Vaseline and other petroleum products in general, actually degrade and break down PLA parts. It may be possible that the blue PLA was particularly susceptible to the petroleum degradation. The Burt's bees you used on the tank is probably ok, because it uses wax as a lubricant. For long lasting lubrication, you should probably use a silicone based lube, so it won't disintegrate your gears.
PLA can be amazing with mechanical parts if lubed well. We built an inmoov humanoid robot that toured around Australia for 2 years performing so many shows. The gearboxes were all printed pla lubed with PTFE grease. All still good!
ASA for structural parts and a high durometer TPU for the wheels maybe? Giving the treads a little flex wouldn't be a bad idea so they can spin if they get caught instead of the torque shredding grass and snapping components.
My first 3D printer arrived a couple weeks ago (Prusa i3 MK3S), it has been every bit as much fun as I thought it would. In hindsight I realized the cost of the printer isn't the real expense. It's the cost of all the different filament I want to try. I plan to upgrade some of my robots with 3D printed parts. (Check my channel for my Halloween Hex hexapod.)
Been watching your videos since you were just a kid. It has been cool to see your engineering skills grow over time. You have always kept it real and shown the fails as much as the wins. In engineering we often learn much more from the fails than the wins. I was an R&D engineer for a semiconductor instrumentation company and most of the time the projects failed, but we always learned from our mistakes and were able to build upon that knowledge to create some next-level technology. I don't think most technological advancements come from huge breakthroughs, but from very gradual improvements. Exactly like how you make something that sort of works and then keep refining it. Your solar powered plane and autonomous boats are my favorites. Great channel, thanks for sharing your adventures with us.
Yup, The biggest mistake is driving the wheels sideways while turning, by using a +1.00:-1.00 speed ratio like a tank (see 6:10). Not a big surprise that the wheels break if you just slam their sides into obstacles on the ground. Try turning by driving forwards with a 1.00:0.80 left:right speed ratio, or driving backwards with a 0.80:1.00 speed ratio, or by alternating between the two for about 2-3 feet / 1 meter. That way you will limit the slip on the wheels, and they will go mainly forwards or backwards, which is the direction they need to go to roll over obstacles.
I really love the autonomous aspect...patiently taking care of business alone in a meadow for weeks at a time. :) Doesn't really have to be on another planet to be amazing.
@@maxhouseman3129 jeez downer, let them be amazed by autonomous hardware. driving around for days and days unattended is impressive enough, "Doesnt have any sensors" neglects the global positioning system, gyroscopes, compass and barometer which he is monitoring and recording to watch the driven path later for tuning, to reduce the deviation from the way-point path.
Consider setting two voltages in the Arduino: a lower threshold to stop the rover and a different, much higher, one to restart it. It should avoid frequent stops and restarts.
@@Eratas1 don't use RC, do autonomous. Its cooler and you can't see the lawn well enough from the living room to not miss spots in the yard. Make an autonomous lawn mower that follows a pattern and has a built-in leaf blower that blows off your street driveway and sidewalk when it gets through before it puts itself into its self locking parking space.
Perfect idea for a nomadic lifestyle, follow fresh water and food, using the sun to move and nights to rest, have them just large enough for a decent sized family to live on (2 adults 3 children). Theyd be heavy as hell but with proper resource supply and shading, itd be a fun trip across the desert. If it were amphibious though, any semi flat terrain and calm water could be your domain. Id suggest Colin Furze to build the prototypes.
this is such a fascinating project. Loved to see you come back to it still running three weeks later! I can't wait to see it run the whole summer without maintinance
This is really valuable information to share with us all, thank you. It's impressive the amount someone can learn from just watching someone else do it.
Was thinking of something similar for hunting meteorites in the Wyoming desert. Simple metal detecting bar dangled way out front. Was thinking everything on the drives needed to be metal. Now I think 3D printed stuff is actually better. This is good work!
Dude this project is amazing !! I enjoy following the progress and development of the rover and I learn a lot from your improvement. Thanks so much for sharing your videos and files Keep up the great work!
@@rubenscavalcanti8886 Simplicity yes, but skid steering is super inefficient and almost certainly wastes more power than some steering servo would. Source: I'm building a similar skid steering rover right now.
