Thread: Wow wee Chimp alive help

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I have decided to try and control a Wow wee Chimp. I would Like to use VSA for the control. I have "Skinned" him and found most of the motor wires. Using 5 vdc power supply I can move all movements except the eyebrows. What controller board do I need to attempt this. To move the motors in each direction I have to flip the 5 vdc. But, I also need a no power setting to have the motors stop at the desired locations. I could use 2 relays, 1 for each movement, But I hope there is a better way. In VSA, I see a setting for a SMI motor, What is this?
The chimps movements are small motors.

Jim

We be usin' th' Lynxmotion SSC-32 board ta control rrr servos, some arrrre usin' th' Pik74 board fer relay control, bu' th' Lynx does as good/better job.. price be th' same too.. Arrrre they actually motors (round) or servos (rectangular), like Radio Control car/plane servos?

I have the lynxmotion ssc-32 that I'm using on the 3 axis skull. and I need something (the lynxmotion or something else? ) to control the dc motors on the chimp....I'm using 5 vdc to move the motor in one direction and then I have to reverse the polarity to get the motor to move the other direction. I thought the lynxmotion just pulses and controls the relays. I need to somehow use the SMI motor under the setting tabs of VSA, I think. But, I do not know what I need or how to try it. Is the Lynxmotion capable of sending and reversing the dc polarity?
Thanks for the help
Jim
They are round as in motors.

mom has one of those chimps she lets Dane play with it he Loves it.
But I'm sorry I can't help you..

sound like you need something a little more sophisticated that an SSC, do the motors have any kind of positional feedback? or do they just move between two limits?

There was alot discussion on the chimp when they came out in 2005. Most the sites discussing it has disappeared. The one semi-successful hack I remember was by a Parallax tech who used a couple of Polulu motor controllers and a BS2.

i had one of those. i was trying to fix the battery cable.. and by axident pluged in a 12V into the monkey which was a 9V.. blew the darn thing... i kept all the servos,head,ears,sensors. i couldn't get him working again so i took him a part.. now i'm using the sensors as triggers.. (finding out how) if anyone knows how to make the sensors work with VSA please let me know. thanks

anyways.. you've got 4 (i think) countroll boards in the head.. the only way to get to them is to cut the speaker and open up the head.. no other way =[

evileyes

you should have gotten an Elvis.
Anyways, try looking through
RoboCommunity : The First and Only Official WowWee Robot Community

I don't have one, but it sounds like you're talking apples and oranges. It is my understanding that any of the servo controller boards, Parallax or SSC-32 or whatever you have all work on the same principle. Sending pulses that are decoded by the circitry inside the servos and receiving positional feedback from the potentiometer.

Since the motors you have seem to be just motors (probably with limit switches) they must also have some kind of custom controller board that is probably home to a built in program ROM that stores all the information for the movement of that prop, but they will not understand the signals sent by a servo controller board.

If the motors all have limit switches that prevent you from running them to far in either direction, you could control it with VSA by using one or two Kit74 (or similar) boards. Each motor would need two relays assigned to it. One with the polarity one way (forward motion or clockwise motion of the motor) and the other with the polarity reversed.

Each time you closed a particular relay for the amount of time you want to get the desired result, the motor would move in that direction until you opened the relay again. Easy enough to do in VSA.

It will not be quite as precise as using servos, however.

Another alternative might be to remove the motors, and replace them with servos. Then you will have complete precise control over every funcion using your choice of controller board and VSA.

I was afraid that was the answer. I am going to gut the motors and see if I can mount some servos and give that a shot.
thanks
Jim