger to fit another 24 wires slipring. I am going to replace the 10 turn potentiometers with a rotary encoder (http://www.ebay.com/itm/360-600P-R-Photoelectric-Incremental-Rotary-Encoder-5-24V-AB-Two-Phases-Shaft/142133029511) and a MPU9250 Acceleration, Magnometer, Gyro sensor.

I want the rotating axis to rotate rotate more then 360 degrees. This way it is always possible to travel the shortest path. If the arm is at 350 degrees and the next point is on 10 degrees it can travel 20 degrees. With the 10 turn potentiometer (which uses 8 turns for one turn of the Axis) you need to travel al the 340 degrees back.

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