@@rubenscavalcanti8886 My first thought when you mentioned the inefficiency of the brushed motors was that the loss in those was small compared to the loss associated with skid steering. You can hear the way the motors/drive train load up when trying to steer, that's using a lot of power. Of course it would require some redesign, but since your vehicle has basically separate front and rear halves already, it might not be too hard to change to articulated steering. If you were clever with the wheel speeds, you might even be able to accomplish articulated steering without adding any steering motor (servo) directly controlling the steering angle.
... i really got an advertisment on this video and guess what: "worlds brightest flashlight". It used your videos and i'm pretty sure they never asked for your permission.
Awesome project. Wish I had the time to Tinker and design cool electronics/robotic projects like this. I know you've invested a lot of time and hard work to get to this point. Keep it up!
I love seeing your projects! Great job. The gearbox is super cool and the autonomous aspect is awesome. My favorite videos of yours are the boat and tank videos, but this rover is cool too! Looking forward to future upgrades.
@@mareksykora5197 in this application where temps wont be much higher than air temperature and theres a lot of moisture exposure aluminium would survive functional longer than iron for sure. stainless steel would outlast aluminium but in this application both would probably well outlast other components in such a rover like the battery or maybe even the motors since they are brushed and thus will experiance wear even under normal operating conditions
I've been watching for a very long time and its been really cool to see your progression through different projects and different scales of projects. I still remember they days of the cargo condor. Been 10 years or so by now but that was one cool cargo plane for sure.
I appreciate the briefness of the PCBWay ad. No sales pitch, and doesn't make me hate the company for an annoying ad! I was actually trying to remember the name of this company. I'll probably order some more boards from them, I got good results in the past.
You’d need a really big caster wheel, and it might add extra strain, but far less than what’s caused by turning in place with the current layout. I’d like to see this done
I agree, a castor wheel on the rear and only two driving axles. Having only two driving axles will reduce energy requirements and mechanical complexity.
Caster wheels are a great way on slick flat ground such as indoor or On Pavement but turning something like this into a two-wheel drive model will have immense problems getting over small bumps in the grass
@@ottotater2787 I disagree. Lots of lawnmowers use this. Skid steer axle with either front or rear caster wheels. They seem to do just fine, granted on a different scale, but it proves the concept works on things other than concrete. Also, I just realized my robotic vacuum uses this as well and it navigates some surprisingly large terrain given its small size.
Daniel thank you for the great content you put out! I've been a subscriber for a long time now and your videos are so soothing to me and I always look forward to watching new ones. Thanks so much bud!
Very cool stuff, those gearboxes are crazy! Seems like there is a lot of stress when it goes to turn - perhaps make the drive train so some wheels can go backwards while the other go forward in order to greatly reduce forces while turning.
Great progress! Also thanks for the electronics explanation at the end. Maybe add a universal or spherical joint in your steering hinge, like those large front loaders.
When you think about It. actually kind of a cool idea to have articulating frame that twist when you do sharp turns to reduce lateral torque on the gearbox.
I love this. I'd be constantly checking up on the damn thing though- I wouldn't be able to leave it alone! Just have to note: I expect petroleum jelly eats PLA. Silicon grease would be appropriate. Also, I'm guessing you combed that field thoroughly for discarded plastic? What a task..!
@RCtestflight Have you considered using medium to large sized stepper motors? They excel in low-rpm torque, and could probably be used in your application to directly drive the wheels. You could eliminate any reliability/efficiency issues of the gearboxes altogether. Stepper divers are in expensive, and simply need a pulse signal to run.
Please can we get more autonomous boat videos? I love all your videos but theres just something extra with the boat videos that makes them sooo enjoyable!
To improve it I would do three things: 1.Change steering to a bumper style were the whole body turns. 2. Use 2 axis pivot to articulated the solar panels (with some light sensors) so it would point at the sun all the time (makes it much more efficient) 3. If you use a dumper style steering it won't need as much torque and therefore you can decrease the motor voltage and up the gearing. As it is now, it's like driving in 1st gear at full throttle. It makes much more torque that what's required on the straights, and therefore is rather inefficient.
"Wow! It's pretty crazy. This thing have been here alone for so long and while I am here it just exploded. That's so random" That would be an interesting thing to say to police officers
Solar powered autonomous burger truck when? And maybe have a poke around in the ardurover code and see if you can set a minimum turn radius or something. Also if you don't have a lot of metal bearings check out Igus, which makes high-quality plastic bushings that contain their own lubricant and stuff.
Eating a burger plain by itself might seem non-optimal. But that's the best and most delicious burger a man can have: in the woods, doing what you love, with your own energy.
Petroleum damages PLA. You should definitely use a silicon lubricant. The skid steering system might also not be the best way to steer. It puts strain on the motors as the wheels are trying to slide but can't due to the grip. Have you considered making the frame turn? You don't need real wheel steering, so body steering would probably improve the efficiency and reduce the strain on the motors and gear boxes. Another option which will also be required if you switch to body steering is to vary the speed of the motors on the inner and outer side of the turn. This is an awesome project!
You'd benefit tremendously from access to a machine shop. Part of the problem is just optimizing the design of the moving parts, but durability issues could also be mitigated by fabricating those parts from metal rather than plastic. Probably a rover of this type with all metal moving parts would last for many years.
this is super cool, i'm sure nasa engineers underwent very similar experimentation while designing sojourner. when your wheel broke, it looked like about 7% gyroid in there lmao most of the gearbox parts are gunna need to be like 60%+ rectilinear or something for that long lasting strength, look into a proper grease or silicone lube or something thats rly safe on plastics. this is exciting I have an ardupilot setup and wanna make a rover myself now..
A simple solution to make the whole thing run more smoothly would be to redesign the wheels to be smoother to stop them digging into the grass. Obviously this would be at the cost of grip but on flat terrain at such slow speeds that shouldn't be an issue. I would round the edges of the wheel significantly and make the contact patch with the ground a lot narrower to help with the turning
If you ever head back to Utah doing missions with one of these autonomous way-point rovers I'd be really interested in seeing it in person. I might have to start one of these projects myself.
Hi Just a thought - try your local car breakers yard and dig out some windscreen wiper motors. These are already wearherproofed and are usually quite slow rotation. The ones I’ve used have great torque and can be controlled by simple pwm motor speed controller. They’re generally 12v rated and are reversible. I made a similar rover that failed in many other ways before the motors failed.
I love Genasun! I have one on my golf cart wired into the solar panel roof to charge the cart. I wish their 48V boost converter had a switch to change between SLA and Lithium though because if I decide to fork out the cash to upgrade my batteries I'll have to buy another $200 controller. But I can always still use the SLA one for my Ryobi riding mower. Great video! I've only seen a few of yours so far but they have yet to disappoint.
@rctestflight Can you talk about your reasoning for making the drive having two stages, with the two rotors being the same amount of lobes, 180 degrees to each other? The only reason I can think of is for the two stages to cancel out vibration at higher RPM, and maybe distribute stress better, but I don't think even with one stage and "softer" lobes (less eccentricity) it'll cause enough vibration to hurt anything
This rover is super cool! As someone who enjoys 3d printing as a hobby, seeing this kind of use of 3d printed parts in the world is pretty awesome. Personally, I'm really curious what would happen if you changed up the material from PLA to something else. I would think PETG would have the right properties and shouldn't be too hard to print in your CR10. Of course, ASA would also be a good choice given that you are using these plastics in an outdoor environment, but my understanding is that ASA is both significantly more expensive and also harder to print.
This seems like the perfect use-case for supercapacitors- assuming that you get the rover's gearbox(es) sorted, that would greatly increase the life of the rover, and likely increase performance- while at the same time reducing weight
Hey Daniel, nice video👍 At 19:07 you show that you have connected the solar panels to the charge controller via two JST connectors. I would much rather use xt30 connectors there because the JST ones have an extremely high resistance. On my small quads that only pull 5-10amps there is a significant difference in flighttime and voltage drop between the JST and the xt30.
Tips for getting best life out of your PLA parts - 1) print with a lot of walls. 2) use greater than 100% extrusion to push the layers together. 3) anneal the parts after printing.
@rctestflight As a professional 3d printer, I can give you some advise. PLA becomes brittle in UV light (and when it absorbs moisture), which is, I suspect, what's happening here. I'd suggest ABS, but the difficulty with printing large parts, combined with the toxic fumes might make this an undesirable material to print with, in your setting. I'd suggest PETG as a good, all-around alternative which combines the ease of printing of PLA with the strength of ABS, plus it has no fumes. My personal 3d printer, the experimental one, ran a gearbox with a 5:1 ratio for less than a week with PLA, about 3 months with ABS, and is STILL running the same gearbox with PETG gears over two years later! Keep in mind that the extruder for this printer is running NEMA 17s, and runs around 18 hours a day. It's also pushing more force than I can apply with my hands, for the entire printing time. YMMV
No, Harmonic Drives and Cycloidal Drives are different. The former tend to get fatigue, while being cheaper to machine, while the later are more expensive, but last longer.
