lol i already deleted the parts that dont work... well thats codeing i guess and i dont do it . do you think my basic experience would be of use happy to collaborate lol . humour aside thanks for the videos and somehow education happened grats on the success,
Really enjoyed this video, Wes. You’re the very definition of a Self-sufficient Man. And multi-talented into the bargain. Can’t wait to see this sketchy little monster making quick work of a tree! 😁👍🏻
Soon as the fancy board building montage started, I searched out your patreon and thought man he needs to advertise this after I didn't see it under the video description. I subscribed and then returned to watch the rest of the video, where you then said it was in the comments 😂
@timidater4803 I used to test and repair industrial control boards for pollution control and broadcast. I built their test fixtures. Wes did a great job with this. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I can’t remember the last time I was as impressed with anything as I was with this video. Reverse engineering a pilot project with nothing other than your own ingenuity? Amazing, truly amazing…
…and I’m pretty sure Superman was raised around the corner. I think the corn must accelerate super powers, which explains Wes’s superior, innate abilities. No, really! 🔧👍
My wife has always been impressed with my ability to figure out and fix anything that breaks in the house. Cars, furnace, A/C, etc. I do not want her seeing your videos or she’ll figure out how much of an amateur I actually am.
LOL! See, the answer for your wife is that you don't have the right tools (for whatever job you're working on) so if she wants you to be able to fix things, she needs to be ok with you buying the tools you need for each job. Best way to get a shop full of all the tools you want :)
As a mechanical engineer turned electrical engineer with some computer curiosity mixed in, this series has been a ton of fun to watch. Love learning new things!
As a guy that went to Electronics Institutes in Pittsburgh back in the 70's and had to learn the operation of vacuum tubes,(plate-grid, etc) to transistors ( npn / pnp). I'm just a dinosaur now! But.retired and happy! Don't wanna learn anymore, but love to watch (in awe!)
I like it when really smart people are super humble and sarcastic. It’s fun to watch you reveal a little bit of that here. I’ll take the guy from the cornfield any day.
I'm not sure how many people in the world could repair the engine,reverse engineer the missing controller and build a new one but I am glad you ended up with it. I'm enjoying this series!
Wes I've got zero understanding of this but your explanation/working diagrams made it interesting & understandable. Love to see more videos. Wireless would be cool.
I sincerely hope some high school shop teacher sees this and shares it in class. Your ability to articulately explain the problem and then walk through the repair process is bar none. Fantastic job Wes.
I am that high school shop teacher that will be sharing this next week. My students and I thought we were onto something last year when we made VEX robotics controllers trigger lawn mower solenoids and drive drill motor robots running off drill batteries. Those students will eat this high level engineering up!
Wes, as a company owner I had to long ago understand that I might be a visionary but that the key to growth was to keep a sensitive eye out for those whose talents and drive would move the company forward and raise the standards-the bar. They also had to be teachable and be able to teach. You are that kind of person. Your family should be proud
Wes, you need to add calibrations for each solenoid on the motor drive valves. You need to find the current command at which each track starts to turn and save into EEPROM. Then you adjust your solenoid commands using this "start current" so that you get a consistent initiation on each function. Typically, you'd also calibrate a "max current" point which provides the same reference speed for each function. For the solenoid dither, you need to tune these settings with the goal of minimizing the hysteresis of the actuator valve. To do this, you need to measure the position of the actuator in real-time as you sweep your solenoid commands up and down. A cross-plot of actuator position vs solenoid current will show the hysteresis. Then adjust the dither frequency (Hz) and magnitude (mA) to find the optimal set the reduces the hysteris and provides good linearity in the actuator. Typically, this is around 100 Hz and 150 mA peak-to-peak but will vary based on the design of the coil, valve, and current driver design. Once you've tuned the hysteris and calibrated each solenoid, you need to add some rate limits to your solenoid current commands in order make the machine track smoothly. Looks like a fun project, good luck!
Excellenty written. Maybe add a low and high rate switch to switch from a low rate current to the maximum / high rate coil current. Or to switch between low and high rate joystick to current mapping of the output pins.
I'm guessing the accuracy of the $3000 joysticks and the very lower cost one Wes choice out of his lower budget allowed on this project is required to deliver slight changes the operator delivers. Didn't understand everything you wrote about, but was able to catch enough to understand the basic idea.
I am blown away by all of this. I have owned an IT support company since I graduated high school (1995) and I’m semi-retired having made a good living in tech, yet, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with this project. I understand the general concepts and I own an excavator so I understand the principles of hydraulics, but watching you build and 3D print your cutting board was magical. As a business owner I also understand time and money too and your explanation about why patreon is important was THE best explanation I’ve ever heard. I always thought it was stupid that people just gave other people money to see them do dumb things, but watching your videos is like taking a course on how to get things done. I would LOVE to see a very detailed video on how you would convert that to wireless. How much do you need to do it? I also wondered while watching…if building that machine today would make it a viable product? Maybe the pumps are junk or newer design pumps would work better and be less sketchy. Regardless, this has been awesome to watch, but I understand it’s hard to monetize. Know there are alot of us nerds out in the world that believe you are an alien for being able to combine fixing a 7.3 diesel and programming c++!! I wish I was your neighbor we could do amazing things together! Great work!
you need a transmitter and receiver of some sort (many options, some more application-suitable than others), signal-loss failsafe (some wireless options make it easier than others), control-encoding protocol if you don't use something turn-key (many to choose from) my brother and I built a little R/C skidsteer about 60 pounds of anklebiter using a wireless Xbox controller, which the machine-side transceiver has a built-in signal loss monitor that can be used to E-stop On Lost Signal
As a student just getting into electrical engineering and software. This video was 30 minutes of pure bliss. I don’t think you give yourself enough credit with your knowledge of electronics, that was mighty impressive.
Heck yes to a Wes Made Alignment machine. As an owner of several TTB Fords, steering & suspension geometry seems like black magic, and most of the local shops just throw up their hands, or just set the toe, and say "good enough". When I tried to find resources on doing it myself, there are plenty of videos and articles that show "how" to get a proper alignment, but it's all strings and tape measures, and maybe an angle finder or two. If there's any math, it's just "rule of thumb" stuff. Nobody can seem to explain the actual trigonometry involved in going from a reference angle to proper caster and camber.
I think you might be over-complicating this. The kinematics of a suspension system don't really matter for an alignment - unless we're talking about modifying the suspension for custom race/drift setups. After all, you can't change how it moves on a stock setup. I totally agree that most local shops suck at alignments, I think mostly because they just set the numbers to 'green' and call it done - despite some of those measurements fighting each other while technically being 'in spec'. Strings and tape measures have won a lot of races, and I've sent several street cars down the road using this method with no complaints. There's nothing wrong with it if you're willing to learn how to do it this way and are meticulous enough to take good measurements. There's no trigonometry involved, just simple subtraction for toe measurements, and leveling/reading of bubble gauges for camber/caster.
@@blackmesaresearch2 One man's overcomplication is another man's learning process I guess. 🙂 I have nothing against strings & tape measures. And eventually I was able to dial in a setup that didn't eat tires and handled well. The reason I'm looking for something more in-depth is my desire to not have arrived where I did by basically trial and error. If I could read the level/angle finder and do some math and figure out how many degrees of caster & camber I actually had, then I would have saved many steps. On an A-arm vehicle with cam bolts, adjusting & checking alignment isn't that big a deal. On a Twin Traction Beam/Twin I Beam vehicle, an adjustment involves removing the wheel, undoing the pinch bolt, removing the alignment bushing, then reinstalling everything.
fastest way to align a ttb is to align your tires with the frame first, make sure the pitman arm is at 90 degrees with the steering wheel matching and then measure between the front and back edges of both tires, then drive it with 4x4 on, if you are off it will pull when you give it gas and can make guesses as to which side needs adjusted based on the visual pull you also get vs the body, just had to do this the other day
I was waiting for Mrs. Wes to say “have you seen my cutting board?” Glad to see you found a project to bring us along with. Definitely seems to have captured your interest and keeps you excited about.
