I think I phrased my question wrong. When you press “zero” on the PoMoCo what should the robot do? On mine, most of the legs seem to want to be straight out from the body, but a few don’t do the same things. I’m trying to figure out how to calibrate so it will stand up correctly after “zero.”
“Zero” doesn’t make Hexy stand up. “Zero” is meant to put all Hexy’s joints to their zero position (e.g. in the middle of the movement range). “Get up” or “Reset” will make Hexy stand up. You use the “Zero” movement to apply the required offsets to Hexy’s legs to accurately calibrate the servos (using the + and - buttons in PoMoCo).
I’d suggest you put that in the directions PDF. The auto-centering is wicked cool, but finding out how to deal with the slightly crooked joints on nearly half the servos after assembling it is disheartening.
I don’t have one working and I feel that this was not ready for retail sale - “suggestions” on where to put batteries, unresolved issues with some Bluetooth modules that were shipped and really sub-par documentation make me feel like I have funded someone’s research project, which is not at all how it was presented: I purchased a retail product on Makershed.
I recognize the challenges in producing a kit like this for the price, but if it’s not doable, then you don’t purport to. I have not seen anyone here who actually has a working Hexy, 100%.
I agree about the documentation, its not up to the level that it should be, and we’re currently working on that (I’m finally re-making the build guide right now, for example). It’ll take a while, but over the course of the next month you should notice a significant improvements on the website.
I’m also trying to get a wiki up and started, but I’ve been having huge issues with spammers flooding it every time I open registration, so I’m trying to figure out how to make it open yet workable.
However, as to no one here having a working Hexy, I very much disagree. There are plenty of people on this forum who not only have it up and running, but are doing some pretty amazing things with it. You can also search “hexy the hexapod” in youtube and come up with a few dozen videos of it working.
I’m glad to hear that people have it working, but anyone who does has gone above and beyond what is offered in the docs and other supplied source of info - as I said, there are unresolved issues with some Bluetooth modules that were shipped, non-instructions WRT powering the Hexy: which should be a pretty simple set of statements, a cookbook not a series of suggestions on what might or might not work and the poor state of the documentation in general.
A simple thing such as getting the Bluetooth module to work is a serious challenge and not just for me judging by the contents of the forum.
I really do see that you’re trying, but this is not a kit ready for retail sale. You’ve basically got people paying $$$ and spending time to help discover and tune towards getting an alpha/research quality product working.
We spell out exactly which batteries we recommend. We say which batteries not to use. That sounds pretty cookbook to me.
github.com/ArcBotics/Hexy/wiki/Powering-Hexy
Perhaps I’m missing something, but short of actually including a set of batteries and a charger (which would be redundant for many people, and increase the costs for everyone), I’m not sure what more you’re looking for. If you let me know, I’ll be sure to include it in the documentation.
As I explained in your post for your bluetooth, you got one of the very few 6 pin devices we ever got, and I apologize the for the inconvenience of that, and we are including that in the documentation as per your suggestion in case someone else fall into that problem. However, out of 1500 units shipped, that probably accounts for about 10 of them.
Bluetooth is rarely a simple thing, and rightfully the most often then people have trouble with. We thus have a step-by-step tutorial covering it, for both OSX and windows:
github.com/ArcBotics/Hexy/wiki/Bluetooth
We think we have identified most of the issues people have, and are including that in our new batch of documents. If you have any suggestions as to more we could include, I am more than happy to do so.
While I do agree that better and clearer documentation is needed (and should be ready to go in a week, as I’ve been working on it for a while now), Hexy is a research platform. Its purpose is to get people spending time discovering what it can be. It is not a toy ready to play with, the reason we made it a kit. While we may release a version of Hexy which is sold as ready-to-go in the future (in a year or two), we do bill Hexy v1 as an introduction to advanced robotics. We have actively discouraged people who want to use it as such for their first robot, or in a classroom setting. Hexy is currently to hexapods what linux is to operating systems. Its going to take some work. However, it also comes at linux prices. If you want an apple, you can pay apple prices and get a Bioloid kit. Just be prepared to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ instead of $$$. This choice comes up often. UPrint vs Makerbot is another good example. Just like makerbot, however, we hope to improve over time to be fairly comparable (although we plan on keeping open source 
.