In addition to more boat/submarine content, I think you should try building a walker of some sort, like the AT-TE walkers from the prequels! Also, I love your work, as always. The cycloidal gearbox was super cool to watch
It would be crazy to show up one day to check on the rover and find that someone else had upgraded parts on it. Like bigger battery and solar panels. V'GER!!
Vaseline and other petroleum products in general, actually degrade and break down PLA parts. It may be possible that the blue PLA was particularly susceptible to the petroleum degradation. The Burt's bees you used on the tank is probably ok, because it uses wax as a lubricant. For long lasting lubrication, you should probably use a silicone based lube, so it won't disintegrate your gears.
what about butt lube? is good?
@@gewizz2 yep
@@gewizz2 yep, that's silicone based. But that goes dry quickly
@@BM_brb "Goes dry quickly"... not sure I want to know how you know that... :)
I was also going to mention this. Petroleum will eat the PLA. He is better off without lubrication since it's not running real fast.
This is the kind of tinkering content I enjoyed 8 years ago and still do
Same here.
Yes
Hearing “8 years ago” is trippy bc I keep forgetting we’re 20 years into 2000
Definitely
Same
wow, you getting a lot of life out of PLA parts.
PLA can be amazing with mechanical parts if lubed well. We built an inmoov humanoid robot that toured around Australia for 2 years performing so many shows. The gearboxes were all printed pla lubed with PTFE grease. All still good!
Jesse Stevens Took me longer than I would like to admit to work that one out.
@@jessestevens2927 Never had much luck with them. but it's good to see that they can work well. I'm going to stick to ABS and Nylon tho...
@@errorgd Try ASA
ASA for structural parts and a high durometer TPU for the wheels maybe? Giving the treads a little flex wouldn't be a bad idea so they can spin if they get caught instead of the torque shredding grass and snapping components.
Try Rounding off the edges of the wheels so that it doesn’t tear up the grass and it turns more efficiently
Why not just eliminate two of the wheels? With just two powered wheels and a larger caster it would turn on a dime.
justin wood there is grass and dirt
Those are for grip, but I can't see many other ways to get grip, so rounding it would be would help, but how else do you get grip.
Or he could simply use a differential
@@oProtica How would a differential help on a skid steer vehicle with separate left and right drive motors?
There's so many reasons I want to buy a decent 3D printer... And this is just adding to the list lmao. Fascinating video
I would highly recommend the CR10-s as a very good first printer. It's large and precise and way nicer to use my custom built printers 😁
@@clonkex 3 grand later... Lol
What's wrong with a 200$ 3d printer?
My first 3D printer arrived a couple weeks ago (Prusa i3 MK3S), it has been every bit as much fun as I thought it would.
In hindsight I realized the cost of the printer isn't the real expense. It's the cost of all the different filament I want to try.
I plan to upgrade some of my robots with 3D printed parts. (Check my channel for my Halloween Hex hexapod.)
you don't want to know what good old anet a8 can extrude ;)
Been watching your videos since you were just a kid. It has been cool to see your engineering skills grow over time. You have always kept it real and shown the fails as much as the wins. In engineering we often learn much more from the fails than the wins. I was an R&D engineer for a semiconductor instrumentation company and most of the time the projects failed, but we always learned from our mistakes and were able to build upon that knowledge to create some next-level technology. I don't think most technological advancements come from huge breakthroughs, but from very gradual improvements. Exactly like how you make something that sort of works and then keep refining it. Your solar powered plane and autonomous boats are my favorites. Great channel, thanks for sharing your adventures with us.
I think you should limit the turn rate to one side spinning 50% faster than the other. Reduce all that binding and stress
Skid steer doesn't seem to be working well at all. Maybe traditional steering on the next rev?
doesn't seem like there's an ESC or feedback on that thing
Yup, The biggest mistake is driving the wheels sideways while turning, by using a +1.00:-1.00 speed ratio like a tank (see 6:10). Not a big surprise that the wheels break if you just slam their sides into obstacles on the ground. Try turning by driving forwards with a 1.00:0.80 left:right speed ratio, or driving backwards with a 0.80:1.00 speed ratio, or by alternating between the two for about 2-3 feet / 1 meter. That way you will limit the slip on the wheels, and they will go mainly forwards or backwards, which is the direction they need to go to roll over obstacles.
I don't get why not have just the two front wheels driven and have a single castor wheel in the back.