I've made many trips to Walmart for plastic electronics mounting trays aka cutting boards. I thought I was the only one with that idea. Those flexible plastic cutting mats also make good battery cell separators / insulators.
0:45-18:37 is undoubtedly the greatest transition from mechanic to engineer/programmer in the TH-cam automotive genre, and I partake in said genre almost exclusively. Wes, that segment has the ability to stand on its own as an educational clip used in community colleges as an aid for teachers. Bravo!
As an industrial electrician, I'm glad you followed the standard working procedure of hitting and releasing the E-stop a couple times for shits and giggles after installing it.
The shot at 23:03 of you literally taking your robot for its first walk on a leash could not have been more perfect. I’m in total awe at your ingenuity and sticktoitiveness. Bravo, Wes! 👏
As a high school electronics student, electrician, and lifelong shade tree mechanic I think this is the greatest and most inspiring content I have seen. I’m amazed at the breadth and depth of your knowledge Wes!
Wes, I'm a 76 year old EE ( Purdue Un.) the first computer I programmed was a PDP 8( 8 bit binary) it used Punched paper cash register tape ; lamps and photocells shining through the holes in the tape or blocked by no hole. I learned Fortran IV programming as a freshman in 1965. I absolutely loved this video. I loved being " geaked out". My family insists I always have been! Keep up the great work for those of us who are entertained by arcane stupifing engineering projects. Excellent work.
Ah yes, the PDP 8. Remember it well. I worked for NOAA doing hydrographic surveying and that computer was our mainstay back in the 1970's. Water depths along half of the U.S. coastline were acquired with it. Always liked it. Simple, robust, and reliable.
Purdue AAE grad '94. Aerospace is full of decades old Fortran code. I started off with F77 but eventually stumbled into older NASA code that used overlays (poor man's memory management) and Hollerith constants.
Your mechanical,computer engineering, code writing, electrical, filming,editing,….ect…..ect…..ect….ect skills are absolutley amazing!!!!! All of us viewers are so blessed to be able to watch someone that’s so talented! Keep up the great work wes!!
Hi Wes, to make it easier to control, I have two suggestions. The first is each track could be outfitted with a speed sensor, then the control loops would be working on the velocity from the speed sensors. To drive straight, your control loops would be trying to push the difference between the left and right velocities to zero. This is an old trick and works great in situations where the tracks are gripping, not slipping. The second idea is to apply an exponential curve to your control inputs. This means the closer a control axis is to neutral, the less drive strength it has. This is commonly used in RC controllers. In fact you may consider just using an off the shelf RC controller since they usually have exponential control features built in. Anyway, great project, thanks for sharing :)
Wes you are amazing, I've worked with hydraulic systems for over 40 years. Retired now, what you did and explained was one of the most impressive feats I've ever seen. The programing aspects are way beyond my experience but you somehow made them understandable. You truly are a soft spoken humble genius, thank you.
Wes, as a former ASE Master Technician, and now a software engineer, your videos really hit home with me. I’m 62 now and absolutely love to watch you diagnose and fix a complex issue, as well as projects like this one. Keep doing this, I’ll be joining Patreon for this stuff. Also, YES, create the alignment machine!!!
Loved your class on hydraulics and electronics, Professor Wes. Not to mention the programming part and the video editing. You are truly a renaissance man.
Nice work! At what point does the machine become self aware, go back in time, and attempt to kill Sarah Connor? Because we'll need to pull the plug before that happens.
As a Patron, a network admin, and a shade tree mechanic, I fully support more videos like this too. I’ve created a few things from Arduino and Raspberry Pie at work to solve specific problems, and it’s immensely satisfying. Keep up the great work.
I know you keep saying you don't have Electrical Engineering skills, but as a former Electrical Engineer and now a Project Manager, you did exactly what we used to do (and still do) all the time. You made a working "bread board" (that is what we call it) prototype, splayed out into working sub-systems, manually wired up, and got a working prototype. Easy to develop on, easy to troubleshoot, exactly how it is done in the real world. Now that you have it working, if you had a student version of OrCAD or some other PCB layout tool, you could design a PCB controller board to reduce the "sketchiness" and probably get a online PCB house to fabricate a board for you. As a wireless interface you could probably use Bluetooth, WiFi, or other similar short range data interface to your controller. This has been a very cool project. If your local High School has a STEM or Computer Science class you could offer up the programming as a class project to the school. This would be a cool learning experience for the students. There is probably some up and coming SW programmer that could assist with this. Definitely worth a membership. I'm in.
@@indylmc have you been living under a rock? PCBs are relatively cheap to get made now, potentially as low as $5 for 10 two layer, 100x100 mm boards, of course shipping is extra though.
Kicad is good enough for most PCB design work and since it is open source it is completely free to use, no need to try and get student licenses or pay for licenses just for work like this.
I took electronics classes in the 60s. The term breadboarding came about because early creators used the wooden boards that were common in many kitchens for mixing and kneading bread dough on. They were about 2 feet square, the wood surface was perfect for laying out electrical circuits and the boards were cheap to buy back then. We used the wooden boards to lay out circuits to prove the design. They started getting some of the plastic boards in my senior year.
@@WatchWesWork Alongside your idea for a homemade Alignment machine, how about a homemade locking tool chest, seeing if you can beat the price of a Snap-On tool chest
First, a DIY alignment rack would be legendary! And you could probably set yourself financially for a very long time if you make a usable model! Second, it's absolutely insane that you put this much work into making this machine work just to make a video for us to watch! We appreciate your efforts Wes! This video blew me away.
You were both literally AND figuratively 'bread board' prototyping this thing... Amazing. And as for this kind of content and more of your 'cornfield engineering' ideas I can simply say YES!
Damn Wes. I wish I had even a fraction of your knowledge on electronics. Very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing that thing wireless, and I have a feeling you are going to get it working better than it ever did in the first place.
John, good to see you doing something other than starting excavator on fire! Sorry, just a little jab! LoL 😂😆 Eagerly awaiting your next video on that tractor!
How about doing a collaboration with Wes helping him pick up a few thousand subscribers? I have a feeling your subscribers would definitely enjoy Wes's content!
Honestly Wes has the kind of mind that if he was born in the 1920’s or 30’s this is the brain that deciphered the enigma machine or created the timing Mechanism for torpedoes in depth charges. Your truly amazing my friend
No one decyphered the Enigma machine. It was commercially for sale. Before Poland fell they sent one to the British. What they did was figure out how to crack the wheel code fast. Which was an impressive feat. But mainly they did it through gaming stupid operators. Some would always sign off the same way. That would give the code breakers cribs. If you had a handful of letters you could work back from there.
Two joysticks for tank steering might be easier than the single joystick. I piloted many robots in high school and college and always preferred two joysticks instead of 1. You can get clever and have a switch that changes what the joystick is controlling, just like an MPG handwheel on a CNC machine can jog any axis but only has one wheel. Absolutely more engineering videos!
Yea, had a scissor lift with a single joystick forward/back left/right setup like Wes made and it was horrible to drive! Never could get it to reliable move how I wanted it to either.
Your modular track setup should make two joysticks easy, relatively. Maybe better quality joy stick from Remote Control model airplane gear? When you have to fix the new unit to install it, well...
Man it was exciting to see it move finally, I'm totally invested in this series. The electronics work, though on a cutting board, was quite impressive. I'm all for more of these engineering type videos, this format and the method of delivery does have a pretty big audience. Information & results > production
Amazing. There's so much in this video. The moving hydraulic diagrams with explanations, the comparison of 80s/90s tech with what you can do today, the valve centering model, a bit of 3D printing, a bit of coding, a bit of signals analysis, a bit of electronics, jokes, danger. It's got it all!
I have to say that you’re precisely the right person to own this contraption, because I can’t imagine anyone else having the right combination of mechanical and electrical know how, not to mention the patience, to get it functional. Just friggen brilliant!! Well done!
LOOOOOOVE this project! It might sucks to spend that many hours in programming and not beeing able to translate that directly into content. Like building something for 30 hours can get you a 1 to 2 part video, but 30 hours of programming, is just a 30 sec montage!
Wes....I've watched you religiously for years now and have never commented. I love all your content and especially the variation in it. You put forth a TON of effort and it shows. Having said that, this is, BY FAR, the best video you have EVER made thus far. Keep up the awesome work my friend! I sooo look forward to your videos. You made my week dude... you're a good man.
This is really one of your best videos. Education (great diagram explaining the hydraulics), storytelling, video production, Wes exploring new stuff, humor with the wife, this has it all. Absolutely love that format. Must have been a great joy for you when driving it for the first time down the driveay. Felt happy for you. Thanks for that!
I was just glad to hear you say that what I thought was an Ikea bamboo cutting board forming the base of all the electronics, wasn't actually a bamboo cutting board. Because that would have been sketchy. Absolutely love this project. You're awesome Wes.
Watched it twice so far.Your most interesting project to date. I now understand why a friend who teaches at TAFE (Technical and further Education College) here in OZ has made the viewing of a number of your videos compulsory for his students. His objective is to show them how to go about problem solving. You are all the things other folk compliment you on and a fine teacher too. I'm into my ninth decade and still learning. Thanks.
Wes, as a senior level mechanical engineer with a couple of decades of experience with hydraulics, controls and programming, I have to say your capabilities are quite impressive. I've been a fan of yours for a while. But this is next level. I think this one video is the best thing I've ever seen on YT. Well done, sir. I'm headed to Patreon now.
Wes, I am an embedded software developer and I loved this video. Just a note that it is now really easy and cheap to draw out circuit boards and have them built. There are templates for the Adruinos so that you can drop the pin headers right onto the design.
Dang Wes a true level 10 project. You are really a man's man. Your ability to break down complex physics, programming and mechanical concepts into easy to understand and simple demonstrations is genius. You are teaching 10s of thousands of people how to trouble shoot and understand problems. Getting your Robot working is a triumph in and of itself. However the true triumph is getting us to understand how that thing works and teaching us the process so we can apply it to our problems and projects. Thank you for sharing your talents, your process and your adventures. And God bless your wife for her understanding of a man's need to piddle with projects.
As a mere mortal with 30 plus years of twisting wrenches on HD equipment I salute you Wes. You explained everything we needed to know to follow along and understand what is going on.
First thing Sunday morning I wake up and watch this episode. I'm immediately chuckling out loud and fully engrossed by your analytical way of solving this electromechanical, hydraulic mystery, killing machine's manual of operation. Your sense of humor significantly heightens the experience. This is the ultimate, industrial version RC toy. Make it wireless and you could sit in a watchtower and run a logging operation. The perfect epilog was with your wife's comments . You are blessed to have each other. Thank you Wes !!!!!
I've not made it though the entire video yet, but as a novice at...life. From 10:37 to 10:47 is probably the simplest and most profound way to explain a hydraulic pump connected to a hydraulic motor. Wes, thank you for distilling very complex information down to very simple concepts that the rest of us can understand.
I’m impressed you can remember your programming knowledge from 20 years ago as I can barely remember programming I learned 5 years ago. You really showed off your range of skills here.
you have totally outdone yourself! I'm a retired electrical engineer who does all of the 'hobby' type stuff you have done. It's not as easy as you demonstrate, I can only speculate the time you've spent on this project, bravo!
Love this format! I’m a computer guy working on cars and this bridges both worlds. Love the built by a guy in a corn field engineering and I want more. Go for it.
The quality of this series is on a different level. You have taken on a position of a proffesor with real experience who can explain engineering concepts so well. I think the 5300 likes and 0 dislikes so far is a good representation of how awesome this is. Im headed to patreon to send some your way so you can keep making this level of content and I hope a significant amount of your viewers join in. You deserve your current success and so much more. Crazy to see how far you've come from PM and the cnc repair videos.
What you performed as a "side" project, is just incredible. I'm a mechatronics technician by trade and this is right up my alley way. Seen the project going through its phases is awesome and probs to you for for building everything on the control side from ground up, it's truly impressive. Please keep on going and take your time, stuff like this is not worth the rush💪💪
We had a First Gen Scissor Lift when I started in the trade with a similar "Full Speed" or "Lunching" situation. We found a bypass valve that we could manually adjust to allow more or less hydraulic fluid to be used for a certain funtion. Essentially we'd choose, "do we want to drive fast or lift fast?". I think if you added a bypass valve in the pressure line operated by a variable state solenoid, you could control the amount of fluid going to the hydraulic drives. Instead of full on/off mode 100%, you could choose 25% and allow 75% of the fluids simply to retrurn to the tank. By openning or closing that return line you could regulate the hydraulic pressure to the drive wheels...Love your content Wes. Keep up the great work!!
Wes this was your best video ever. The effort you put into this was incredible. The humor, the knowledge, the storytelling. Perfect Being from the same area of the world (quad cities) I’m happy to see amazing content come from our neck of the corn field.
Wow... just wow, Iike to think I have a reasonable understanding of machines and electronics.. but watching this I felt like a dog watching someone rebuild a car, very interested and understood the words.. but together meant very little 😂 Absolutely outstanding work as always and a fantastic video. Thank you 😊
Next week.. “my new weekend job at Boston dynamics” 😄. I’m beyond impressed with this video. Man you’ve some serious academic knowledge, high end theory and tech ability as well as insane level of tech problem solving skills.
As soon as you said "full nerd mode" my eyes glazed over. I almost switched you off. But you actually made me, a guy that struggled to figure out an abacus, almost understand it. Well done. You da man, Wes!
Yes yes.... I can see WES taking apart a robot vacuum and incorporating it into the BEAST to plow snow, cut grass and harvest the corn from the field, all from the comfort of his ARMOUR PLATED office. 😁👍
'Limited electronic knowledge' my foot...this is the best series u have done, MOST INTERRESTING...the rv episode is still the funniest i have ever watched! Be safe around that thing, 'squishy human', LOL!!!
Some advice regarding joystick controls from a kid who competed in high school robotics for years. Two joysticks is better than one. Split apart your front/back control from your left/right control. For my team we always had front to back control on the y-axis of the left hand joystick and left to right control on the x-axis of the right hand joystick. (Think how there are two joysicks side by side on a playstation controller). This allows you to know that you are only feeding the controller forward motion and no rotation when trying to drive straight for example. Also, a very simple way to improve the feel of your joystick is to cube the analog output before using it in your controller. e.x. instead of y = Joystick_1_AnalogVal (scaled -1 to 1) use y = Joystick_1_AnalogVal ^ 3 (this also gives an output of -1 to 1 for a joystick input of -1 to 1). Just plot y=x and y=x^3 on the same graph and you will understand. This has two benefits, 1st increasing the deadband around 0, this prevents sticktion in the joystick from causing continual drive commands. And the second benefit may just be personal preference, but the rest of the curve just "feels" like a better mapping of joystick input to system output. Any other difficulties with driving after implementing those changes are likely either poor tuning of your hydraulic solenoid PID current control or inherent non-linearity in the hydraulic system. In highschool robotics we had the benefit of using electric motors for almost everything so I did not encounter those issues.
Wow. Just wow. You either already had these electronic, programming, hydraulic and CNC skills. Which is impressive. Or you just learnt them all in a short space of time. Which is even more impressive. And, just to add to the workload, both in hours and brain-ache, you help the rest of us understand what you're doing by putting good looking, helpful diagrams WHICH ARE ANIMATED in the explanation section. Speaking as a nerd, I'd have happily watched a huge amount more detail of the analysis, electronics and programming. I may (very well) be in a minority. There are guys on TH-cam who have done detailed "how I made machine CNC", but I'm not sure they get the big viewing numbers. Yours in jaw dropped awe, a viewer.
