Guide: How to make a 9g micro servo continuous

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Category : Arduino, Electronics

It’s always good to have servos that works like a geared motor. That also can go in both direction and speed is adjustable, it’s very handy in robotic project or general vehicles. The servo I’m using is a Mystery Micro Servo 9g SD90. But most of these small servos got the same internals so I guess you can use this on other servos.

1. Remove the stickers on both sides, and unscrew the four long screws that goes from the bottom to the top. One in each corner of the servo.

2. Gently lift off the top cover to uncover all the gears. Notice, it’s smart to remember the correct order of the gears, so that when you put them back you know what goes where. But I took a picture close to make it easier to remember where they all go. Use picture below for this purpose.

3. Remove all gears, no need to clean the grease off. Just put them in a box just for now.

4. Take the top gear and snip the little plastic bit off it, look at pictures below. This is the part that stop the servo from going more than 180 degrees.

5. Now we need to glue the potmeter, look at picture below. Just remove the plastic cap thats on the shaft of the potmeter to show it’s internals.

6. Attach the servo to the ardunio, using pin 9 as the signal. Use this program or just some other program that gives the servo 90 degrees. If the potmeter is centered the servo should stop the motor from turning, if it doesn’t try to turn the potmeter shaft one or the other way until it stops. You now got it centered so that 90 is stop, just add some glue to the internals of the potmeter to keep it locked. Before moving onto step 7 let the glue dry.

7. You now need to cut off the end of the potmeter shaft, this keeps the potmeter shaft from moving. Look at picture below for more info.

8. Now you only need to put it all back together. Just use the picture in step 2 for reference when adding all the gears.

There you are, now it should work like a continous servo. Any questions just leave a comment below.

Video of the final product:

Arduino Mega on it’s way!

Category : Arduino, Electronics

This is a beast compared to the old Diecimila, well I’ll let the specs speak for themself. Diecimila specs in parentheses.

Arduino Mega specifications:

Microcontroller: ATmega1280 (ATmega168)
Operating Voltage: 5V
Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) : 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins: 54, of which 14 provide PWM output
(14, of which 6 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins: 16
DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA
Flash Memory: 128 KB of which 4 KB used by bootloader
(16 KB (of which 2 KB used by bootloader)
SRAM 8 KB:
(1 KB)
EEPROM 4 KB
(512 bytes)
Clock Speed 16 MHz

Yepp, pretty much outclasses the old arduino 😀

My two Arduino projects

Category : Arduino, Electronics

Well, some months ago I bough a Arduino Diecimila. To put it simple it’s a little programmable electronic board, which has some inputs and outputs. Or to be more specific:

The Arduino Diecimila is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega168. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button.

Anyhow, I started with some basic led stuff, like blinking leds etc. And after fooling around with that for some time, I decided to make a “landingstrip” of leds. The final outcome of that was the 8 mode selectable 10x leds strip.

Video:

Well you get the idea.

After that I made one ledstrip using almost all outputs for leds. The 12x led strip with six modes, and a potmeter to adjust speed. Also the potmeter is used to select modes when holding down the button.

Video:

Program tip: EasyTimer 1.0

Category : PC, Windows

My latest small app, the easy timer. It’s a simple timer application, with alarm sound when the time runs out. Can be minimized to tray, and pops up when times over.

But it got a advanced set of extra features:

* No pop up from tray, stays hidden even after time runs out.
* Mute, alarm makes no sound. Nice for starting apps.
* Close after alarm is over, also nice when starting apps or such.
* No installation at all, just unzip and use. Portable and small.

Custom Launch:

Here you can specify what file to open when time runs out, can be used as a custom alarm sound if you select Mute Alarm, and points to a wav file. Or it can open a certain application. Endless possibilities.

Launch a web address:

Opens a web address of your choice when the time runs out. This could be anything from a web page you need to check when time runs out or just for fun at a friends computer showing up something funny or nasty tongue.gif

But the basic feature is for making stuff in the stove, pizza, baguette etc.

Download EasyTimer 1.0

And as always, it’s freeware.

Old vs New, EEE 701 vs 1000H

Category : PC

Just bought me a Asus EEE 1000H, and tought it would be interesting to test it against the older 701. Infact the 701 was the first ever EEE!

All benchmarks where done while both of eees plugged into the adapter, and both 100% battery. The eee1000H put on Super Performance Mode. And the eee701 left as it is, since it doesn’t have that feature.

First out is the SuperPi run:

As you can see the Atom does quite a nice job here, almost twice as fast when doing 512k. Then I installed Everest Ultimate Edition for further testing of the eees, running the Jula and the Queen cpu and fpu tests:

Click on the thumbnails for a closer look.

EEE 701
Queen: 1206
Julia: 245

EEE 1000H
Queen: 3974
Julia: 823

Now for the last test, purely disk performance using HD Tune.