I really love the autonomous aspect...patiently taking care of business alone in a meadow for weeks at a time. :) Doesn't really have to be on another planet to be amazing.
It is a waypoint mission. Not that complicated. Doesn't have any sensors or a real task.
@@maxhouseman3129 jeez downer, let them be amazed by autonomous hardware. driving around for days and days unattended is impressive enough, "Doesnt have any sensors" neglects the global positioning system, gyroscopes, compass and barometer which he is monitoring and recording to watch the driven path later for tuning, to reduce the deviation from the way-point path.
Consider setting two voltages in the Arduino: a lower threshold to stop the rover and a different, much higher, one to restart it. It should avoid frequent stops and restarts.
Thats called a hysteresis controller and its what he had implemented. If it was just one threshold, it would stop start all the time.
* puts a 13:1 gearbox *
Wow, this thing has so much torque
didn't the barbie gearbox also have a reduction? so there are two step-downs between the motor and wheels?
not enough torque!
Can’t wait for the autonomous lawnmower build. Definitely going to try one myself. Btw what’s the all up weight of this rover?
Thinking of building RC lawn mower with cameras. So i can mow a lawn inside house sitting in couch.
With a 4g connection it could be started up and controlled/monitored from anywhere.
@@Eratas1 don't use RC, do autonomous. Its cooler and you can't see the lawn well enough from the living room to not miss spots in the yard.
Make an autonomous lawn mower that follows a pattern and has a built-in leaf blower that blows off your street driveway and sidewalk when it gets through before it puts itself into its self locking parking space.
I built one. It automatically starts up every weekend and cuts a path. It works pretty well
@@octoniumvideos that's the ticket.
Your projects are some of my favorite on TH-cam, you dabble in so many things that pique my interest! Keep it up man!
Imagine during the apocalypse there’s just a giant one of these moving through the desert
Yeah just like the movie "Mortal Engine"
Perfect idea for a nomadic lifestyle, follow fresh water and food, using the sun to move and nights to rest, have them just large enough for a decent sized family to live on (2 adults 3 children). Theyd be heavy as hell but with proper resource supply and shading, itd be a fun trip across the desert. If it were amphibious though, any semi flat terrain and calm water could be your domain. Id suggest Colin Furze to build the prototypes.
this is such a fascinating project. Loved to see you come back to it still running three weeks later! I can't wait to see it run the whole summer without maintinance
I'm always so excited when I see you uploaded a new video! 😄
my goodness gracious... the time involved... I can't even imagine. great work, thanks for these videos!
This is really valuable information to share with us all, thank you. It's impressive the amount someone can learn from just watching someone else do it.
Was thinking of something similar for hunting meteorites in the Wyoming desert. Simple metal detecting bar dangled way out front. Was thinking everything on the drives needed to be metal. Now I think 3D printed stuff is actually better. This is good work!
Dude this project is amazing !!
I enjoy following the progress and development of the rover and I learn a lot from your improvement.
Thanks so much for sharing your videos and files
Keep up the great work!
why don’t you make a normal wheel turning system like NASA’s rovers, throw servos and make each wheel turn?
For simplicity sakes I guess, and because it uses more power.
nasa's rovers get nuclear
@@hcennobody2501 Not all of them. Opportunity lasted really long on Mars with solar
@@rubenscavalcanti8886 Simplicity yes, but skid steering is super inefficient and almost certainly wastes more power than some steering servo would. Source: I'm building a similar skid steering rover right now.
@@rubenscavalcanti8886 My first thought when you mentioned the inefficiency of the brushed motors was that the loss in those was small compared to the loss associated with skid steering. You can hear the way the motors/drive train load up when trying to steer, that's using a lot of power.
Of course it would require some redesign, but since your vehicle has basically separate front and rear halves already, it might not be too hard to change to articulated steering. If you were clever with the wheel speeds, you might even be able to accomplish articulated steering without adding any steering motor (servo) directly controlling the steering angle.
... i really got an advertisment on this video and guess what: "worlds brightest flashlight". It used your videos and i'm pretty sure they never asked for your permission.
Awesome project. Wish I had the time to Tinker and design cool electronics/robotic projects like this. I know you've invested a lot of time and hard work to get to this point. Keep it up!