It is content like this (along with your dad's shed, and many others) that have convinced me that i must become a patron. Thanks for having such a reasonable membership!!
Heeew buddy! This is awsome stuff, once you go wireless and get it working reliably, you can blade snow from your front porch in winter, and when your working on non runners you can hook them up and tow them in to the workshop while you man the steering wheel with one hand and the joystick with the other and still jump out and make sure your clearing everything! 🎉 😮 😊
Sometimes, no matter how clever you think you are, you get reminded that you actually know absolutely nothing about anything. Today I watched a mechanical genius reverse engineer a logging robot from nothing and I realised that I actually know even less than I thought I did, (although I know a lot more than I did at the start of this video courtesy of Professor Wes). Outstanding work Sir, and very nicely presented, its stuff like this that the internet was invented for.
Wes, You have the most amazing integration of mechanical, hydraulic, electronics, controls, and digital knowledge. Along with communication, teaching, and problem formation and solving skills. Plus, you are a regular nice guy. Truly impressive. I’m a 67 year old electrical engineer with an electronics and power systems background. You are the most knowledgeable and impressively well rounded person I’ve seen in these areas. All the best to you and your family. Shoot for the stars.
Wes was a CNC machine tool technician in his former life, and an excellent one at that. In the world of CNC machining centers, those are all common systems on most machines. Add in pneumatics, computer architecture, programming, machinist, fabricator, and probably the most important, the ability to logically troubleshoot complex systems as additional skills needed to be a really good CNC tech. An Arduino style microcontroller is perfect to use as a mini PLC to control hardware like this, do it all the time. The 3D printer goes hand in hand doing this stuff, huge time saver over having to whittle it out on a mill/lathe. Wish I could hang out with him, uncanny how similar we are. I suspect Wes may be a bit Aspergerish too...
You are so dang smart. Your parents must be so proud to have such a smart son. And no, I'm not being a wise acre. You are putting those engineers to shame. Not only can you make the thing work, then you can turn around and teach the rest of us who don't have that knowledge. Both are gifts, and they are very separate gifts. You are a flippin' genius, my friend. I think Matt's Off-Road Recovery needs that thing for sketchy rescues.
I have been reading through many of the comments and cannot add more except to agree with every single positive remark wholeheartedly! You are the Best You Tuber of them all and I am proud to be a Patreon contributor and only wish I could give more! Thank You Wes!
I was very impressed with your explanation of PWM. I'm a Cerified Raymond Forklift Technician and our lift controllers use the exact same setup to regulate speed of lift or reach functions on our more complex trucks. I had what I considered to be a good understanding of it, but your explanation was as good if not better than the people in our company who teach it daily. Great video yet again.
Oh that clip at the end with Mrs. Watch Wes is pure gold! We need more of that. I'm loving this project. I have absolutely zero idea how you can even begin to know how to do all that electronic stuff, and programming. I think I could lean Chinese easier. You are way way way smarter than you know. I can kinda follow along with the hydraulic stuff, but seeing you custom build a controller is just... wow! What is the end game with this robot? Or is this all just for fun? I still like the comment in a past video who suggested a way to plow the driveway from the comfort of your living room. Keep up the good work, I'm very impressed!
"When you tore our dishwasher apart? This is way worse!" Missing: does the dishwasher still work? Does it work *better*? Inquiring minds... (Seriously -- sometimes you just gotta dive in and figure out how to fix stuff)
I just have to say, the amount of work you put into your visual aids to explain all this is amazing and very much appreciated. The quality is like that of an old school science show, I can see these demonstrations being used in classrooms.
All I can say is WOW!! Wes, this video shows your next level mechanical/electrical/programming expertise!! I rarely comment, but this video blew me away!!
Dang Wes-you’re the man! I thought this project was going nowhere when you retrieved it from the barn (yard art or parts), but here we are watching it do what it’s supposed to do, mostly.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️🔧✌🏻
You can help make more videos like this at patreon.com/watchweswork
We really appreciate it!
Wes, the end of the video had me cracking up! love your sense of humor. The alignment project sound interesting, I hope you build it.
lol i already deleted the parts that dont work... well thats codeing i guess and i dont do it . do you think my basic experience would be of use happy to collaborate lol . humour aside thanks for the videos and somehow education happened grats on the success,
Afternoon Wes and family... I just signed up to be a patreon! I have to see this through! I'm absolutely hooked!!!
Really enjoyed this video, Wes. You’re the very definition of a Self-sufficient Man. And multi-talented into the bargain. Can’t wait to see this sketchy little monster making quick work of a tree! 😁👍🏻
Soon as the fancy board building montage started, I searched out your patreon and thought man he needs to advertise this after I didn't see it under the video description. I subscribed and then returned to watch the rest of the video, where you then said it was in the comments 😂
Wes's 'limited knowledge of electronics'....proceeds to perform expert eletronics work
Then imagine him doing stuff he says he knows a lot about.
I was just going to reply the same thing! I build guitar pedals which I call a very limited knowledge of electronics. Wes is brilliant!
@timidater4803 I used to test and repair industrial control boards for pollution control and broadcast. I built their test fixtures. Wes did a great job with this. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Way better EE than many I have worked with. :)
@@kevinkennedy8677 EE "design". Electronic techs make it work !
I can’t remember the last time I was as impressed with anything as I was with this video. Reverse engineering a pilot project with nothing other than your own ingenuity? Amazing, truly amazing…
I agree hell I couldn't think of how to say wat you said .. hes a genius
“It was built by…”
👉😐
“…some guy in a corn field.”
😂😂
…and I’m pretty sure Superman was raised around the corner. I think the corn must accelerate super powers, which explains Wes’s superior, innate abilities. No, really! 🔧👍
That was a good line.😂😂
"Build it, They will come!"
You know, now that you’ve done all that work, somebody will send you a message saying “Hey Wes, I have the actual remote for that if you want it!”
I'm scrolling now looking for just that
My wife has always been impressed with my ability to figure out and fix anything that breaks in the house. Cars, furnace, A/C, etc. I do not want her seeing your videos or she’ll figure out how much of an amateur I actually am.
You're still a hero!
Ditto.
LOL! See, the answer for your wife is that you don't have the right tools (for whatever job you're working on) so if she wants you to be able to fix things, she needs to be ok with you buying the tools you need for each job. Best way to get a shop full of all the tools you want :)
This is the truth right here!
@@colin8532Genius! Honey! Read this! Oh wait, nevermind...,
As a mechanical engineer turned electrical engineer with some computer curiosity mixed in, this series has been a ton of fun to watch. Love learning new things!
As a guy that went to Electronics Institutes in Pittsburgh back in the 70's and had to learn the operation of vacuum tubes,(plate-grid, etc) to transistors ( npn / pnp).
I'm just a dinosaur now!
But.retired and happy!
Don't wanna learn anymore, but love to watch (in awe!)
I'm a real engineer, I build engines, not wires. Technically, you are now an electrician. Much better than a sanitary engineer, though.
@@jp-um2fr Do you have your own train and everything?
@@TheBrookian let's be
'Civil ' now ! LOL 😆
My parents told me I could be anything I wanted. So I became a problem. I also ran with scissors today. I also enjoyed it.
One of the coolest guys on TH-cam. Had no idea how universally educated he is.
go back and watch his old CNC machine repair videos
His middle name must be da Vinci
Way over-educated for the "guy living in a corn field" thing. His neighbors are way lucky he's around.
I like it when really smart people are super humble and sarcastic. It’s fun to watch you reveal a little bit of that here. I’ll take the guy from the cornfield any day.
I'm not sure how many people in the world could repair the engine,reverse engineer the missing controller and build a new one but I am glad you ended up with it. I'm enjoying this series!
Wes I've got zero understanding of this but your explanation/working diagrams made it interesting & understandable. Love to see more videos. Wireless would be cool.
