I Added a Plasma Torch To My Robot - Jeremy Fielding  

I figured out the relay problem. It is a solid state relay designed for low voltage DC only. I was switching 240 AC. I "remembered" the relay as being for both, but I was wrong when I went back and checked the specs! One problem down! LOL

Why has RU-vid only just recommended this to me. Jeremy, you've built so much cool stuff. Binge watching now.

I stumbled upon your page searching for a video on relays about 2 months ago and have been hooked ever since! I'm a biomedical engineer and you make me want to go back to get a mechanical engineering degree! I applaud you, your skills, your kindness, and your desire to educate. Plus, we are starting a family soon, so seeing you with your kids is immensely inspiring to me. Keep it up, Jeremy!

Far from disappointing, this is maybe my favorite video you've ever posted. If I didn't think you'd find the problem and tell us, *that* would be frustrating. But we know you're learning along with us, and we know you're in this project for the long haul. Watching the struggle, and learning from it, is a big part of what we're here for.

I been following your page for 4 years now. I was a graphic designer for over 10 yrs. Then switch career to electrical technology. Now I work a Electrical Control technician. Assembling, wiring, learning about hydraulic, setup network, PLC, Arduino, VFD and troubleshooting electrical control panel for bridges. Doing electrical and mechanical cad drawings. In a span of 20 months. Love this stuff. I'm so glad I found this page.

your merciless self deprecation is hillarious! "lets take a moment to appreciate how confused i look". brilliance with, what i hope is, a genuine built in comic relief...mode...uh...humility. your always an inspiration, success or fai....setback, its always worth knowing

I'm in engineering too, and also work pretty much alone. It's awesome to see a channel that shows the typical problems and the amount of hours of debugging. Great job!

Love that you share/ show your failures. Don't change your style. We love it. So motivating.

"This is what engineering is like..." 100% yup

This was the best video of all time!!! Real engineering with real problems that don't have easy, immediate solutions. There was joy and satisfaction. There was frustration. Most importantly, there was adventure. And the adventure continues! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. Crack on!

I'm a fellow engineer from Spain (electrical and robotics). Just commenting to tell you that you are the best engineer in RU-vid. You actually show what is like to do engineering (including the ugly and 'this is not working ' part), and look like a genuine guy with great personality and a big desire to learn new things. And the nice family is a great touch. Please keep doing this.

First of all, 24 minutes, although long by your standard, isn't too long. I could watch your videos all day! You are an amazing engineer and I admire not just your knowledge, but also your tenacity and attitude! Those two attributes alone will take a person far in life. On the topic of "make notes"-- as a software engineer, I can tell you that when you are working on software problems, the best way to "take notes" is to use source control to create a history of all of your software changes. That will give you the ability to look back over what you've changed and potentially find what got broken. It isn't tough and it'll save you frustrations in the long run.

This is the kind of RU-vid I like: run into problems, go down the troubleshooting rabbit hole trying to figure out why things aren't working. It's kind of a relief because, although I'm not an engineer, I've come into problem solving issues in college math, 3D modeling, basic coding, and other areas; it's almost a comfort to see someone dealing with issues specific to their creativity. People need to see that sometimes there are a lot of hiccups on the way to the finished work. Just found your channel and looking forward to watching your backlog of content.

Something to check for your relay problem... What is the _contact_ voltage and _contact_ current rating for your relay? Note that these are DIFFERENT from the _coil_ voltage and _coil_ current ratings! If the relay contacts are rated for 25VDC and 5A, and you are trying to switch 120VAC up to 1A, you will burn out the contacts! Given that the distances are so small for the armature travel in the relay, high voltages on the contacts may even be able to jump that distance on a low-voltage relay. This would make it appear like the relay is ON all the time, no matter whether the coil is energized or not. You've done a lot of great work! I'm sure you'll figure things out!

ENGINEERING IS COMPLICATED. This is so true, and "normal" humans don't see it. But OMG, you're making a robot to cut a line in a tube. What about making a frikken car?! The level of complicated is so huge it's amazing. I love that you're able to show when it just becomes too much to grasp at once. Thank you.

Took me 3 years to finish my CNC, spent so many late nights scratching my head. But I know that feeling when you persevere and the darn thing WORKS! Greatest feeling in the world.

This *is* what engineering is like. Lots and lots of frustration, countered by those joyous moments where it comes together. I think it's a lot like games ... it's not fun if you succeed every time. The challenge to overcome is what makes it worthwhile. Thanks for showing the journey and not just the destination.

Great Job finding the set screw problem. We had a frequency changing system on a special type of radio in a communication center where I worked. We had 12 of these radios. 11 of the radios worked great 24 hrs a day, 360 days a year. 1 radio worked when turned and then drifted off repeatedly. The techs worked on it for months trying to get it to work right. Finally, we as a group compared that radio with the one next to it as team of techs carefully disassembled the chain drive underneath. Part by part was compared. One of the sprockets looked different. We discovered it was missing a little sleeve on the shaft. We replaced the paper thin sleeve and the radio was on the hit parade. It worked perfectly.

Love your work. I live in the R&D world as a mechanical engineer. Your face during failure needs to be the universal engineer's Face. Keep it up.

It may not be the greatest cut ever, no first steps are smooth. I am impressed with willingness to take on the project and your ability to overcome difficulties. I have taken my first step into power control by mounting moters to my little unimat 3 just to stop hand cranking for hours. Your projects are a inspiration to keep making things better and intelligently.

This video wasn't disappointing at all. It showed you trying your best to find a solution in a subject I'm now trying to learn. Very enlightening. You rock man keep it up.

It's all fun and games until the Doom music kicks in. