I do not understand why you write on this topic “Hexy strange movement”. Calm down and opens another topic.
First, so much topics says not to use rechargeable batteries. They don’t have sufficient power.
Second, do not mix discussion topics (Bluetooth and connection lose are another problem)
Third, be more accurate on your requests.
Friendly regards
Nicolas
Hi Dost,
It sounds like something got shorted in your battery case. Are there any spare bits of metal making contact? Did a loose screw or wire fall in? This shouldn’t happen with normal operation. if you email help@arcbotics.com we can get you a replacement.
The bluetooth is probably resetting because if Hexy is not being run off of USB, logic power is required. A 9v battery or either of the two included power packs will power this. More information is available on the powering Hexy page:
arcbotics.com/products/hexy/powering-hexy/
My Hexy melted the connector out of the 5-cell pack too. I was using NiMH but not the recommended brand.
I discovered the problem to be excessive current drain because noise on the servo power lines caused cross talk, so when one servo would try to move it would make a current spike that would cause many of the other servos to move wildly.
I put 3700uF on the servo power at an unused servo connector and things began to work somewhat, with the 4-cell pack of the recommended battery type.
However, the servos don’t seem to be strong enough to raise Hexy off the floor reliably, even if it isn’t lifting its own batteries, and usually a few joints are pointing completely wrong.
A lab bench supply shows current total between 4 and 5 amps at 4.9V.
I finally got a few more high quality low ESR capacitors and put 4 distributed around today, however though it woke up briefly now something else has gone wrong and it doesn’t seem to talk to my Mac USB anymore. Resets and power cycles haven’t helped.
Building it was fun–kept 2 grandchildren busy with me for several sessions, but it’s disappointing that it doesn’t actually work.
Some of the joints work sometimes–it once did a point and a wave, but isn’t strong enough to get up or to walk or dance. I now try it sitting on a small box so it doesn’t have to lift anything, but it isn’t trying at all today after one brief movement. Neither batteries or power supply will run it tonight.
Has anyone gotten Hexy to work reasonably? What does it take? All new servos, or just certain joints? New controller?
The present situation is a complete technology turnoff for the grandkids, which was not the desired effect.
Hi Dave,
What batteries are you using? The most common problem operating Hexy is using low-capacity NiMH or alkaline batteries.
I’m using good batteries, PowerEx 2700. Here’s today’s log. Charge batteries (top off).
Restart MacBook Pro
Plug in Hexy USB
Launch Pomoco
wait for spinning circle
Nothing appears in communication box, circle spins on
Control panel with sliders for servos opens eventually
click in communication box, hit Return–starting with 2nd time, hear a chime for each keystroke.
Like it’s not communicating, buffer has filled.
Hit escape, spinning circle stops, Quit button lights up.
Quit
Launch Pomoco again
Control panel with sliders appears again
Circle spins on, nothing in communication box.
Click Kill All Servos seems to react (though servos have no power as yet)
Plug in battery pack, 4 Powerex 2700 cells
Control panel seems to work, though communication box still circling but eventually text started appearing in the box
OK, now to actual problems.
Whenever I move one individual slider in the control panel, all the servos (or most of them) jump or jitter a bit.
Several of the servos seem to stick, and whenever one sticks, the rest jump or jitter.
If I help a sticking one with my hand, it seems to get more free and less sticky as the number of cycles increase. So perhaps there’s a break-in period required?
One of them lost its centered position and will need to be realigned.
Procedure I’ll try:
Add more capacitors–currently have 4 Vishay 3300uF but think there are pins enough for 8. A weak point is that they are connected by thin servo-style wires that are 2-3 inches long–that resistance and inductance is probably much bigger than the equivalent series resistance of these high quality caps. But there’s no room to solder them directly. The batteries would do a lot to smooth the power glitches, except they too are connected by several inches of tiny thin wires, and two connectors, lousy for HF glitches.
Recharge batteries again, restart Mac whenever communication fails, as needed.
Check each servo for centering, realign any that need it (looks like just one seriously wrong at present).
Exercise each servo many full swings to see if the sticky spots will free up.
Replace servos that can’t be made to work without sticking.
Once it works when sitting on a box, see if it can work when its feet touch the floor.
This sounds like several days’ free time… only worth it if others have successfully run Hexy.
I had a painfully similar problem, Dave. I couldn’t make Hexy work on batteries, it was possible to operate only individual servos, and once I turned on more than three, all servos started to move on their own. Perhaps, you would like to consider using external power supply, such as one of the adapters suggesting in the powering Hexy guide. At least that worked for me, and now Hexy can stand up, move and dance without major problems. Though now I’m guessing how will I make Hexy work through BlueTooth.
I finally received the (backordered) recommended power supply from Mouser and tried Hexy once more.
There is some kind of communication problem. The PoMoCo communication box stays blank, with a spinning waiting circle that never goes away.
One time after a long time text did start appearing in the box and Hexy began to move for a while, but I’ve never gotten it to happen again. Un/replug USB, quit and relaunch PoMoCo, unplug Hexy power, hit Reset button.
I have the impression Hexy is working but the communication with the MacBook Pro (OS X 10.10.1) is not working.
What tricks do people use to fix communication problems?
BTW, I’ve recently added a 3d mouse SpaceMouse Wireless, and though I’ve unplugged its wireless adapter from USB, perhaps the mere installation of it killed PoMoCo’s USB connection?
Dave