Dagu rover 5 with gripper
I had some bad luck recently, the voltage regulator on my Dagu Red back spider robot controller died 🙁 The mcu on the board still works when I power it from USB but when I use external power the regulator only gives 3V it should be 5V. So I needed a new one, the European suppliers seemed to be all out of stock. I contacted Dagu in China and they sold me a new one. Dagu also sells a nice 2 DOF gripper and I couldn’t resist and ordered one. The parts arrived here pretty fast, courtesy of DHL.
What was I going to do with the 2 DOF gripper? I needed to make a base for it or maybe mount it on my Rover? Yesterday I took my Dremel and made a hole in the plexi glass I have on my Rover chassis. So now my Rover 5 is equipped with a 3 DOF gripper. The gripper comes with 2 servos (2 DOF), I added another servo to the base so I can rotate the gripper, that makes it 3 DOF. The one I currently use has plastic gears and horn, it’s not strong enough to hold the gripper. But it’s good enough to start testing, I’ll order a stronger servo with metal gears and metal horn. I’m working on a sketch to control the Rover 5 and gripper with my new remote control. That will keep me busy for a while 🙂
Dagu rover 5 with gripper and remote control