That said, people like Michael and Rob have been able to do amazing things with Hexy, so much so we now link to their work right on the Hexy product page. I’m really happy with what this community has been able to do, and hope that I can include more of it into the mainline documentation and code. Such also is the spirit of open source.
The role of ready-to-go product lies with the release version of Sparki, which we are indeed putting a ton of effort into documenting before it goes out the door.
If you have any specific changes you’d recommend, please let us know and we’ll be happy to implement them.
After a couple of weeks, my Hexy is NOT quite up and running, yet. I had some issues loading the new Servotor firmware. I am still unable to get PoMoCo 2.1 running, but version 1.0 works.
I am glad to hear that the documentation is being improved. This is the sole source of my frustration.
I bought Hexy because I wanted a fun project to learn Arduino programming. However, the packaging is misleading: “…full tutorials and documentation”. (see above comment.)
Hexy is ready for retail distrobution IF it were to be marketed as either only a hexipod developement platform, or if there were complete, canned, downloadable code available.
What specifically isn’t working about it? I haven’t heard about that problem. If you explain what’s wrong I can help.
Please be aware that when someone on Kickstarter asked:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcbotics/hexy-the-hexapod-low-cost-six-legged-open-robot/comments?cursor=934748#comment-934747
And you answered:
That there were gullible optimistic people who believed you, and purchased a Hexy for that very reason. In case you’re wondering why there are bewildered newbies asking newby-type questions.
Yes, I admit we thought it would be easier then it ended up being. We’ve also since discouraged people from doing so since then, and its the reason we created Sparki, to create an easier robot option for beginners. However, we also work with everyone to make sure we can get theirs up and running.
I’m not bewildered at all by people asking questions. I recognize that Hexy is fairly complex, as I stated. We have the full build guide posted online, so people can see just how involved a process it is. We put 3-4 hours estimated build time right on the box, ages 15+. That said, we also have a 10 year old on the forum who got his running. We also work our hardest to answer every question that comes our way, and believe we have been fairly successful at doing so, or at least we haven’t had anyone ask for a refund who’s received a kit out of the several thousand we’ve sold.
Hey Joseph, I’m finally about to build my Hexy…had it for awhile (KS backer), but been out of town. I saw you were about to post new instructions, and it looks like the current PDF was generated in January. When do you think the new-and-improved instructions will be posted? Thanks for your help…looking forward to bringing Hexy to life!
Finally found time to put her together. Fun stuff![quote=“roboalchemist”]We spell out exactly which batteries we recommend. We say which batteries not to use. That sounds pretty cookbook to me.
github.com/ArcBotics/Hexy/wiki/Powering-Hexy
Perhaps I’m missing something, but short of actually including a set of batteries and a charger (which would be redundant for many people, and increase the costs for everyone), I’m not sure what more you’re looking for. If you let me know, I’ll be sure to include it in the documentation.
[/quote]
Here’s what you don’t have WRT power:
- A place on the chassis for either the 4 cell or 9V to be placed.
There’s room on the “shelf/tray” for either the 4 cell or 5 cell AA pack but, as the 5 cell is a requirement, there’s no space left for the logic power supply, whichever one you end up using.
There was no description in the doc, as of when I was still trying to get this to work, of the shelf/tray that the batteries go into. Not a big deal, but nonetheless a shortcoming of the documentation.
“Bluetooth is hard” - yes it is, but not impossible and your responses should not fall back to this line of defense. If it’s not something that you can get working repeatably and support, then you shouldn’t offer it as a feature of your product.
In short and IMO: you’ve got some good ideas and I don’t doubt your intentions and enthusiasm but you really oversold your product.
As a user of a commercially-available mass market robotics kit produced by a major corporation, I’d just like to say that from this point of view, bluetooth is hard. Flaky even. So give the guy a break. roboalchemist: keep up this awesome work!
I have a fully functional hexy with Bluetooth and ping all working. My biggest problems were the servos. I got metal gear servos from hobby king (the leg -middle- servos are the ones that usually go) and have had no problems since. I use NimH double A’s, 5 cells and a 9 volt battery for the electronics. I even wrote the code so that I can switch hexy to autonomous mode and it uses the ping to navigate. I hope this helps
Docbill