Whoa, want some linear accuracy?

[Matt]

Alex found this link and I'm stealing his glory by posting it

Stepper motor driven linear actuator:

http://www.ultramotion.com/products/digit.php

[Alex]

At thrusts up to 400lbs, repeatability to +/-.00004 inches, and if it's as fast as this linear actuator (the product page states 15 inches/sec), then let Skynet begin!!

[jdolecki]

These are way cool but I bet they are expensive. Just like the Squiggle motors I posted a while ago they are out of the price range for anybody but a serious robot builder.
and the PQ12 actuators thar are posted here on Trossen are 65.00, Higher than the price of a good high end hobby servo and they still need a driver.

So unless these manfactures can release a low cost verson geared for the hobby market not the comercial / industrial market. They will be out of reach to all but the serious hobbiest budget.

I Know they are all hoping for a comercial application that will sell 10 of thousands but in reality if they sell a 100 this year they will be luckey.

So Matt /Alex, How do we get the cool things at low cost?

[Alex]

I just got off the phone with them.

$600 gets you the base model linear actuator...

To tell you the truth, given all of the incredible specs on these actuators, this price doesn't really surprise me.

[Alex]

BTW, have you seen the new L-series actuators? We just got them in and they work GREAT with hobby servo controllers. They're controlled directly through PWM:

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store...-Actuator.aspx
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store...-Actuator.aspx

[Matt]

So Matt /Alex, How do we get the cool things at low cost?

Crime man, there is always a life of crime to turn to.

[Tyberius]

Crime man, there is always a life of crime to turn to.

Bank robbing robots. If it's ever traced back to us we'll feign ignorance and blame Skynet.

[jdolecki]

Bank robbing robots!

1 Build a small robot.

2 put it in a safety deposit box

3 when the bank is closed, the robot turns on

4 opens the safe from the inside.

5 turns off the alarm from the inside

6 opens the door

and you walk in and take what you want.

or it could take a little at a time and just go back into the box each nite.

[LinuxGuy]

It's too bad there are not any linear actuators that could be used to build hobby scale robots. It would be really cool to have a biped or hexapod/octapod built using linear actuators instead of servos.

I wonder if a servo driven linear actuator could be made for a reasonable price. Would it be possible to even make such a thing?

8-Dale

[cmmguy]

Bank robbing robots!

1 Build a small robot.

2 put it in a safety deposit box

3 when the bank is closed, the robot turns on

4 opens the safe from the inside.

5 turns off the alarm from the inside

6 opens the door

and you walk in and take what you want.

or it could take a little at a time and just go back into the box each nite.

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA ......