The ARM (Auckland Version) #1 Play "The Lost Soul Down X Lost Soul" by " NBSPLV " to see this post. It's been a few months since I started working on my thesis* in Auckland University of Technology . I have made some great progress with the help of my professors in New Zealand and friends back in UK and France. I present you the assembly of a bionic palm, which was initially made by Mr. Will Cogley. I have modified this open source arm for my thesis which will be used to recreate human like movements. This bionic palm will be further modified and attached to a cobot to act as a fully functioning replica of a human arm. In the pictures below, you can find around 60% of the bill of materials, it will all be assembled in my next post. This project** was inspired by my internship advisor - Henry Hyde-Thomson back in The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, 2022 as a quest to complete a humanoid. Michael Faraday must have taken over my mind to...
It's here, all of them, yes the PCBs, a lot of PCBs. I made so many PCBs, they call me the PCB guy now. Took so
much time just to create, get it approved and then check again before getting it manufactured.
I have a bunch of boards come in as you can see, all of them have a purpose. Its for art. Yes, art. I paint a
lot, just not your brilliant modern art.
I made these boards with specific text and if you noticed, ALL THE NUMBERS ARE IN HINDI?? well I hate English,
sometimes. The description of these boards are in French, ooooo the French made it in ro'h'bots finally.
Before we beign below are the different 3D models of all the PCBs used in this project.
(Might show
artifacting/glitching on Phone Screens)
UnAssembled PCBs in 3D
Fancy Components
I like fancy stuff. I mean come on, the world's superficial. I am living like zorba right now. I will go for a
lot of fancy stuff.
So, I got white header connectors instead of black. Costs like a Euro more, no one should care. ZigZag
connectors for the on board soldering? Well this was a necessity turned into a fancy opportunity to buy fancy
stuff. I like designing beautiful things.
Wireless Solder? Yes my good people. I am a fancy guy. A hyper model. Yeah I am an actor too, not joking.
C. Connections Board - Servo to Potentiometer
First off we start we 'C' because the world has lost its order aswell.
The white board is a connection board that combines all the potentiometers from finger joints to the servos'
internal feedback system directly.
This board is very simple to understand. It has mainly two types of connections. Each pair of connectors includes
one SM03B-SURS-TF and one PHR-3, each just connected to the other. The PHR-3 is connected to the internal
feedback system of the servos. The SM03B-SURS-TF is connected to the finger potentiometers. I included a
assembled version of the board below to develop understanding.
Assembled Connections Board in 3D
A. The Main Board
The black board is the main board combining all the components together, which include 2 ESP32s and 3
PCA9685s, along with 23 individual power regulators to power the 22 motors and the control system (2 ESP32s,
3 PCA9685s).
There are 23 amber LEDs on the board as well, each connected to the activity state of the regulators,
indicating if the regulators are turned on or off. This was implemented to make it easier to identify
whether the regulator failed (power supply) or the servos themselves.
Also, what's with the Zigzag SMD pads? Looks dumb, you might wonder. Nope, just art.
The board itself is shaped peculiarly you say? well its the shape of a human forearm, MY ARM!
There are some SMT headers I found, making my life easier for a lot of complex connections so I don’t have to
drill into the board, freeing up a lot of space for overlapping traces—hence the Zigzag SMD pads.
The GREATEST, THE BEST OF THE BEST, REALLY NICE 3D model is here. This DETAILED model took me 48hrs of time
to detail. EVERYTHING on it precisely to the dimension. A LOT OF WORK, CRAZY STUPID AMNOUNT OF WORK. OMG.
IT's 128 MEGAbytes of data going to your eyes. I made a dedicated page for this model, Turn your screen to
portrait mode, YES ROTATE THE SCREEN RIGHT NOW AND GO TO
MY PAGE OF THE GREATEST 3D Model RIGHT NOW! or watch the small little model below dumbass.
Assembled Main Board in 3D
D. The Buck Regulator Board (Originally by Sparkfun)
It took such a long time to cut these tiny boards from the panel.
This buck regulator saved my life so hard. Oh man. This one was a god sent, even though I don’t like him. The
buck regulator in question is the AP63356. Why did I choose this? Hoho???
Pretty much, I was stumped, as an incorrect choice of a regulator would be catastrophic—it would waste both
time and money. I had both, but wine and cheese need time as well. The AP63356 was, first of all,
immensely tested by SparkFun—good people, those guys. Second, the schematics of the regulating board were
made public, so I could modify and improve it. And lastly, it was simply cheaper to order the PCBs from a
PCB manufacturer and utilize the pick-and-place machine at my disposal to assemble them. My friend Fish Guy
assembled them. I was way too lazy to do it. He was a god sent as well.
Assembled Buck Regulator Board in 3D
E. The Finger Joint Board (Originally by
WIll Cogley)
These boards are made by Will. Ask him, "What’s this?"
The star of the palm. This board has a potentiometer on it with an SM03B-SURS-TF connector. It simply
connects to the connections board via a very expensive wire.
Man, someone pay for my ramen. I am running out of money. I WANT RAMEN.
Assembled Potentimeter Finger Joint Board
in 3D
B. Connections Board - The Main Board Snap on
This board was made in under 6 hours. From nothing to fully DFM-checked, ordered, and gone to
sleep—ALL UNDER 6 hours. For real, for real, this guy learned how to speak a lot of
nonsense.
The purpose of this board is very important. I have around 30 thick wires in the bottom section of the arm,
and it’s horrendous. It just cannot be managed. So I basically break all the servo connections on this board
to be soldered onto. The broken-out connections go back to the carefully placed headers, which then connect
to the same headers on the main board. The sides of the board have a wedge cut out on the sides to
accomodate all the wires so a cover can be put on top to hide them.
Essentially, this board allows the main board to be replaced in a few seconds, and moreover, you can add any
kind of functionality to the main board—just keep the headers in the same place.
I call this the PCB CONNECTOR. THE MOST GLORIOUS CONNECTOR made by Roro. Yours truly. The best guy. Peacock
hates me now though; I didn’t even do anything to her.
The Servo Internal Board (Modified By This Genius)
This board was made by the manufacturer of the servos. Ask them my man/girl. They won't tell you anything
though.
i t ' s a s e c r e t
I reverse engineered it with a flash light. I am not telling you either ahahahahahah.
i t ' s a s e c r e t
Misxellaneous Components
Update 13th March 2025: Heres the few components that I made painstakingly in blender. These components
were used off the market. I never manufactured them.
Miscellaneous Assembled PCBs in 3D
so?
Now all that what remains is to solder a LOT of components on them and test, test, test.
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