Subject:
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Robotic DAT Tape Loader
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 30 Jan 2002 01:52:19 GMT
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Original-From:
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Brother Lizardo <brother_lizardo@macANTISPAM.com>
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Viewed:
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558 times
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Hello all,
After alot of work and even more procrastination I have gotten around
to documenting the Lego DAT Tape Loader. I used one RCX, Two standard
moters, one micro moter, two rotation sensors, and one touch sensor.
Here are some pictures:
http://homepage.mac.com/brother_lizardo/PhotoAlbum3.html
Some can be large in size.
The main idea is I have two towers one holds the tapes one holds the
lifting unit and picker arm. The pickers is really more like a
pancake flipper than a grabber. This is because I had problems
actually grabbing the tape. Turns out there is a little lip that I
could catch using a single flat tile on the end of the arm.
When the tape needs ejecting and put away the arm move into position
and pulls the tape out onto a pair of slide rails (small fence
pieces). Then it drops down and moves under the tape and picks it up.
Now it would move to the slot in the tower the tape belongs a puts it
there.
To load a tape the arm moves up to the slot slides in under the tape
lifts it up a bit and backs out. It then lowers down and passes the
tape through a pair of cams set to the right width to align the tape
up to the slot of the tape drive. It then lowers the tape onto the
slide rails and backs up. Then it pushes the tape into the drive.
There is a touch sensor at the bottom to set a zero point for the
lifter and for the arm. I did this because I could not get the best
tolerances in the lifter tower. I figure if i zero the counters for
the rotation sensors at the beginning of every cycle of load or
unload I can get away with out messing up.
The eject button presser is only needed if your software running the
tape drive doesn't automatically eject the tape.
You have to use software on the computer that can communicate with
the RCX to give it commands. I used RCX.link as a go between
retrospect on the mac using os9. Now with OSX I am using NQC and
scripts to send commands to it. I figure you can use this with Dump
on OSX and Linux with shell scripts and even Win32 if your backup
software can execute scripts.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions.
My next project is an automated CD duplicator.
Shawn "brother_lizardo"
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