Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Nice solutions on the drive. Wish I built smaller so servo could be used. Maybee some day....
Servo city, is that a supplier??
Dan

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Modelman, I believe there chain will fix it.

I only used the servos because the hoe is small & light (probably less than 6 lbs when complete). If I had the room and needed more power I would use a 200:1 geared motor on each track and esc's. But, I am making the undercarriage all one rc unit...meaning there will be a (4 cell 500mah) battery pack and a separate receiver just to run the drive. That way there is no electrical connection between the crane/house and the undercarriage.

Yes, Servo City has some nice unique servo related items that you can't get/find anywhere else. Adapters, sprockets, reduction units, aluminum arms...

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Looks very good Scott, you will have more than enough power there. Do you need a speed control , as the servo has it already ?

greg

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Greg.

You are correct there are no esc's needed, all of the servos just plug into the receiver. The undercarriage electronics will consist of 2 servos, one receiver and a battery. The cranes main electronics will consist of 4 servos, one receiver and a battery.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Well, since I am waiting for parts to build the undercarriage I made a large bucket so that I could load trucks faster at the meets when we use ground up rubber.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...HoeBuckets.jpg

Its really too big for actual dirt but, I had to load the Mack up a couple of times just for the fun of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtjl5kGhRhc

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

SmallHaul-looks to my like it handles that bigger bucket pretty good!

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

I like the quick change system on the backet. Cant wait for more!

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

hehe one for show and one for GO GO GO! lol

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

It is fun to use the large bucket because it forces you to operate it more efficiently. If you just reach out over the pile and drag the bucket all the way back and lift it out of the dirt the crane really stresses to lift the bucket but, if you smoothly lift the bucket just as it is filling up, the crane lifts it well.

Thanks.

:) Yep, it seems like we can never load all the dump trucks fast enough at the meets.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Well you will take awhile to load the 1 I'm building now :p:) It'll take Steve's drag to load it :rolleyes: With the big bucket :D

the hoe works nice Scott :cool:

IHSteve

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Well, I pulled this project back out and started working on it again. I am hoping to make the National Pike show and would like to have this finished for it (May 21st). The chain drive works nice and has plenty of power. It is going to be cool to get the chain rotate setup, it should work smoothly.

Here is a video of it working:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft1fAnn2sIA

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Scott. The car body works very nice. When the upper is on there and you have cleats you should be able to go anywhere. I'm surprised at the power the servos have.
Rob

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Rob, I am a little surprised my self at how much power it has. I also dragged a 10 pound steel weight with it and it pulled it just fine.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

That's a cool little robot in it's self:eek:. That won't have any trouble traveling up a pile of dirt. Definitely the "High Walker" version. You'll be able to do pipeline up mountains!

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

What a neat project!
ServoCity are great, I use their adapters, too.
Haven't had a chance to check their chain - good idea.
I assume this is the plastic chain here:
http://www.servocity.com/html/chain.html

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks. Yes, that is the chain but, it is not plastic it is steel. The entire drive train is metal except the servo cases.

I couldn't get their servo splined sprockets to work though. They were very helpful trying to help me (GREAT customer support) but, every sprocket they sent me grabbed the chain badly. The only way there sprockets would work smoothly is if the chain only wraps around a small portion of the sprocket. I said to them "simply wrap the chain around the sprocket and you will see that it is STUCK on there" and they just ignore the comment... the standard $3 sprockets I ordered from a discount chain work fine.:rolleyes:

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Ah, sorry, I was confused! Need to learn to read :D
Their plastic chain has a spacing of 0.1227, so I thought you meant this.

""""
Turns out the #25 chain I am using has a smaller roller diameter (.120) than they use (.127) which would explain why my chain binds up when you wrap it around more than 100 degrees or so. They are sending me some of there #25 chain to rectify this.
""""

But what you wrote is that it's the diameter of the rollers that is different. Never heard that before.
However, using a chain with smaller roller diameter on a sprocket designed for a larger diameter should work, I would guess. (Never tried it, though.)