What psychopath eats a burger patty with his hands and without bun
a man with an army of autonomous rovers
what psychopath eats crushed dead animal
A diabetic one...😁
@@darkmann12 straight off the carcass after it has be thoroughly charred from the bushfire you just set in the savanna is the way to go
Too right @@markallen200
I love seeing your projects! Great job. The gearbox is super cool and the autonomous aspect is awesome. My favorite videos of yours are the boat and tank videos, but this rover is cool too! Looking forward to future upgrades.
The pwm sbus part takes your signal and modulates it / demodulates it from serial into pulse width modulated. It is therefore a modem.
That thing could drive for jears with proper metal parts!
(Sry for my bad English)
And better lube, wet silicon lube would work better for both Metal and plastic parts
Petra Schack-Beckschulte, kommt auf die Akkus und Solarpanels drauf an.
Proper IRON parts. Not every metal is good. I don't believe aluminium much.
@@mareksykora5197 in this application where temps wont be much higher than air temperature and theres a lot of moisture exposure aluminium would survive functional longer than iron for sure. stainless steel would outlast aluminium but in this application both would probably well outlast other components in such a rover like the battery or maybe even the motors since they are brushed and thus will experiance wear even under normal operating conditions
@@randomstuff-cu4of Yes. But aluminium has a big problem with long lasting cyclic forces and it is not so durable, the parts have to be bigger.
I've been watching for a very long time and its been really cool to see your progression through different projects and different scales of projects. I still remember they days of the cargo condor. Been 10 years or so by now but that was one cool cargo plane for sure.
I appreciate the briefness of the PCBWay ad. No sales pitch, and doesn't make me hate the company for an annoying ad! I was actually trying to remember the name of this company. I'll probably order some more boards from them, I got good results in the past.
You definitely should have used PETG for all of it. With that said I’m very impressed with how well the PLA worked lol
Nah, abs or nylon, fuck it... Ultem gearbox
PETG is a scam
Will Asproth PETG is an amazing material if you get it tuned in well. Keyword is if, ofc
S G after using a roll of it I have decided it’s just more temperamental PLA
Or PLA blends
you need Caster wheels in back, will solve all your problems, its fighting itself
You’d need a really big caster wheel, and it might add extra strain, but far less than what’s caused by turning in place with the current layout. I’d like to see this done
I agree, a castor wheel on the rear and only two driving axles.
Having only two driving axles will reduce energy requirements
and mechanical complexity.
Caster wheels are a great way on slick flat ground such as indoor or On Pavement but turning something like this into a two-wheel drive model will have immense problems getting over small bumps in the grass
@@ottotater2787 I disagree. Lots of lawnmowers use this. Skid steer axle with either front or rear caster wheels. They seem to do just fine, granted on a different scale, but it proves the concept works on things other than concrete.
Also, I just realized my robotic vacuum uses this as well and it navigates some surprisingly large terrain given its small size.
Videos like these are the reason why hardware stores make me feel like a kid in a candy store.
'A way to use planetary gears similar in size to make a huge gear reduction' I was like "wow" when I saw a gear design like this
Keep making these videos, I love watching all of your homemade autonomous and controlled rovers
Daniel thank you for the great content you put out! I've been a subscriber for a long time now and your videos are so soothing to me and I always look forward to watching new ones. Thanks so much bud!
Very cool stuff, those gearboxes are crazy! Seems like there is a lot of stress when it goes to turn - perhaps make the drive train so some wheels can go backwards while the other go forward in order to greatly reduce forces while turning.
Yes! Got excited from the sneak peek on a previous video!
Great progress! Also thanks for the electronics explanation at the end. Maybe add a universal or spherical joint in your steering hinge, like those large front loaders.
It's been 5 years since I found your channel, I enjoy it now as much or even more as I did then
Same here,
His videos never get old.
Sometimes I re-watch videos he uploaded years ago.
Awesome project man. Would be cool if someone could offer you access to a large amount of land for a giant waypoint mission.
Don't stop making these they are always a treat
11:04: Congratulations, you've emulated a Ducati
1:00 In my experiences, sometimes, if you thread the nut in a bolt/screw, then hit the bolt, you can more easily control the direction it sets.
When you think about It. actually kind of a cool idea to have articulating frame that twist when you do sharp turns to reduce lateral torque on the gearbox.
I love this. I'd be constantly checking up on the damn thing though- I wouldn't be able to leave it alone!
Just have to note: I expect petroleum jelly eats PLA. Silicon grease would be appropriate. Also, I'm guessing you combed that field thoroughly for discarded plastic? What a task..!
You could try reversing the opposite side wheels during turns to reduce the torque you are inducing on the center of the rover.
