Just completed Hexy, and he’s working well. I would say it took me twice as long as it should have based on some problems I encountered.
I’m just logging the issues I had with the build, in hopes things improve for others.
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I really, really, really would have liked complete instructions from end to end. I’ve been a software engineer for decades, and I build a lot of MSP430 projects, but this was my first Arduino. There seemed to be a lot of assumptions of stuff I would know. It would have been much more straightforward also if the installation were simply split apart into Windows, Linux and Mac. I know its a tad more difficult to maintain, but understand that every user has to make those decisions every time… I bet it pays dividends on support email.
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About 8 of the servo horns cracked during assembly on account of the wider screws. This didn’t hasn’t become a problem, but it was frustrating.
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Two of the servos were seized out of the box - another failed in the first minute of testing. Fortunately it was in a hip, and not as critical. ArcBotics is sending two replacements (too late I found the third failure).
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One leg did not fit together, and eventually destroyed itself in two place in an attempt to force fit it. Fortunately, my kit had an extra leg packed.
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My kit was missing the screws entirely. ArcBotics promptly sent replacements.
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Big stopper: Arduino installation (Win7-64) - there is some mention of Leonardo in the docs, so when I installed Arduino (never having done it) and plugged in the board, I selected the Arduino driver for Leonardo - why not? Turns out that was my biggest mistake, as later installing the Servotor driver (how would I know this is the same type of driver?) will not replace the Leonardo driver. This cost hours of attempting an upload, which would start, but freeze. If you did this, uninstall the device and try again, this time manually choosing the Servotor. Note that the page that has the driver is mis-formated, so it isn’t really clear that the windows drivers are a link - perhaps indent in the section?
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This one was also a stopper: On the PoMoCo page (arcbotics.com/products/pomoco/), the link labeled PySerial 2.6 leads to serial.py’s sourceforge repository and DOES NOT contain the version you need. It isn’t yet available, or it was retracted. Only up to 2.5 is available. Of course, I followed the link and installed the latest (but wrong) version, and it doesn’t have the right API to work. So I went back and found the link that has the required 2.6.
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serial.py’s installer doesn’t work with Win7 64 bit installations of python - the regedit section for python must be copied to the Wow6432Node area, so the installer will find your installation. You can do this by exporting the 64 bit registry entries, editing them by adding in “\Wow6432Node” after SOFTWARE in every entry, and reimporting it. Now you can install serial.py
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In general, I’d prefer the instructions to include one simple link to the required installer, not a github link, or a list of various versions, or redirection to another site. Then maybe a second link to “other information”. In other words, the critical path wasn’t typically clear to me. When I am building and testing, I don’t want to think about source code… after I have built and tested, I want to think about source.
All that said, you have an awesome Hexy bot there, and he is working well. I just want to ensure that other, possibly less technical folks, can have the same success.
I suspect most people won’t stray off the path enough to make that mistake. Also you said there was a link to