Thanks for the heads-up, will have to remember this...

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Got a little more done. The chain drive for the rotates is finished. I maybe over engineered it but, I wanted it to be strong so that I could push dirt sideways with the bucket on occasion and not worry about anything breaking.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ringschain.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_1972.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_1978.jpg

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Short vid of it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tYFjqwk45g

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

This may be a silly question but what are the black wire leads going into the track frames? Are the drive batteries between the rails?
It sure works well on rotation and looks to have a good speed on the tracks:cool:

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Hey Scott, run's great! Any luck on the new cable exc. boom?
Later, Neil#2 aka doodlebug.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks, Yes you are correct the black wires are for the batteries. There are 4 AAA 650mah NiMH batteries powering the drive, 2 on each side of the track body.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_1980.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_1981.jpg



Thanks Neil, haven't worked on a new boom yet. It will probably be a while until I get to it. Once the weather turns nice I don't spend much time working in the basement.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Nice work Scott. I see you went to chain drive on the slewing ring. How come you didn't go with a gear like your dragline?

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Steve. When running the cable hoe you can run the side of the bucket into a truck or dirt pile and put a lot of stress on the rotate mechanism so, I wanted it to be very strong and reliable. The setup on the dragline works great but, it only has to move the boom back and forth and never gets struck or jolted hard.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Nice project!

kerst

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Hey Scott. I thought that maybe those wires were for track heaters, so you could work in the snow.
Rob

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thank You!

HA! Boy that would drain the batteries quick Rob!:D

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

thats a good 1 rob , I like it :D

:cool: looks great Scott , you can bring it up here when your ready to test it :D I got plenty of obstacles :p

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Steve, I hope to have it finished soon.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

The track pads are done. It runs nice and has a lot of traction with the pads on. I ran it around my basement for about 30 minutes and the tracks batteries (4 cell NiMH AAA pack) still had over 5 volts in it so, the batteries should last all day on one charge because the tracks aren't used much.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ks/Cleats2.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ks/Cleats4.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ks/Cleats5.jpg

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

hey scott, where do you find the chain your using for your track? i've been looking for some, but i'm really not sure what to look for.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Russ, I got the chain from a local bearing & chain supplier. It is #35 chain with K1 links on every other link. The (smaller) drive chain is #25 chain that is the same size that is used on a lot of the rc motorcycles.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

i have a question where did you get the aluminum for the track pads

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

looking good man!! my replacement servos arrived the other day so i hope to get mine going now to lol.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

This is the web site http://www.eaglemouldingsinc.com/ and these are the choices http://eaglemouldingsinc.com/BarFaceNosing.aspx

Thanks:)

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Scott very nice job on the tracks but I still think they are to short but it's yours and if your happy that all that counts. Ed

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Ed. The tracks length (where it actually touches the ground) is about the same as the width (7 inches) so, if it is too short it is also too narrow... which I don't believe it is. We'll know soon enough though when I dig with the oversized bucket.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Due to all the rain we have been having I didn't make the National pike show but, I got a lot of work done on the Cable Hoe. Here are a couple of videos of it running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNg-lWYWdA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO1HTfixDI4

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

That turned out really nice Scott. Are you going to add some rollers on the bottom of the track frames too?

What rain? I put about 14hrs total on the 9W this weekend. 8hrs almost nonstop Saturday. I even dug at night for an hour Saturday evening.
Sunday morning it rained for an hour or so but I had it tarped down and dug as soon as the sun came out again I dug for about 5hrs more.

Re: Unit Cable Hoe
 

Thanks Steve. Yes, I still have to add rollers/slides on the top and bottom. I am keeping my eyes out for some black delrin to make them out of. Because of the roller style chain they need to be slides that I will make look like rollers.

That is great that the weather turned out ok for the show. I am looking forward to the August show.