@RCtestflight Have you considered using medium to large sized stepper motors? They excel in low-rpm torque, and could probably be used in your application to directly drive the wheels. You could eliminate any reliability/efficiency issues of the gearboxes altogether.
Stepper divers are in expensive, and simply need a pulse signal to run.
Please can we get more autonomous boat videos? I love all your videos but theres just something extra with the boat videos that makes them sooo enjoyable!
Комментарий в поддержку канала и ролика, а также труда мастера.
"I used petroleum jelly as lube"
That was fun to watch. Nice work
Good job! Glad to see this series continuing!
To improve it I would do three things:
1.Change steering to a bumper style were the whole body turns.
2. Use 2 axis pivot to articulated the solar panels (with some light sensors) so it would point at the sun all the time (makes it much more efficient)
3. If you use a dumper style steering it won't need as much torque and therefore you can decrease the motor voltage and up the gearing. As it is now, it's like driving in 1st gear at full throttle. It makes much more torque that what's required on the straights, and therefore is rather inefficient.
Watching that gearbox makes my brain hurt
"Wow! It's pretty crazy. This thing have been here alone for so long and while I am here it just exploded. That's so random"
That would be an interesting thing to say to police officers
Solar powered autonomous burger truck when? And maybe have a poke around in the ardurover code and see if you can set a minimum turn radius or something. Also if you don't have a lot of metal bearings check out Igus, which makes high-quality plastic bushings that contain their own lubricant and stuff.
Eating a burger plain by itself might seem non-optimal. But that's the best and most delicious burger a man can have: in the woods, doing what you love, with your own energy.
You probably hear it all the time, but your videos are seriously awesome Daniel. Super cool stuff 👍
You are my favourite TH-camr and I love watch your vids and all of them are made with passion
Petroleum damages PLA. You should definitely use a silicon lubricant. The skid steering system might also not be the best way to steer. It puts strain on the motors as the wheels are trying to slide but can't due to the grip. Have you considered making the frame turn? You don't need real wheel steering, so body steering would probably improve the efficiency and reduce the strain on the motors and gear boxes. Another option which will also be required if you switch to body steering is to vary the speed of the motors on the inner and outer side of the turn. This is an awesome project!
You'd benefit tremendously from access to a machine shop. Part of the problem is just optimizing the design of the moving parts, but durability issues could also be mitigated by fabricating those parts from metal rather than plastic. Probably a rover of this type with all metal moving parts would last for many years.
great job its almost unbreakable now and we learned something love the project :D
this is super cool, i'm sure nasa engineers underwent very similar experimentation while designing sojourner. when your wheel broke, it looked like about 7% gyroid in there lmao most of the gearbox parts are gunna need to be like 60%+ rectilinear or something for that long lasting strength, look into a proper grease or silicone lube or something thats rly safe on plastics. this is exciting I have an ardupilot setup and wanna make a rover myself now..
I love these videos, its so interesting!
Have you considered using narrower wheels? Might be more efficient
More stress on the wheels.
6:27 please tell me that you've picked that piece up again to properly recycle it.. (along with all of the other broken parts)
I was thinking the same thing
15:49 Paused that frame for a while. Neat sneak peak
A simple solution to make the whole thing run more smoothly would be to redesign the wheels to be smoother to stop them digging into the grass. Obviously this would be at the cost of grip but on flat terrain at such slow speeds that shouldn't be an issue.
I would round the edges of the wheel significantly and make the contact patch with the ground a lot narrower to help with the turning
If you ever head back to Utah doing missions with one of these autonomous way-point rovers I'd be really interested in seeing it in person.
I might have to start one of these projects myself.
Hi
Just a thought - try your local car breakers yard and dig out some windscreen wiper motors. These are already wearherproofed and are usually quite slow rotation.
The ones I’ve used have great torque and can be controlled by simple pwm motor speed controller. They’re generally 12v rated and are reversible.
I made a similar rover that failed in many other ways before the motors failed.
I’d grab a couple springs to put between the articulating bodies to help keep it from torquing over but still allowing movement
2:35 that bike looks mint
Awesome project!! Could be helping to pollinate the wild flowers too!
I love Genasun! I have one on my golf cart wired into the solar panel roof to charge the cart. I wish their 48V boost converter had a switch to change between SLA and Lithium though because if I decide to fork out the cash to upgrade my batteries I'll have to buy another $200 controller. But I can always still use the SLA one for my Ryobi riding mower. Great video! I've only seen a few of yours so far but they have yet to disappoint.
