Build an Excavator from Scratch

[pufferfish]

Hi there,
during some test digs i've noticed that the beast have an issue when the body stands not exactly horizontally. due to gravity and the small rotary drive motor/gearbox the loaded arm turns every time toward the lower end. just active steering against is avoid uncontrolled movement of the arm. thereby it was difficult to dig and put the load into the dumper.

Somebody told me, that cascaded planetary gears are tends to self-locking. I buy some of them and a couple of tests later i decided to change the rotary drive.

old motor vs new motor


after some adjustments of the sledge it fits well.
the gear ratio is 130:1



mounted in his small place



and then the first test. i'm happy when i've realized that it works pretty well

it runs smooth and hold the arm with load even if the body is tilted


additionally i've changed the esc to a hobbywing 1080 with active hillbreak for the last bit of holding power.