I sincerely hope some high school shop teacher sees this and shares it in class. Your ability to articulately explain the problem and then walk through the repair process is bar none. Fantastic job Wes.
I wholeheartedly agree. Including the illustrations and models.
I am that high school shop teacher that will be sharing this next week. My students and I thought we were onto something last year when we made VEX robotics controllers trigger lawn mower solenoids and drive drill motor robots running off drill batteries. Those students will eat this high level engineering up!
@@colt250ss Wes is next level, his knowledge is amazing.
Wes, as a company owner I had to long ago understand that I might be a visionary but that the key to growth was to keep a sensitive eye out for those whose talents and drive would move the company forward and raise the standards-the bar. They also had to be teachable and be able to teach.
You are that kind of person. Your family should be proud
The all new Wes Automated Roving Robot. WARR for short. 😆
@justinagrella3065 thats awesome ! Lol
Wes, you need to add calibrations for each solenoid on the motor drive valves. You need to find the current command at which each track starts to turn and save into EEPROM. Then you adjust your solenoid commands using this "start current" so that you get a consistent initiation on each function. Typically, you'd also calibrate a "max current" point which provides the same reference speed for each function.
For the solenoid dither, you need to tune these settings with the goal of minimizing the hysteresis of the actuator valve. To do this, you need to measure the position of the actuator in real-time as you sweep your solenoid commands up and down. A cross-plot of actuator position vs solenoid current will show the hysteresis. Then adjust the dither frequency (Hz) and magnitude (mA) to find the optimal set the reduces the hysteris and provides good linearity in the actuator. Typically, this is around 100 Hz and 150 mA peak-to-peak but will vary based on the design of the coil, valve, and current driver design.
Once you've tuned the hysteris and calibrated each solenoid, you need to add some rate limits to your solenoid current commands in order make the machine track smoothly.
Looks like a fun project, good luck!
I was thinking of a form of feedback but the valve calibrations is good.
Usually, a calibration is good enough and doesn't add the complexity of a closed loop control.
Good God you sound like an electrical genius. Almost none of what you said was even English 🤣
Excellenty written.
Maybe add a low and high rate switch to switch from a low rate current to the maximum / high rate coil current. Or to switch between low and high rate joystick to current mapping of the output pins.
I'm guessing the accuracy of the $3000 joysticks and the very lower cost one Wes choice out of his lower budget allowed on this project is required to deliver slight changes the operator delivers.
Didn't understand everything you wrote about, but was able to catch enough to understand the basic idea.
I am blown away by all of this. I have owned an IT support company since I graduated high school (1995) and I’m semi-retired having made a good living in tech, yet, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with this project. I understand the general concepts and I own an excavator so I understand the principles of hydraulics, but watching you build and 3D print your cutting board was magical. As a business owner I also understand time and money too and your explanation about why patreon is important was THE best explanation I’ve ever heard. I always thought it was stupid that people just gave other people money to see them do dumb things, but watching your videos is like taking a course on how to get things done. I would LOVE to see a very detailed video on how you would convert that to wireless. How much do you need to do it? I also wondered while watching…if building that machine today would make it a viable product? Maybe the pumps are junk or newer design pumps would work better and be less sketchy. Regardless, this has been awesome to watch, but I understand it’s hard to monetize. Know there are alot of us nerds out in the world that believe you are an alien for being able to combine fixing a 7.3 diesel and programming c++!! I wish I was your neighbor we could do amazing things together! Great work!
you need a transmitter and receiver of some sort (many options, some more application-suitable than others), signal-loss failsafe (some wireless options make it easier than others), control-encoding protocol if you don't use something turn-key (many to choose from)
my brother and I built a little R/C skidsteer about 60 pounds of anklebiter using a wireless Xbox controller, which the machine-side transceiver has a built-in signal loss monitor that can be used to E-stop On Lost Signal
The smile on your face as you were remotely driving the machine was the smile of a very proud parent. Great job, well done. ❤❤❤
I think it was a look that says "I'm ready to run for my life".
@@WatchWesWork Why not both?! xD
As a student just getting into electrical engineering and software. This video was 30 minutes of pure bliss. I don’t think you give yourself enough credit with your knowledge of electronics, that was mighty impressive.
This is awesome.
Heck yes to a Wes Made Alignment machine. As an owner of several TTB Fords, steering & suspension geometry seems like black magic, and most of the local shops just throw up their hands, or just set the toe, and say "good enough".
When I tried to find resources on doing it myself, there are plenty of videos and articles that show "how" to get a proper alignment, but it's all strings and tape measures, and maybe an angle finder or two. If there's any math, it's just "rule of thumb" stuff. Nobody can seem to explain the actual trigonometry involved in going from a reference angle to proper caster and camber.
I think you might be over-complicating this. The kinematics of a suspension system don't really matter for an alignment - unless we're talking about modifying the suspension for custom race/drift setups. After all, you can't change how it moves on a stock setup. I totally agree that most local shops suck at alignments, I think mostly because they just set the numbers to 'green' and call it done - despite some of those measurements fighting each other while technically being 'in spec'.
Strings and tape measures have won a lot of races, and I've sent several street cars down the road using this method with no complaints. There's nothing wrong with it if you're willing to learn how to do it this way and are meticulous enough to take good measurements. There's no trigonometry involved, just simple subtraction for toe measurements, and leveling/reading of bubble gauges for camber/caster.
@@blackmesaresearch2 One man's overcomplication is another man's learning process I guess. 🙂
I have nothing against strings & tape measures. And eventually I was able to dial in a setup that didn't eat tires and handled well. The reason I'm looking for something more in-depth is my desire to not have arrived where I did by basically trial and error. If I could read the level/angle finder and do some math and figure out how many degrees of caster & camber I actually had, then I would have saved many steps.
On an A-arm vehicle with cam bolts, adjusting & checking alignment isn't that big a deal. On a Twin Traction Beam/Twin I Beam vehicle, an adjustment involves removing the wheel, undoing the pinch bolt, removing the alignment bushing, then reinstalling everything.
Have you tried kicking or hitting stuff if it doesn't drive straight ..? The Ultra-Violence method of suspension alignment .
fastest way to align a ttb is to align your tires with the frame first, make sure the pitman arm is at 90 degrees with the steering wheel matching and then measure between the front and back edges of both tires, then drive it with 4x4 on, if you are off it will pull when you give it gas and can make guesses as to which side needs adjusted based on the visual pull you also get vs the body, just had to do this the other day
I was waiting for Mrs. Wes to say “have you seen my cutting board?”
Glad to see you found a project to bring us along with. Definitely seems to have captured your interest and keeps you excited about.
🤣
I've made many trips to Walmart for plastic electronics mounting trays aka cutting boards. I thought I was the only one with that idea. Those flexible plastic cutting mats also make good battery cell separators / insulators.
PLEASE, please keep doing engineering videos! I enjoy your problem-solving vehicle vehicles too, but this is much more exiting.
“A 2 ton diesel powered robot on tank tracks” I love it. Sounds like something right out of Wolfenstein.
0:45-18:37 is undoubtedly the greatest transition from mechanic to engineer/programmer in the TH-cam automotive genre, and I partake in said genre almost exclusively. Wes, that segment has the ability to stand on its own as an educational clip used in community colleges as an aid for teachers. Bravo!
As an industrial electrician, I'm glad you followed the standard working procedure of hitting and releasing the E-stop a couple times for shits and giggles after installing it.
Sparkys version of "That's not going anywhere!"
Fact! On point.
The shot at 23:03 of you literally taking your robot for its first walk on a leash could not have been more perfect. I’m in total awe at your ingenuity and sticktoitiveness. Bravo, Wes! 👏
I was waiting for a yelp and the skidder took off across the fields😀 and a chase scene
If you could get it back to wireless and put some cameras on it you could plow your parking lot from your couch
Omg! This is the same comment I just posted before I saw yours! Great Minds think alike!
Absolutely! Draw a box with x/y lat/lon and and hit run. The Roamba.