Have you considered using berliner on the 3d printed wheels it would provide better protection and grip.
German donut???
@rctestflight Can you talk about your reasoning for making the drive having two stages, with the two rotors being the same amount of lobes, 180 degrees to each other? The only reason I can think of is for the two stages to cancel out vibration at higher RPM, and maybe distribute stress better, but I don't think even with one stage and "softer" lobes (less eccentricity) it'll cause enough vibration to hurt anything
Great durability test. Lot of experience you get here.
This rover is super cool! As someone who enjoys 3d printing as a hobby, seeing this kind of use of 3d printed parts in the world is pretty awesome. Personally, I'm really curious what would happen if you changed up the material from PLA to something else. I would think PETG would have the right properties and shouldn't be too hard to print in your CR10. Of course, ASA would also be a good choice given that you are using these plastics in an outdoor environment, but my understanding is that ASA is both significantly more expensive and also harder to print.
This seems like the perfect use-case for supercapacitors- assuming that you get the rover's gearbox(es) sorted, that would greatly increase the life of the rover, and likely increase performance- while at the same time reducing weight
Hey Daniel, nice video👍 At 19:07 you show that you have connected the solar panels to the charge controller via two JST connectors. I would much rather use xt30 connectors there because the JST ones have an extremely high resistance. On my small quads that only pull 5-10amps there is a significant difference in flighttime and voltage drop between the JST and the xt30.
Tips for getting best life out of your PLA parts - 1) print with a lot of walls. 2) use greater than 100% extrusion to push the layers together. 3) anneal the parts after printing.
@rctestflight As a professional 3d printer, I can give you some advise. PLA becomes brittle in UV light (and when it absorbs moisture), which is, I suspect, what's happening here. I'd suggest ABS, but the difficulty with printing large parts, combined with the toxic fumes might make this an undesirable material to print with, in your setting. I'd suggest PETG as a good, all-around alternative which combines the ease of printing of PLA with the strength of ABS, plus it has no fumes. My personal 3d printer, the experimental one, ran a gearbox with a 5:1 ratio for less than a week with PLA, about 3 months with ABS, and is STILL running the same gearbox with PETG gears over two years later! Keep in mind that the extruder for this printer is running NEMA 17s, and runs around 18 hours a day. It's also pushing more force than I can apply with my hands, for the entire printing time. YMMV
I imagine the petroleum lubricant isn't doing wonders either...
"Harmony Drive" German engineering at its best 👌🏻
No, Harmonic Drives and Cycloidal Drives are different. The former tend to get fatigue, while being cheaper to machine, while the later are more expensive, but last longer.
Really nice to see it could run for so long. But now that I've seen the sneak peek with the brushless motors... I can't wait for the next video!
Your axles need a differential! Or a reverse turning program like a tank. Oh and nylon printed bushings would be good too.
In addition to more boat/submarine content, I think you should try building a walker of some sort, like the AT-TE walkers from the prequels! Also, I love your work, as always. The cycloidal gearbox was super cool to watch
Idk how long I’ve been watching you but I always enjoy your content
Those plastic parts can be really immortal. My quad with PLA frame dropped from about 15 meters, and just bounced off the ground
This is so cool. I was thinking of making autonomous guard bots for my grounds.. Just this design with a camera will do it, it seems.. Great work.
I would recommend you have a minimum of 3 shells ( wall layers )... probably 4. In crease your fill density to 40-45%. Well done.
I like how this went from a solar powered rover video to cooking a burger then back to the rover
Just happened onto your channel for the first time today. What am excellent project!
I just stumbled onto this video. I love it and this derpy little car drone thing!!!!
Thought about trying a 3d printed harmonic drive? Having the flexable spline printed out of sintered nylon might work well.
I love your videos, they inspire me so much
That's a very colorful rover, and I like it
I hope you picked up all the broken parts from the rover
Any that he missed will break down harmlessly over time.
PLA is an environmentally friendly plastic
Piers no, pla is a bio plastic, it can take up to a year to degrade
Add better suspension, also set the charge thing so it has to reach higher before it starts again, but has the same stop amount
Great work! You should build it into a lawn mover and make a pattern in the grass!
This is amazing! Imagine the efficiency if you could use a lighter material for rover frame construction
It would be crazy to show up one day to check on the rover and find that someone else had upgraded parts on it. Like bigger battery and solar panels. V'GER!!