@irim7538

Devlog 3 I have decided that i will be making my own PCB for this project. I alrady have my microcontroller picked out, i will be using the CAN bus protocol to communicate with the stepper controllers. Each controller will gets its own PCB that will be addressable, these smaller CAN boards will nee dthere own MCU, they will feed the main controller inputs like encoders, limit switches. another CAN bus will just drive the motors, the final CAN bus will be a smart end efector system. I am going to make modular end effectors for variouse tasks. each end effector will have its own smaller mcu that can basicly tell the main board that is is a camera module, or a vaccuum, or a 2 finger gripper.

Devlog 2 Ive been on vacation for a good but recently so i haevent been able to work a ton on the arm. I have gotten most of the base printed, im working on CAding the rest of the arm. I am in FRC it is a robotics competition and i have decided to take inspiration from MadTown FRC 1323. In the 2025 REEFSCAPE game Madtown used a 4 stage elevator with a diffirential yolk gearbox to score. This diffirential Gearbox was used as their end effector. It is a little bit difficult to explain from my understanding. I know enought about it to know how it works but i dont know everything about it well enough to teach it. Its like taking a car diffirential and spinning the axels if both spin the end effector rotates, if you hold one and the other spins is rotates and spins the end effector. I have used this knowledge to make a prototype yolk as my end effector on my arm. The print should be done tommorrow morning to ill let you know how it works.

Devlog 1
Intro: My name is Ira Morgan, I have grown up always interested in how things work and fixing thing. From a young age i remember helping my dad change the brakes on his car. I have always been very interested in technical projects and tasks. I love building things weather that is a book case or a Lego set. This summer i have decided to step it up a notch.

I have made it my summer mission to build a robotic arm from scratch. I will be using NEMA 23 stepper motors with advertised 3Nm of holding torque being controlled by TB6600 Stepper motor drivers and an Arduino hooked up to either my laptop, a RPI5 or my PI400. Most if not all parts will be 3d printed on the Bambu lab X2D, for testing i will be printing in PLA the actual model and parts that need to be more durable will be printed out of PETG-CF.

As of right now I have the base rotating mechanism CADed, i have a general idea of smaller hardware i will need for it, it will use a bearing stack some thrust bearings and 2 of these stepper motors. i have concerns of my own but i am actively consulting engineers to help me with this project. (a big thanks goes out to them)

I have recently started to code partially. I am completely new to coding so most of my knowledge is me asking on google and me finding a forum of what the code should include and then i implement that into my code however i need. I want to try my best to stay away from vibe coding, I’ve had ideas for cool apps and stuff using chat gpt but this time i want to learn it my self and learn the proper syntax and what to use when and how different aspects work together.

I have some of the basics i need coded on the Arduino side of the code, basic Pin mapping: Enable, Steps, Direction, i have also set all of these pin modes to output. I have a simple If, then statement to when i hit an enable button all of the steppers can be controlled but if the button hasn’t been turned to the enable mode than any inputs will not move the arm. This is mainly a safety feature, i want this arm to be strong so i do not need to end up hurting people.