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There are various ways to generate 9-12 V DC from 27 V AC, but it’s most likely easiest to use a separate plug-in power supply to power the Art Controller. If you’re getting it from our shop, we do carry this power supply that would work: http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/partsmenu/174
We tend to point people to Thingiverse (with an EggBot tag), and to our community flickr group ( https://www.flickr.com/groups/evilmadscience/pool/ ) but these tend to be underused. I’m afraid that I don’t have a better recommendation at present. Do you have a suggestion? :)
If you’re asking about the source code, search for the word “sensitivity” to see where that value is used.
If you’re asking about how to design your installation to give it greater range, try experimenting with things like a halogen lamp, or an infrared illuminator (the kind sold to go with security cameras) and so forth.There is not actually code that works that way. There are four sensitivity settings– and you are welcome to play with those exact thresholds in the code –but the sensors are not true distance sensors. Rather, they are designed to detect nearby motion.
In a little more detail: Octolively modules can be used with both active and passive infrared sensing. For the active sensing, where light from the emitters is bounced off of (for instance) your hand and reflected back to the sensors, the range is typically up to 15 cm. If you have strong directional lighting, such as sunlight or an incandescent spotlight, shadows cast on (or moved away from) the sensors will trigger the response. This means that at night, they will have a fairly short range of interactivity, unless you provide an infrared source such as a security spotlight. It also means that an installation can be designed that has range of several meters if you wish.I usually route the servo cable through the mounting screw hole on the servo motor; the one opposite the mounting hole that holds it in place. I don’t think that I can recall ever having a print actually ruined by a servo cable smear– even when using slow-drying finicky ink.
Which model of EggBot?
Can you please say a little more about what it is that you are doing?
Is this with a WaterColorBot? Are you using the Inkscape extensions? RoboPaint? And, can you tell me more about the bike? I’m not sure what this file is.I’m not sure; it’s possible that the pot has been damaged, or that your power supply has failed. We should take a look at it. Please contact customer service directly.
It sounds like you have multiple, unrelated issues.
The servo motor is likely broken and should be replaced. Unplug it from your EBB, and please contact our customer service directly about that: http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/contactIt sounds as though your motor current is set _way_ too high. The motors should not get warm, but not hot, and they should be able to be turned by hand, with some resistance. The motor current setting should not affect the servo, except that if you turn up the current enough, it could plausibly draw enough current to overload the power supply.Lead free solder is just fine, provided that your iron gets hot enough to melt it. Newer soldering irons do operate at a higher temperature; if you are using an older iron with lead free, it can sometimes be a little challenging.
(And, if your solder is narrow gauge, flexible, and is sold as solder at radio shack, it probably has a reasonable flux core, whether or not it’s rosin based.)Do you have a multimeter that you can use to check for a connection between two points? If so, I would check to see if there is a connection from the pin of the IC (it’s pin 23) to resistor R2, and to check to see if there’s a connection from R2 to the relevant pins of the LEDs.
If not, try visually tracing from R2 to the IC (the trace is visible on the bottom side), and to D25 on the top side. You can also try adding a wire directly (temporarily soldering a wire, for example) from the right side of R2 to the pin of D25 there.If you would like to send the board to us, for us to look at it, please contact us through our store contact form ( http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/contact ). [For what it’s worth, people take us up on this offer on a regular basis. In almost all cases, we find that soldering one or two missing solder joints solves the problem.]It sounds like there is no connection between the line LED2 and the rest of the circuit. Check the soldering at resistor R2, and also at the IC, on the side that faces R2.
First off, the IC is fine– if it breaks, it will break completely.
Second: the green and blue LEDs won’t light reliably until you give them ~3.4 V forward voltage. You shouldn’t expect outputs from an Arduino running at 3.3 V to be able to drive them directly.Problems of the sort you are describing are due to an accidental connection, a broken connection, or a damaged LED– they can sometimes be damaged by heat and/or strain on the legs during installation.D52 and D62 are also in the group that you are describing– check those five LEDs to see if any of them appear weak or shorted to lines that they shouldn’t be connected to. Test also that each is actually connected to the two lines that it is supposed to be connected to– test LED6 to LED2, for example, to see that D62 lights.Nice!
1, 2) The 5 V power supply (voltage regulator) on the EBB is there to provide a consistent 5V supply for the servo motor only. It is a 78M05 regulator, with 0.5 A output current capacity. The servo motor takes almost no current while idling under no load, typically about 125 mA (momentarily) while switching positions under light load, and can pull 250 mA or more, if under heavy load (for example, if the arm is blocked from turning).
If you are using this as a regular EggBot, then that leaves a maximum of about 350 mA at 5 V available for your use elsewhere. From what I’ve read, power consumption of a RPi Zero (Or really, an RPi except for the B/B+/2B) is likely to be under that number, so long as you aren’t driving any other peripherals from it that draw power. (See http://raspi.tv/2015/raspberry-pi-zero-power-measurements , for example). That suggests that this would actually work just fine. However, to truly understand the power consumption for *your* RPi, use a multimeter (or other current measuring device), to measure it under realistic conditions.However, you mentioned the ” 700-800 mA I expect the pi to use while still driving both servos.” I do not understand (1) where the 700-800 mA figure came from (2) why the RPi would be driving servo motors (rather than letting the EBB do it) or (3) why you have two servos, rather than the one standard that goes on an EggBot.If the total current that you will draw gets this high, you may run into a separate issue as well. The standard 9 V 1.5 A supply that we ship with the EggBot is enough to drive the EBB, its two steppers, and the servo motor. Typically, these together take less than 900 mA. However, if you are adding enough extra current draw, you might exceed the total current available from the power supply. You could compensate with a larger power supply, and/or consider using a switching power supply (instead of a regulator) to create the extra 5 V that you need.3) As you have noticed, the current version of the EBB (v 2.3) does not actually have an alternate power jack location on the back. So far as we know, no one ever used that power jack– you are the first person that I can recall ever even asking about it — and we eventually discontinued that option.The power (center) pin for all four servo connections is tied together. If your servo motors draw more current than is available on the 5 V rail, then you will need to provide power to the servo motors separately. A common way to do this is to use a servo extension cable, where you cut the center wire, and use that to connect the alternate 5 V power source.4) If you have the current (2.3) version of the EBB, I would recommend soldering your wires to the pins of the power jack, where they protrude through the bottom side of the board.“5”) The EBB does not store a full print job; it’s a line-by-line type of communication. There are some exceptions– it is possible (but not straightforward) to store a full print job in the *firmware* so that no external computer is needed. You might also consider using RoboPaint to drive the Eggbot. RoboPaint should be able to run on the RPi, has (beta) support for the EggBot, and a full API that you can use to automate the machine, at a low or high level.
