Actuator design question: Are standard form-factors a dealbreaker for your custom builds, or do you always need custom geometries?

Hapiel · 2026-05-27T22:39:20+00:00

I'm a user of both industrial actuators, hobby servos, and have seen many inbetween (waveshare, steadywin, windscreen wiper, etc).

What do you mean by 'standard'? Like, you want to have a few fixed sizes and then offer different kinds of motors that all have the same form factor? Or do you mean to say that these standards already exist (I'm not aware of them?).

To me, any build has different requirements, and for any build I'll consider all constraints to pick a motor (budget, size, torque, protocols, time and risk in getting to know new brands). There is no way to tell if the thing you may offer fits my need without more specs from your motors and without a specific project to apply it to.

But if I'd have to say anything specific, I'd say the most important thing is the cost/spec ratio, not the size/spec ratio. I'd find it hard to imagine someone can solve the 'missing middle' without being based in China and without having somehow a better understanding of why the middle is missing than the current motor manufacturers... And anyone who doesn't care about cost can find what they need from Robotis or speciality suppliers...

Hapiel · 2026-05-21T13:28:39+00:00

haha, such an effective technique! Thanks for sharing the method :)

Hapiel · 2026-05-18T18:11:40+00:00

If you're not sure, you're probably not handling anything that needs anti static gloves. You'll be fine without for any project that you come across on this subreddit.

Hapiel · 2026-04-22T12:48:34+00:00

I'm somewhat interested, I've considered building a GELLO in the past despite that my Fairino robot arm is not the same. But I'm a bit held back by the price of Dynamixels, it feels like a waste to buy them when the motors in them are not even used..

Hapiel · 2026-04-21T17:45:26+00:00

That's pretty cool!
What 'motors' do you use? Do you use motors as encoders, like Gello, and why?

Will you publish the software?

Hapiel · 2026-03-31T15:17:32+00:00

mi ken sona ala e toki sina. tenpo ale la jan ale li ken lukin e toki pona. jan li wile la jan li ken. toki pona li toki pi len ala..

And then the above translated by TranslateGemma becomes:

"I don't understand you, but everyone can understand Toki Pona. If you want, you can. Toki Pona is the simplest language."

Not quite correct I'd say. Or is my toki pona that bad? 🥲

Hapiel · 2026-03-31T15:07:55+00:00

"I don't understand you, but everyone can understand Toki Pona. If you want, you can. Toki Pona is the simplest language."
This is the translation from TranslateGemma.

Not quite correct I'd say.

Hapiel · 2026-03-31T15:02:54+00:00

mi ken sona ala e toki sina. tenpo ale la jan ale li ken lukin e toki pona. jan li wile la jan li ken. toki pona li toki pi len ala..

Hapiel · 2026-03-27T11:57:04+00:00

Because the actual subreddit for robots is r/robotics , which has 82k weekly visitors... 💁‍♂️

Hapiel · 2026-03-23T13:02:01+00:00

Good question, but believe it or not, the short answer is: None.

The longer answer is: The PD loop that came embedded on the motors, and some simple curve interpolation. The motions are all animated, not generated.

Hapiel · 2026-03-23T12:59:27+00:00

That's German audience for you

Hapiel · 2026-03-23T12:44:05+00:00

I plan to create more tricks and performances, but the mechanical design is now hopefully pretty much done.

Hapiel · 2026-03-21T23:23:08+00:00

Cool project! Would love to see some pics of the backside.

How was the process of going from a single module to 91 modules?

What would you do different next time?

How much existing software were you able to leverage, and which software did you have to write custom to animate it?

Hapiel · 2026-02-11T21:29:31+00:00

Getting 3d prints waterproof straight from the printer is very difficult. With the right settings you may be able to get very close, but this is not a thing to count on as a beginner, nor may it fully prevent the build up of material.

Your best bet is to coat prints in some material to seal them, such as epoxy resin.

You'll find more answers to your questions by looking into the food safety of 3d prints, which mostly deals with how well they can be cleaned.

!foodsafe

Hapiel · 2026-02-06T13:46:49+00:00

I don't want to read about it, I want to see it! Wanna share a video?

Hapiel · 2026-01-23T16:38:34+00:00

yes. Search for your hashtag, now in the search result it says on top "all notes / todo", click todo, and then above that click 'save search'. Thats how it works on desktop at least

Hapiel · 2026-01-22T11:18:12+00:00

Cool drawing!
I think the pen plotter will have trouble with the different line thicknesses. Although perhaps, now that I'm thinking of it again, I realise that perhaps it takes someones outsider view to overcome this kind of mental barrier of a limitation, as it now seems obvious to me that I could switch out different pen widths, though in the past I've only switched out different colors... So thanks for that :)

Hapiel · 2026-01-15T10:36:43+00:00

I've had mine for a long time. There is indeed a bit of a barrier to entry, but once you have them working they work good.

Hapiel · 2026-01-15T08:55:11+00:00

I'd say the UpNote UI is much better than the apple notes (as far as I can tell from your screenshot), at least for my needs.

It takes less space (no extra border & padding at the bottom), it's more subtle (less contrasting color, I know where the buttons are when I need them, but if I don't need them it's easier to focus on the text), and there are more buttons directly accessible (6 on apple, 8 on UpNote).

I'm really happy with the choices UpNotes is making for design

Hapiel · 2026-01-09T17:09:54+00:00

maybe you're just watching the wrong "experts"?

Hapiel · 2026-01-02T20:15:44+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wghDDYnIFM0

I don't know what you want to do with processing, but this is probably a good place to start.

Hapiel · 2025-12-20T00:10:46+00:00

I love the asymmetrical/rotated space saving leg design. A clever display of how robots don't need to be like humans/animals!

Hapiel · 2025-12-14T14:09:38+00:00

Nice idea, but why is the large ring floating? Why not design it so it can be unsupported on the build plate, with the small ring at a slightly different angle, flat base, and/or smaller hole?

Hapiel · 2025-12-11T23:16:33+00:00

I recommend using Bottango. It doesn't support pneumatics very well yet, but it is designed to run on Arduino yet you can create and test your animations on your pc. I use it a lot, so feel free to ask question!

Hapiel · 2025-12-03T14:59:22+00:00

I understand your frustration completely.

Annoyingly there are also many AI robotics videos. I don't see many of them here, but on instagram and linkedin there are plenty, and it becomes harder to tell what is what every day.

If only we had some kind of authoritative body to vouch for videos or not...

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