any electronics/robotics guys on here?

[Newf]

I found this retriever training bumper launcher on youtube thought it might be neat to make, but I have no idea how to wire it up. Anybody on here have any idea on how this guy wired this together?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=einY6g53jqk

[AdverseCity]

I'm not exactly sure what he used but the same actuator system could be easily made with a 2.4 ghz RC radio, and a servo wired to each of the "thrower things". The number of channels the radio system has would tell you how many things you could activate individually. You could actually make one servo release 2 different things as you can make them move in 2 directions each. If you're serious about this I'd take the video into a REAL hobbyshop (not Toy's R Us) and see what they'd recommend.

[Jeron Kahyar]

Really hard to tell exactly what he used since a lot of it is covered up in the video. From what I can see it looks like commercial launchers (the ones you fire from the hip with a blank) that were stripped down and mounted to an aluminum frame. The Trigger mechanism is just a simple servo motor that is used to release a catch for the firing pin. It gets a little hard to tell on the electronics side. He is ruining ~6V this will mean he is using something with 5V logic. Based on the availability and price point of the Aurduino (https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno) I would be putting my money that it is controlling this setup. This would then make the wireless controller more than likely an xBee Modual (https://www.sparkfun.com/pages/xbee_guide). The rest is just doing a little wiring and brushing up on a little "C" style code.

[Newf]

Been researching this a bit tonight, and I stumbled across the arduino boards. Had no idea about the xbee stuff though. Thanks!

Seems like the guy in the video is using a single remote so he must have programmed some sort of {count} function. So with each press of the button it selects and runs the next servo and presumably it resets after a 4 count.

[Jeron Kahyar]

Been researching this a bit tonight, and I stumbled across the arduino boards. Had no idea about the xbee stuff though. Thanks!

Seems like the guy in the video is using a single remote so he must have programmed some sort of {count} function. So with each press of the button it selects and runs the next servo and presumably it resets after a 4 count.

That is one way to do it, there are thousands more. By the look of it he had more than one button on the remote. Since the Xbee can send/receive serial data you can send any manor of code from the transmitter to the receiver. Personally I would run simple serial commands and 4 momentary switch buttons on pull down resistors. Just make each one a different pull up resistance value. Read in the voltage and it will tell you the switch that is pressed. Then send that number over the xBee to the controller to fire the corresponding bumper.

This is a good example of reading in the switches. (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-access-5-buttons-through-1-Arduino-input/?ALLSTEPS)

[winged1]

Arduinos have plenty of pins, no need to play with voltage dividers. Cheaper and more compact clones available with arduino bootloaders installed. Xbee would be a good choice, but again, plenty of cheap radios out there. I'd look at solenoids over servos if you were designing from ground up. Might be just as easy to implement an rc system considering time. Check around for a package of transmitter, receiver, servos.

[Jeron Kahyar]

Arduinos have plenty of pins, no need to play with voltage dividers. Cheaper and more compact clones available with arduino bootloaders installed. Xbee would be a good choice, but again, plenty of cheap radios out there. I'd look at solenoids over servos if you were designing from ground up. Might be just as easy to implement an rc system considering time. Check around for a package of transmitter, receiver, servos.

For this application using each button on a separate input is defiantly fesable. I just don't like using up loads of input pins if I don't have to. Voltage divider is easy in this case you don't even really need to do the math on what it should be just some testing on hookup.

There is many many options out there for sure. The xBee is just the most commonly used and has the best documentation for a new user.

Selinoids defiantly would be a far better choice than the sevros in the video.

The RC system may be easier in the end but where is the fun in that?

The cheep clones are the way to go. I keep a few Nano clones kicking around for projects. At $5 each out of China they are cheep and small enough for most applications.