I was thinking Wes could put it on the Internet and have everyone able to control it to clear snow. What could go wrong.
As a high school electronics student, electrician, and lifelong shade tree mechanic I think this is the greatest and most inspiring content I have seen. I’m amazed at the breadth and depth of your knowledge Wes!
Your lovely wife with her dry humor and digs needs to be in more of your videos!
Wes, I'm a 76 year old EE ( Purdue Un.) the first computer I programmed was a PDP 8( 8 bit binary) it used Punched paper cash register tape ; lamps and photocells shining through the holes in the tape or blocked by no hole. I learned Fortran IV programming as a freshman in 1965. I absolutely loved this video. I loved being " geaked out". My family insists I always have been! Keep up the great work for those of us who are entertained by arcane stupifing engineering projects. Excellent work.
Ah yes, the PDP 8. Remember it well. I worked for NOAA doing hydrographic surveying and that computer was our mainstay back in the 1970's. Water depths along half of the U.S. coastline were acquired with it. Always liked it. Simple, robust, and reliable.
Yeah, I'm not a fraction of you guys but still enjoy this channel, much respect.
Purdue AAE grad '94. Aerospace is full of decades old Fortran code. I started off with F77 but eventually stumbled into older NASA code that used overlays (poor man's memory management) and Hollerith constants.
DEC! DEC! DEC!!!!!!
@@denjhill Small world!! I worked for NAVOCEANO and we used the PDP-8i and the PDP-9 for Hydrographic Data Acquisition on our survey boats and ships.
Your mechanical,computer engineering, code writing, electrical, filming,editing,….ect…..ect…..ect….ect skills are absolutley amazing!!!!! All of us viewers are so blessed to be able to watch someone that’s so talented! Keep up the great work wes!!
etc.
Hi Wes, to make it easier to control, I have two suggestions. The first is each track could be outfitted with a speed sensor, then the control loops would be working on the velocity from the speed sensors. To drive straight, your control loops would be trying to push the difference between the left and right velocities to zero. This is an old trick and works great in situations where the tracks are gripping, not slipping. The second idea is to apply an exponential curve to your control inputs. This means the closer a control axis is to neutral, the less drive strength it has. This is commonly used in RC controllers. In fact you may consider just using an off the shelf RC controller since they usually have exponential control features built in. Anyway, great project, thanks for sharing :)
Wes you are amazing, I've worked with hydraulic systems for over 40 years. Retired now, what you did and explained was one of the most impressive feats I've ever seen. The programing aspects are way beyond my experience but you somehow made them understandable. You truly are a soft spoken humble genius, thank you.
"Soft spoken humble genius " Nailed it 👍 My 70 year old brain melted watching this - I have NFI how Wes can do this stuff.
@@glenndarragh4417And it’s such a pleasure to watch!!
Wes, as a former ASE Master Technician, and now a software engineer, your videos really hit home with me. I’m 62 now and absolutely love to watch you diagnose and fix a complex issue, as well as projects like this one. Keep doing this, I’ll be joining Patreon for this stuff. Also, YES, create the alignment machine!!!
He’s gone from having no idea how it works to walking it like a dog in his front yard. I love this series. Perfect Sunday morning watch
Loved your class on hydraulics and electronics, Professor Wes.
Not to mention the programming part and the video editing.
You are truly a renaissance man.
Nice work! At what point does the machine become self aware, go back in time, and attempt to kill Sarah Connor? Because we'll need to pull the plug before that happens.
As a Patron, a network admin, and a shade tree mechanic, I fully support more videos like this too. I’ve created a few things from Arduino and Raspberry Pie at work to solve specific problems, and it’s immensely satisfying. Keep up the great work.
I know you keep saying you don't have Electrical Engineering skills, but as a former Electrical Engineer and now a Project Manager, you did exactly what we used to do (and still do) all the time. You made a working "bread board" (that is what we call it) prototype, splayed out into working sub-systems, manually wired up, and got a working prototype. Easy to develop on, easy to troubleshoot, exactly how it is done in the real world. Now that you have it working, if you had a student version of OrCAD or some other PCB layout tool, you could design a PCB controller board to reduce the "sketchiness" and probably get a online PCB house to fabricate a board for you. As a wireless interface you could probably use Bluetooth, WiFi, or other similar short range data interface to your controller. This has been a very cool project. If your local High School has a STEM or Computer Science class you could offer up the programming as a class project to the school. This would be a cool learning experience for the students. There is probably some up and coming SW programmer that could assist with this. Definitely worth a membership. I'm in.
You can get PCBs made for $50 or so. I'm using KiCAD for electronics. It's free and does PCB layout.
@@indylmc have you been living under a rock? PCBs are relatively cheap to get made now, potentially as low as $5 for 10 two layer, 100x100 mm boards, of course shipping is extra though.
Kicad is good enough for most PCB design work and since it is open source it is completely free to use, no need to try and get student licenses or pay for licenses just for work like this.
I took electronics classes in the 60s. The term breadboarding came about because early creators used the wooden boards that were common in many kitchens for mixing and kneading bread dough on. They were about 2 feet square, the wood surface was perfect for laying out electrical circuits and the boards were cheap to buy back then. We used the wooden boards to lay out circuits to prove the design. They started getting some of the plastic boards in my senior year.
@@WatchWesWork Alongside your idea for a homemade Alignment machine, how about a homemade locking tool chest, seeing if you can beat the price of a Snap-On tool chest
Taking the robot for a walk? Man, that truly is one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen on youtube. Fantastic work Wes.
First, a DIY alignment rack would be legendary! And you could probably set yourself financially for a very long time if you make a usable model!
Second, it's absolutely insane that you put this much work into making this machine work just to make a video for us to watch! We appreciate your efforts Wes!
This video blew me away.
You were both literally AND figuratively 'bread board' prototyping this thing... Amazing. And as for this kind of content and more of your 'cornfield engineering' ideas I can simply say YES!
I don't know why I couldn't stop laughing as you drove your little demon child out of the shop. Dr. Frankenstein in awe of his creation.
Damn Wes. I wish I had even a fraction of your knowledge on electronics. Very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing that thing wireless, and I have a feeling you are going to get it working better than it ever did in the first place.
I hope I do. This things needs to go back to work!
John, good to see you doing something other than starting excavator on fire! Sorry, just a little jab! LoL 😂😆
Eagerly awaiting your next video on that tractor!
How about doing a collaboration with Wes helping him pick up a few thousand subscribers? I have a feeling your subscribers would definitely enjoy Wes's content!
As fun as the technical work was - the conversation with your wife at the end was the best part. Amazing job and wonderful video. Thank you.
I thought so too. I wasn't going to include it. Glad I did.
Honestly Wes has the kind of mind that if he was born in the 1920’s or 30’s this is the brain that deciphered the enigma machine or created the timing
Mechanism for torpedoes in depth charges. Your truly amazing my friend
No one decyphered the Enigma machine. It was commercially for sale. Before Poland fell they sent one to the British. What they did was figure out how to crack the wheel code fast. Which was an impressive feat. But mainly they did it through gaming stupid operators. Some would always sign off the same way. That would give the code breakers cribs. If you had a handful of letters you could work back from there.
Two joysticks for tank steering might be easier than the single joystick. I piloted many robots in high school and college and always preferred two joysticks instead of 1. You can get clever and have a switch that changes what the joystick is controlling, just like an MPG handwheel on a CNC machine can jog any axis but only has one wheel.
Absolutely more engineering videos!
Yea, had a scissor lift with a single joystick forward/back left/right setup like Wes made and it was horrible to drive! Never could get it to reliable move how I wanted it to either.
Your modular track setup should make two joysticks easy, relatively. Maybe better quality joy stick from Remote Control model airplane gear? When you have to fix the new unit to install it, well...
