If you happen to pass on the website of Robotis, you might notice this familiar robot:

robotis_webite_01.jpg

This advertises this interview of me, in the Meet our Power Users section :D

I'm famous \o/

The last question is about the MX-28, a beast of a servo Robotis released a few weeks ago. You can read a very good review, as well as find links to code to use it on Hizook.

I have been lucky to be asked to beta-test it (full disclosure: they gave me two units in order to evaluate and give feedback prior to official release). Basically, it's a modernized and optimized RX-28 (same body, and it was even referred to as the RX-28M when they began talking about it), with a contactless magnetic encoder and a 32 bit controller inside. I use the same kind of magnetic encoders to detect rotation of the wheels of the Xachikoma, albeit mine are made to detect linear translation or off-center rotation whereas the ones used in the MX-28 are aligned with the rotation axis. The controller is an STM32 running at 72MHz, and this allows a bunch of improvements over the 8bit, 16MHz ATMega8 found in previous models, the best of it being a full PID controller and communication up to 3 times faster than previously.

A nice refreshment of the line, that will hopefully be followed by updated versions of the AX-12A, AX-18A, RX-24F, RX-64 and EX-106 ;)