Conclusion:

The 1000H is faster! But hey, what did you expect? Tho the SSD on the 701 got a nice access time 🙂

Walkera UFO 8! 5#6 sized ufo :D

Category : RC

Now, this is small. And so extremely cool 😛

It’s around the same “class” as the 5#6, 5G6 series. Which makes it even more suitable for using indoors. The ufo 4 also got a update, the ufo 5. Which is just an updated version of the 4. But the 8 is a all new ufo in the collection.

Specs:

1). Main Rotor Dia. : 80mm
2). Overall Length: 230mm
3). Overall Width: 230mm
4). Main Motor : 0720RN
5). Battery: 3.7V 400mAh Li-Po
6). All-up Weight: 40g (Battery included)
7). Transmitter: WK-2401
8). Receiver: RX2418
9). Gyro: 3D Gyro

I’m just amazed. Wonder when they will move onto something smaller than the ufo8,5#6,4#6 etc.

LifeBiz 0.3 Release!

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Category : PC, Windows

Yes, finally 0.3 version is ready. It’s been quite a long time since any updates about lifebiz, cause islandbiz took at the time. Anyhow, version 0.3 contains many new features and fixes.

Also the GUI took some refurbishing, and I believe it’s better than before. One of the great new features is the fridge/storage. As before when you bought a Bread he ate it at the same time. That doesn’t happen now, you buy it and it’s stored in the fridge, so that you can choose when you’d like to eat it.

The game is now paused while you visit hospitals, cars hops, grocery stores etc. Anyhow, just download and try it. As always it’s freeware.

DOWNLOAD 0.3

0.3 Changelog:

+ Ability to buy, repair, upgrade and sell cars.
+ More features to the health, transplants, more pills etc.
+ Features a more floating stocks calculation.
+ Ability to purchase and rent out properties.
+ Better food system, you now buy food. And its stored in the main screen
and you choose to eat it when you want to.
+ Can develop alcoholism, the AI then drinks by itself if there are vodka, wine etc in storage.

+ Can develop nicotine-abuse, same as with alcohol.
+ Interest is now shown in the bank.

+ Some bugs removed.
+++++ Several other small things.

.NET Framework 3.5 is required.

IslandBiz 2 Release!

Category : Freeware Games, IslandBis, Windows

The new followup to IslandBis(z)1 haven been under development for quite a time now. And it’s time to release it.

It’s a quite advanced Island simulator/tycoon game where you control almost every aspect of it. You set the taxes, the car taxes. You build factories and research centers to produce and research new technology. Cause some day a deadly pandemic outbreak might happen.

As posted in previous post it simulates many different things, that all makes this game be more “alive”.

What are you waiting for? Download it and try 🙂 It’s totally free!

IslandBiz 2 1.0 Download

Also, you might need .NET Framework 3.5. Get it from microsoft.

IslandBiz 2, soon.

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Category : Freeware Games, IslandBis, Windows

The new followup to IslandBis(z)1 haven been under development for quite a time now. And I’m getting ready for a release. Currently the Beta is under testing.

The game itself features most of what IslandBis1 was, and much much more. It’s not only a simulation of the island but it simulates each and every person living on the island, down to how happy they are and if they own a car.

It means that every single citizen got their own set of features, and needs. A floating economy based on income from citizens, and there are several adjustments available trough the interface. A short list of what will be simulated/calculated within each citizen.

– Food, they eat food to heal, and it costs money.
– Cash, they all got their own economy(also different income classes).
– Health, yep they can get sick. Virus/disease or just getting old.
– Age, well it explains itself
– Male of Female, pretty basic feature.
– Thoughts, they will react to tax adjusting. Government spending etc.
– Happiness.
– Things to spend money on, home, car etc. This will affect happiness and income.
– If they are working or not, also different types of income.

I’ve also put in a research center, where you can hire/fire scientists to research new techs for your island. Improvement of pollution removal, health, food etc. And there is also a scenario feature, where you can challenge yourself.

This new game is a total remake of what IslandBiz 1 should have been tongue.gif
Anyhow, some screen shots?

Installing WMP11 without genuine advantage or validation check

Category : Windows

We all know when installing windows media player 11 you need to validate your copy of windows xp. Or at least you will know when trying to :P. And if you for some reason fails that validating, you can’t install it. Now here is how to bypass that 🙂

1. Download WMP11 from FileHippo:
http://filehippo.com/download_windows_media_player/

2. Extract the .exe file somewhere:

Left click on the wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe, and select Extract here, or someplace you want. Using WinRar or some other program.

3. Run wmp11.exe:

This is actually the install of the wmp11 without validation 😛

Running this file will bring the installation window for wmp11 right up. And now it’s just to follow the steps from there.

4. Reboot and finished!

Yes, at the end of the installation in step 3 it tells you to reboot. So just do that, and when it’s back up again you got a fully working windows media player without having to hassle with the validation.

EDIT: Might also add this, on some systems you need to run the other exe files in the setup package.