Man it was exciting to see it move finally, I'm totally invested in this series. The electronics work, though on a cutting board, was quite impressive. I'm all for more of these engineering type videos, this format and the method of delivery does have a pretty big audience. Information & results > production
Amazing. There's so much in this video. The moving hydraulic diagrams with explanations, the comparison of 80s/90s tech with what you can do today, the valve centering model, a bit of 3D printing, a bit of coding, a bit of signals analysis, a bit of electronics, jokes, danger. It's got it all!
I have to say that you’re precisely the right person to own this contraption, because I can’t imagine anyone else having the right combination of mechanical and electrical know how, not to mention the patience, to get it functional. Just friggen brilliant!! Well done!
Im 67 and just recently retired this is so out of my league but I love it you are not just a car fixer you are a very talented person
LOOOOOOVE this project! It might sucks to spend that many hours in programming and not beeing able to translate that directly into content. Like building something for 30 hours can get you a 1 to 2 part video, but 30 hours of programming, is just a 30 sec montage!
Wes....I've watched you religiously for years now and have never commented. I love all your content and especially the variation in it. You put forth a TON of effort and it shows. Having said that, this is, BY FAR, the best video you have EVER made thus far. Keep up the awesome work my friend! I sooo look forward to your videos. You made my week dude... you're a good man.
You freaking blow me away. You have a brilliant mind. Keep producing, and we’ll keep watching!
You had me at "full nerd mode".
A wireless sketchy tank bulldozer is always a good idea. Loving this thing. Really interesting
This is really one of your best videos. Education (great diagram explaining the hydraulics), storytelling, video production, Wes exploring new stuff, humor with the wife, this has it all. Absolutely love that format. Must have been a great joy for you when driving it for the first time down the driveay. Felt happy for you. Thanks for that!
I have to agree on the diagram and solenoid "prop". Great educational tools.
That could work as a tow vehicle when the misses is unavailable! Make it wireless and you can control the tow and move things around alone...
It could also be used as an a remote controlled self propelling engine hoist. Could be useful considering some of the vehicles wes works on.
Multipurpose vehicle, towing, plowing snow and engine hoist.
@@olds69trondjarle Yes, snow plowing with way-points and collision avoidance would be hilarious to see!
Thanks. I was going to write the exact same thing. 😂
I was just glad to hear you say that what I thought was an Ikea bamboo cutting board forming the base of all the electronics, wasn't actually a bamboo cutting board. Because that would have been sketchy.
Absolutely love this project. You're awesome Wes.
In the antique electronics world that is called a "Bread board"! and quite literally it is one.
@@TheShawna1 high voltage stuff used slate as a backer
@@TheShawna1 now that you mention the word bread board, I've caught the humor of his choice of base!
@@imchris5000LoL 😂😆
Unlike the guys that intentionally run extremely high current/voltage through wood to obtain the burn marks/path!
Absolutely brilliant, a guy builds his own remote from bare components, 3D prints anything he needs and attaches it all to a chopping board.
When I said I liked your electrical content I was not expecting a buffet.
Watched it twice so far.Your most interesting project to date. I now understand why a friend who teaches at TAFE (Technical and further Education College) here in OZ has made the viewing of a number of your videos compulsory for his students. His objective is to show them how to go about problem solving. You are all the things other folk compliment you on and a fine teacher too. I'm into my ninth decade and still learning. Thanks.
Wes, as a senior level mechanical engineer with a couple of decades of experience with hydraulics, controls and programming, I have to say your capabilities are quite impressive. I've been a fan of yours for a while. But this is next level. I think this one video is the best thing I've ever seen on YT. Well done, sir. I'm headed to Patreon now.
I agree, this was definitely one of your best videos ever Wes
Wes, I am an embedded software developer and I loved this video. Just a note that it is now really easy and cheap to draw out circuit boards and have them built. There are templates for the Adruinos so that you can drop the pin headers right onto the design.
I’m using KiCAD to do just that. It’s new territory but it think I can figure it out.
Dang Wes a true level 10 project. You are really a man's man. Your ability to break down complex physics, programming and mechanical concepts into easy to understand and simple demonstrations is genius.
You are teaching 10s of thousands of people how to trouble shoot and understand problems. Getting your Robot working is a triumph in and of itself. However the true triumph is getting us to understand how that thing works and teaching us the process so we can apply it to our problems and projects.
Thank you for sharing your talents, your process and your adventures.
And God bless your wife for her understanding of a man's need to piddle with projects.
As a mere mortal with 30 plus years of twisting wrenches on HD equipment I salute you Wes. You explained everything we needed to know to follow along and understand what is going on.
First thing Sunday morning I wake up and watch this episode. I'm immediately chuckling out loud and fully engrossed by your analytical way of solving this electromechanical, hydraulic mystery, killing machine's manual of operation.
Your sense of humor significantly heightens the experience.
This is the ultimate, industrial version RC toy. Make it wireless and you could sit in a watchtower and run a logging operation.
The perfect epilog was with your wife's comments . You are blessed to have each other.
Thank you Wes !!!!!
Jesus Wes. I hope you realize what an accomplishment this is. I am LOVING this series.
I've not made it though the entire video yet, but as a novice at...life. From 10:37 to 10:47 is probably the simplest and most profound way to explain a hydraulic pump connected to a hydraulic motor. Wes, thank you for distilling very complex information down to very simple concepts that the rest of us can understand.
It was a pro move
I’m impressed you can remember your programming knowledge from 20 years ago as I can barely remember programming I learned 5 years ago. You really showed off your range of skills here.
I think the joke there was that he started from almost zero.
you have totally outdone yourself! I'm a retired electrical engineer who does all of the 'hobby' type stuff you have done. It's not as easy as you demonstrate, I can only speculate the time you've spent on this project, bravo!
I want to see more anxiety-inducing contraptions built by a guy in a cornfield. This is hands down my favorite video you have made.
Nothing says DIY like using your wife's cutting board as a platform! Loved the video.
Love this format! I’m a computer guy working on cars and this bridges both worlds. Love the built by a guy in a corn field engineering and I want more. Go for it.
The quality of this series is on a different level. You have taken on a position of a proffesor with real experience who can explain engineering concepts so well.
I think the 5300 likes and 0 dislikes so far is a good representation of how awesome this is. Im headed to patreon to send some your way so you can keep making this level of content and I hope a significant amount of your viewers join in. You deserve your current success and so much more.
Crazy to see how far you've come from PM and the cnc repair videos.
You know youtube turned off the display of dislikes, right?
@@no_nuts I use an app on my smart TV and it seems to show them on all the videos.
What you performed as a "side" project, is just incredible. I'm a mechatronics technician by trade and this is right up my alley way. Seen the project going through its phases is awesome and probs to you for for building everything on the control side from ground up, it's truly impressive.
Please keep on going and take your time, stuff like this is not worth the rush💪💪
This is probably your best video you’ve created. Amazing content man
We had a First Gen Scissor Lift when I started in the trade with a similar "Full Speed" or "Lunching" situation. We found a bypass valve that we could manually adjust to allow more or less hydraulic fluid to be used for a certain funtion. Essentially we'd choose, "do we want to drive fast or lift fast?". I think if you added a bypass valve in the pressure line operated by a variable state solenoid, you could control the amount of fluid going to the hydraulic drives. Instead of full on/off mode 100%, you could choose 25% and allow 75% of the fluids simply to retrurn to the tank. By openning or closing that return line you could regulate the hydraulic pressure to the drive wheels...Love your content Wes. Keep up the great work!!
Wes this was your best video ever. The effort you put into this was incredible. The humor, the knowledge, the storytelling. Perfect
Being from the same area of the world (quad cities) I’m happy to see amazing content come from our neck of the corn field.
Wow... just wow, Iike to think I have a reasonable understanding of machines and electronics.. but watching this I felt like a dog watching someone rebuild a car, very interested and understood the words.. but together meant very little 😂
Absolutely outstanding work as always and a fantastic video. Thank you 😊
Wes, I've been sharing this series with a long time friend who works for Boston Dynamics. We are equally impressed with your skill and ability 🤙🤙🤙
Wow, thanks!
