Category Archives: General Robotics

I got to meet ASIMO at the Honda HQ in Slough.

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I got to meet ASIMO at the Honda HQ in Slough. They demonstrated his ability to walk dynamically (i.e. not balancing on a single leg between steps), to run (very impressive), to kick a football, deliver a tray of drinks, face tracking and of course … dance.

According to the guy I spoke to after the event, for that demo, ASIMO had a map of the floor, and the operator was giving him commands to walk from X to Y. The number of steps and the direction, joint control, etc, was then all executed autonomously in ASIMO. This particular model didn’t have sonar, so didn’t have obstacle avoidance, but others do. Same for climbing stairs, the command is given to climb the stairs, then ASIMO calculates the position and joint control autonomously.

Although ASIMO is not truly autonomous, the level of processing is amazing and the aesthetics and design really make you feel relaxed with a robot. You feel compassion for it. I almost felt sorry for it, being made to perform. 🙂 However, the employees who manage ASIMO and careful to refer to ASIMO as an “it” not a “him” or a “her”. Apparently its not a boy or a girl. However, the French member of staff I spoke to, told me there is no French word for “it” and “robot” is a masculine noun, so for him, ASIMO is always little boy ! 🙂

ASIMO at the Honda HQ in Slough - 21 Oct 2014

ASIMO at the Honda HQ in Slough – 21 Oct 2014

ASIMO at the Honda HQ in Slough - 21 Oct 2014

ASIMO at the Honda HQ in Slough – 21 Oct 2014

The Cubli – A balancing, jumping, walking robot cube !

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I found this online. A robot developed at ETH Zurich. It is brilliant and beautiful. I had to share …

SMD PCB Stencils

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Usually I build my printed circuit boards by hand. Once the boards are fabricated, I apply solder paste using the patented “Jon Toothpick Method”, then place the components by hand using tweezers. This works fine, as I usually only build 1 or 2 boards. But recently some of the projects I’ve been building have either lots of SMD devices (a recent board had 30+ 0603 resistors), or the devices I’m using are tin, with very small pitch legs (I use SSOP & TSSOP packages, which are very small).

So, I decided to try getting a solder stencil made to use during my next build. I use OSH Park for my PCBs and they recommended OSH Stencils. The stencils were very affordable. They cost about $10 each, and they are about 6.5 sq in. I think they are laser cut Kapton film which according to online review, is pretty durable.

The process of applying solder paste using a solder stencil is pretty simple:

  • Use a old PCB or a guide taped to a flat surface to stably locate the PCB
  • Place a PCB in the guide and line up the stencil with the pads on the PCB
  • Tape the stencil to the guide to locate it in place
  • squeeze a small bead of solder paste  across the film at one end and smear it across the film using an old credit card or squeegee.
  • The film shouldn’t have any left over solder paste on it after you make the pass across the board. The squeegee should wipe it off as it passes. Paste should only be in the holes in the film.
  • gently peel back the film off the board and the solder should be neatly applied to all your pads.
  • place components and reflow the solder in an oven.

Here are some pictures of the process.

AVC 2014 PCB

New PCB

PCB Stencil

PCB Stencil

PCB Stencil

Align stencil with PCB

PCB Stencil

Tape stencil in to position

PCB Stencil

Wipe solder paste across board

PCB Stencil - Solder paste

Solder paste applied on the pads

PCB Stencil - Solder paste

Solder paste applied on the pads

PCB Stencil - After soldering

After components and soldering

PCB Stencil - After soldering

After components and soldering

I’m very pleased with the results. There is almost no solder spilled on the PCB to clean off, you get consistently the right amount of solder paste on each pad  and the result looks very professional and neat.

The process was easy and quick. I think I’ll be using stencils with all my future PCB builds. I just need a pick and place robot now … 🙂

Scout sets new Autonomous Boat world record

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Scout, an autonomous unmanned robot boat, has now traveled over 300 miles in 12 days in its quest to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Amazing. More details here http://gotransat.com/ and real time tracking here http://gotransat.com/tracking/.

Well done guys.

Whats the old saying … Measure twice, cut once ?

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You know how I show images of me laying out components on colour print outs of my PCBs to check they fit ?

I broke my own rule and it bit me !

The OpAmp footprints on the PCB are TSSOP14 but the devices I bought are SOIC14 😦