Running a 1.5 ton Industrial Robot With a Custom Open-source Controller part 1

CORRECTION: Odrives are actually designed to run PMAC motors, I'm still not quite sure why I am getting such a low final speed though, I was expecting ~6% faster.

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[pablomontoya]

Definitely balls of steel having that arm inside where it's well in range to smash through all of those floor joists lol

[yannpenhas]

What a challenge, man! It doesn't sound to be a piece of cake, but is definitely worth the effort! And the knowledge you get from this experience is priceless 👌

[godetaalibaba]

I'm a robotic student and your video is full of interesting informations, thank you so much ! I had never thought about doing something like that, buying real industrial robot is awesome and I look forward to see the day I'll have the space and knowledge to do what you did there 👍

[joels]

This is amazing! There is a huge market for aftermarket Fanuc retrofits. If you decided to sell that people would buy them like crazy for old CNC machines running Fanuc drives.

[kelownatechkid]

Wow. Learning VHDL for a project like this is extremely dedicated! I am very impressed.

[marksmod]

Jeez Louise, what a project. This looks like a full-time job

[BlueJeebs]

First time I've heard of a practical use of FPGA-s that I'd be interessted in lol. Also the fact that you can get your hands on a robot like that is next level, if for nothing else, for practice. Just make sure it doesn't put a hole in the roof I guess lmao

[marks]

the planned obsolescence of these huge indestructible machines is shameful.

[Manofcube]

Great vid that shows what you're up against if you decide to acquire one of these units. Unless you want a forever-project, $5-10k sounds like what should be expected.

[Dangineering]

Whoa, instant sub. You are straight amazing. Electrical engineering still feels like black magic to me.

[rok]

I hope you will one day develop this project into a business converting discarded robots into useful machines

[Torque]

This is what hacking means in today's world. The vast spanse of knowledge in various domains like electronics, electrical, mechanical, software, hydraulics, CNC, troubleshooting skills, what not is required to make this happen. Kudos to unkerfuffling so much complexity and getting a working model. Hat tip good sir!

[sevendesign]

Brilliant work! You stand among the great! Way to push through! You're helping drive manufacturing for the everyday guys.

I build machines and could totally use that controller. I just drove the cost on a part from a $1.05 to $.09 and we make a thousand of these parts a day minimum. We need to load the machine once a month while we maintain the ability to pull 1, 600 off a day.

"So we never have to load it and we're able to pull in $$ish?" Yessir. I'm stoked... I started electrical and mechanical and then found manufacturing. Building with my hands man.

[barthanes]

Yes, it looks like a delicate operation testing there. You could scoop out a huge chunk of overhead floor with only a few seconds of inattention.

[newt]

I used to work for an integrator and used Fanuc robots for 5 years. For the past 23+ years, I have worked for Motoman ( Yaskawa).  
You have your work cut out for you, since you don't have the matched controller for that arm. Great work and way to DIVE in.  
Look forward to watching your progress. Cheers

[robertboateng-duah]

Nice! I was thinking that you could make the robot run faster by changing the mosfets that originally come with the o-drive. something that can handle 300V. You might probably have to design a new PCB for that, but it shouldn't be a big deal. This is really amazing and inspiring work!

[RobertElderSoftware]

This was a really great insight into the world of industrial robotics. I find it amazing how, in recent years, industrial machinery like this that could theoretically produce thousands or millions of dollars worth of product over its lifetime can be bought for the same price as a month's worth of groceries. The inflation rate of basic necessities has been far greater than the inflation rate of heavy machinery like this. It makes me think that a surprise North American manufacturing boom might be one of the things that can save our economy.

[StripeyType]

HOLY MACKEREL.
This is darn close to being an open source drop-in replacement for an R-J3

[toma.d]

I wonder, why have i not seen this on LinuxCNC forums? Or did i ? 😃 Magnificent job on bringing the beast back to life!

[skybirdprojects]

This is an insane amount of skill and effort. Good job, and that is a wicked project!