Hi All,

I am new here, just thought I would introduce myself. I don't have an AR# robot arm, but rather an SOB. (Some Other Brand). It was rescued from the salvage yard, but is fully operational. Unkown manufacturer, possibly a prototype, no dataplates. It is stepper based, with encoders, and my first approach was going with a CNC ecosystem, but realized it really needed a more-suited control system. I came across a post by an AR4 owner in one of the DIY CNC Facebook groups and was hooked. Long story short, I started adapting this robot arm to the AR4 architecture last week. Currently running Teensy 4.1 + Arduino Micro, relevant sketches, and the Windows interface. My wiring is similar to AR4 documention, but not exact. I will probably create a more detailed write up in the "Robot Builds" section later. At the moment, I am doing some testing to determine stepper settings and range of motion for each axis. By the end of weekend, I hope to have limit switches installed and homing functions dialed in. I am super excited to play with vision. And later try to figure out inverse kinematics for this beast. Chris seems to have written a very versitile set of progams which lend themselves to customization and adaptation. This robot also has encoders, but I have yet to light them up and probe any data. BTW, gripper shown in the pic is Amazon servo based. Low cost, light duty, but will get me started. I've been experimenting with speeds and steps/rev with a 5lb dumbell hanging from the arm, as a baseline for payload. It is a starting point. Cheers, everyone. Happy robot = happy human. PS sorry for the cluttered background in the pic. Single car garage is the workshop. BTW, it is currently battery operated on 36 volts, with plans for mobile platform (BLDC hoverboard motors). So I should be able to move it outside for better pics later.