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Has anyone made their own crane game?

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RickDIII:

--- Quote ---The Armatron was definitely a cool robotic arm. Believe it or not, the whole thing operated with just one motor. The two joysticks on the base were not electronic but mechanical. When you pushed a joystick, you actually engaged a series of gears which made the various joints move. A friend of mine took his Armatron and made it computer controlled by following an article in Radio Electronics. Each joystick was surrounded by 4 solenoids which were controlled by the computer. By activating the solenoids, the mechanical joysticks would get pushed around and would control the Armatron. It was fun to watch.

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Good info...not only did you figure that I had wrongly assumed the joysticks were electronic, but you also provided a solution to the problem.  I was able to track down the actual article:  "Computer-controlled robotic arm. How to modify Radio Shack's "Armatron" robot arm to operate under control of an IBM PC or compatible computer."
MODERN ELECTRONICS [2] Dec 1988 (v.5#12) pg. 7.  Now if I can just get my hands on it at the library...


--- Quote ---You would probably need more intelligence in the electronics than a simple timer though.  It would be important to have the arm return to a home position and "drop" just like the claws do.  Otherwise, the next person would be using valuable seconds to get where they want to be, and it might deter them from playing if that place was on the other side of the machine from where the last person left it.

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I'll have to look at this.  I agree that it would be a much better design for the arm to return to nuetral.  I would also need to think about whether the timer stopped once an item dropped down the chute or if the user had an opportunity to continue to pick items. 

Edit:  Maybe skip the armatron (20 year old tech) and look at some of the more modern alternatives:
http://www.imagesco.com/catalog/RoboticArm/RoboticArm01.html

RandyT:

--- Quote from: RickDIII on June 08, 2006, 11:25:28 am ---I'll have to look at this.  I agree that it would be a much better design for the arm to return to nuetral.  I would also need to think about whether the timer stopped once an item dropped down the chute or if the user had an opportunity to continue to pick items. 

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I guess it depends on the controls.  If it was too easy to grab stuff, it wouldn't make any money.  Although, if the best you could do in 15 seconds was to grab 15 cents worth of candy and it cost 50 cents to play, by all means let them grab as much as they can! :)


RandyT

PCtech:
Armatron....OHG, haven't heard of one of those in years.....one of my favorite toys...about a year into it, mine broke, and of course....I took it apart to see how it worked.

Pro's....Excellent control, VERY, VERY cool

Cons....delicate...never had much of a grip...wouldn't see it lasting too long in a crane game.

Grrrr...now I got to search Ebay, and buy one....thanks... :angry:

 ;)

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