Part 5: Megabot
by Michael Simpson
If you are building the
Megabot or a similar robot,
you should have the base
assembled at this point. In this
article, we are going to add
the electronics that will make
our robot move. I’ll show you
the techniques I used so that
you can apply them to your
own design.
Program the
Actuator IDs
FIGURE 1. Megabot base.
The first thing we need to
do is to connect our RX- 64
actuators; before we do this, we need to assign the
correct IDs to each actuator. You will use the Dynamixel
Configurator software to change the default ID to the ID
of your choice.
To do this, you need to do the following:
• Install the USB2Dynamixel drivers.
• Install the Dynamixel Configurator software.
• Connect the USB2Dynamixel to your PC.
• Set the selector switch on the USB2Dynamixel to RS-485.
The USB2Dynamixel does
not supply power to the
actuator so you will need to
apply the correct voltage to
the power leads on the cable.
You can do this by splitting
some power leads from the
connector that attaches
the USB2Dynamixel to the
actuator. You can also insert
power by creating a power
cable that plugs into the
other connector on the
actuator. The RX- 64 manual
goes into detail on making
this connector. Since I am
only programming the ID into the actuators, I made a
temporary setup using a breadboard like the one shown
in Figure 2. Notice how I have marked the positive and
negative power connections on the connector. For more
details on the power leads, you can refer to Figure 4.
If you have already mounted the RX- 64 actuators,
simply plug the connector into the actuator you want
to program. Just make sure only a single actuator is
connected to the USB2Dynamixel when you program
the new ID.
FIGURE 2
34 SERVO 02.2009
FIGURE 3