Next week.. “my new weekend job at Boston dynamics” 😄. I’m beyond impressed with this video. Man you’ve some serious academic knowledge, high end theory and tech ability as well as insane level of tech problem solving skills.
As soon as you said "full nerd mode" my eyes glazed over. I almost switched you off. But you actually made me, a guy that struggled to figure out an abacus, almost understand it. Well done. You da man, Wes!
I’m glad you stuck it out!
I agree with you 100 percent that had me hooked after a couple of minutes
I'm 100% convinced Wes is making a Roomba type robotic snow plow 😂 love the video series!
I was thinking the same thing. Next year Wes will be drinking coffee looking out the window watching his driveway getting plowed.
Yes yes.... I can see WES taking apart a robot vacuum and incorporating it into the BEAST to plow snow, cut grass and harvest the corn from the field, all from the comfort of his ARMOUR PLATED office. 😁👍
It will at least put Hufflepuff Towing and Recovery out of business... 😂
This thought is both EXCITING and Freaky SCARY at the same time.
Yeah, I'm guessing snow plow and/or remote towing rig.
'Limited electronic knowledge' my foot...this is the best series u have done, MOST INTERRESTING...the rv episode is still the funniest i have ever watched! Be safe around that thing, 'squishy human', LOL!!!
Some advice regarding joystick controls from a kid who competed in high school robotics for years.
Two joysticks is better than one. Split apart your front/back control from your left/right control. For my team we always had front to back control on the y-axis of the left hand joystick and left to right control on the x-axis of the right hand joystick. (Think how there are two joysicks side by side on a playstation controller). This allows you to know that you are only feeding the controller forward motion and no rotation when trying to drive straight for example.
Also, a very simple way to improve the feel of your joystick is to cube the analog output before using it in your controller. e.x. instead of y = Joystick_1_AnalogVal (scaled -1 to 1) use
y = Joystick_1_AnalogVal ^ 3 (this also gives an output of -1 to 1 for a joystick input of -1 to 1). Just plot y=x and y=x^3 on the same graph and you will understand.
This has two benefits, 1st increasing the deadband around 0, this prevents sticktion in the joystick from causing continual drive commands. And the second benefit may just be personal preference, but the rest of the curve just "feels" like a better mapping of joystick input to system output.
Any other difficulties with driving after implementing those changes are likely either poor tuning of your hydraulic solenoid PID current control or inherent non-linearity in the hydraulic system. In highschool robotics we had the benefit of using electric motors for almost everything so I did not encounter those issues.
That's some solid info. Thanks!
There's also the chance that the hydraulic pump was never sized correctly to the drive motor. How do they do high and lo speed on mini excavators?
Yea. What he said.
Wow. Just wow.
You either already had these electronic, programming, hydraulic and CNC skills. Which is impressive.
Or you just learnt them all in a short space of time. Which is even more impressive.
And, just to add to the workload, both in hours and brain-ache, you help the rest of us understand what you're doing by putting good looking, helpful diagrams WHICH ARE ANIMATED in the explanation section.
Speaking as a nerd, I'd have happily watched a huge amount more detail of the analysis, electronics and programming. I may (very well) be in a minority.
There are guys on TH-cam who have done detailed "how I made machine CNC", but I'm not sure they get the big viewing numbers.
Yours in jaw dropped awe, a viewer.
It is content like this (along with your dad's shed, and many others) that have convinced me that i must become a patron. Thanks for having such a reasonable membership!!
I don't want to be greedy.
Heeew buddy! This is awsome stuff, once you go wireless and get it working reliably, you can blade snow from your front porch in winter, and when your working on non runners you can hook them up and tow them in to the workshop while you man the steering wheel with one hand and the joystick with the other and still jump out and make sure your clearing everything! 🎉 😮 😊
This is the best series. I'm going back to my previous video to write "called it" under my consent about the valve not being labeled correct.
Just a very dedicated and smart man out walking his forestry robot. Congrats Wes this is fantastic
Awesome Wes.
Love to see alignment machine too.
Sometimes, no matter how clever you think you are, you get reminded that you actually know absolutely nothing about anything. Today I watched a mechanical genius reverse engineer a logging robot from nothing and I realised that I actually know even less than I thought I did, (although I know a lot more than I did at the start of this video courtesy of Professor Wes).
Outstanding work Sir, and very nicely presented, its stuff like this that the internet was invented for.
Wes, You have the most amazing integration of mechanical, hydraulic, electronics, controls, and digital knowledge. Along with communication, teaching, and problem formation and solving skills. Plus, you are a regular nice guy. Truly impressive. I’m a 67 year old electrical engineer with an electronics and power systems background. You are the most knowledgeable and impressively well rounded person I’ve seen in these areas. All the best to you and your family. Shoot for the stars.
Wes was a CNC machine tool technician in his former life, and an excellent one at that. In the world of CNC machining centers, those are all common systems on most machines. Add in pneumatics, computer architecture, programming, machinist, fabricator, and probably the most important, the ability to logically troubleshoot complex systems as additional skills needed to be a really good CNC tech. An Arduino style microcontroller is perfect to use as a mini PLC to control hardware like this, do it all the time. The 3D printer goes hand in hand doing this stuff, huge time saver over having to whittle it out on a mill/lathe. Wish I could hang out with him, uncanny how similar we are. I suspect Wes may be a bit Aspergerish too...
You are so dang smart. Your parents must be so proud to have such a smart son. And no, I'm not being a wise acre. You are putting those engineers to shame. Not only can you make the thing work, then you can turn around and teach the rest of us who don't have that knowledge. Both are gifts, and they are very separate gifts. You are a flippin' genius, my friend. I think Matt's Off-Road Recovery needs that thing for sketchy rescues.
I have been reading through many of the comments and cannot add more except to agree with every single positive remark wholeheartedly! You are the Best You Tuber of them all and I am proud to be a Patreon contributor and only wish I could give more! Thank You Wes!
I like these "problem solving" a tiny bit into the weeds videos of yours.
I was very impressed with your explanation of PWM. I'm a Cerified Raymond Forklift Technician and our lift controllers use the exact same setup to regulate speed of lift or reach functions on our more complex trucks. I had what I considered to be a good understanding of it, but your explanation was as good if not better than the people in our company who teach it daily. Great video yet again.
Oh that clip at the end with Mrs. Watch Wes is pure gold! We need more of that.
I'm loving this project. I have absolutely zero idea how you can even begin to know how to do all that electronic stuff, and programming. I think I could lean Chinese easier. You are way way way smarter than you know. I can kinda follow along with the hydraulic stuff, but seeing you custom build a controller is just... wow!
What is the end game with this robot? Or is this all just for fun? I still like the comment in a past video who suggested a way to plow the driveway from the comfort of your living room.
Keep up the good work, I'm very impressed!
Not sure what the end game is. The journey is the destination I guess.
How much sleep did you lose figuring that killer ou?
@@WatchWesWork
The end game is you plowing snow from your lazy-boy by the fire.
Schooling...like he said
"When you tore our dishwasher apart? This is way worse!" Missing: does the dishwasher still work? Does it work *better*? Inquiring minds... (Seriously -- sometimes you just gotta dive in and figure out how to fix stuff)
I just have to say, the amount of work you put into your visual aids to explain all this is amazing and very much appreciated. The quality is like that of an old school science show, I can see these demonstrations being used in classrooms.
The conversation at the end with your wife was fantastic!
All I can say is WOW!! Wes, this video shows your next level mechanical/electrical/programming expertise!! I rarely comment, but this video blew me away!!
Yes I agree 100 % with you !!!
That's so cute, you taking your baby on its first walk! Such a proud protective parent of a youngsters first tentative steps! Warms my old heart.
Dang Wes-you’re the man! I thought this project was going nowhere when you retrieved it from the barn (yard art or parts), but here we are watching it do what it’s supposed to do, mostly.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️🔧✌🏻