Build a big crane game

How to build a whole room crane game. Based on the arcade style 'Crane Game' or 'Claw Machine'. This is a continuation of a previus instructable titled CRANE GAME in which we built a 2-axis crane game in a door frame. We have now added a third axis and wireless control. And made it big.

A few technical and functional improvements:

Less wires - controllers and batteries move with the motors and are signaled with IR light.
Precision not needed - I was able to set-up a 8x10ft track without measuring anything
Reproducible - used standard parts, used the same components in many spots
Expandable - use longer tracks to make it bigger - track cost is about 50cents a foot.
Removable - hangs from the ceiling by 4 small hooks
Future? Could be used as basis for a big 3D printer

VIDEO:

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Overview

Materials
Frame
X-Axis Mechanical
Y-Axis Mechanical
Z-Axis Mechanical
X-Axis Electronics
Y-Axis Electronics
Z-Axis Electronics
IR Control Overview
IR Receive Circuit
IR Transmitter (TV remote)
IR Decode Process
X-Axis Control Code
Y/Z - Axis Control Code
What's next?
Complete Wiring
Complete Code

note: this still has some holes in it, feel free to ask for stuff

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Step 1: Materials

Materials:
6 - 8' J channel
7 - Big continous servo motors -- HobbyPartz --- EXI-Servo-B1226
1 - Roll of electrical tape
2 - Arduino UNO boards
3 - Small peices of perferatored board
2 - IR de-modulator
1 - Universal TV remote control
1 - 25' coiled phone chord
1 - 15' straight phone chord
1 - Roll packing tape
1 - Pre-made claw with servo -- Spark Fun ROB-10332
2 - 4 AA battery packs, rechargeable -- eneloop AA,
6 - screw hooks
3 - Peice plywood - 2x6" each
1 - roll metal plumbers strap

Tools:
- Drill
- Computer
- Soldering iron

aaronXtreme says: Dec 24, 2012. 8:50 AM

how many continous servos did you use?
And what is the IR de-modulator? could you
send a picture of it separatly?

thanks!

Tangoforce says: Nov 27, 2012. 5:39 PM

Ok I gotta say that is absolutely brilliant. I was fascinated by them things as a kid lol

Fingermouse says: Aug 13, 2012. 4:09 PM

Awesome. Big man-points score right there.
I haven't got my head around arduinos yet, but, I'm thinking about using worm driven wheels controlled by multi channel proportional radio -so does not matter.
Again, fantastic stuff. Did you ever try this set up with a more powerful claw servo by the way, how does it wok out?

marc.cryan (author) in reply to FingermouseNov 14, 2012. 6:33 PM

late replay -- I haven't gotten around to adding a larger claw to the big crane game. I am expecting a giant motorized cardboard crane robot kit from kickstarter, if the claw is good I will try that.

Fingermouse in reply to marc.cryanNov 14, 2012. 7:14 PM

I have my claw now and a heavy duty servo which I will need to fab up some brackets to fit it all together. It will fit -eventually :)

marc.cryan (author) says: Nov 14, 2012. 6:30 PM

Awesome! Build a crane machine!

I used the servo motors because I already had them. I disabled the position feedback, so they are just small DC motors with gearboxes and control boards, in a plastic case. My thought was "What can I do with all these servo motors? Maybe I can just tape them together...."

All the Arduino stuff and IR is not really needed either. You could do this with no micros, just physical switches and wires.

I still have the thing up on the ceiling, but I made it hard to replace the batteries, and did not include an off switch, so they die over a few days even if not used.

mcsk8rg says: Nov 13, 2012. 12:29 AM

i had this idea since long ! m really happy to see someone else do it . i can actually see how it looks like . now i got inspiration to actually get down to make one finally.

but one question . i had normal dc motors in mind which i was going to use . i notice u used servo motors . but why is that ? what was the necessity to use servo motors
? can't accomplish the same objective by normal dc motors?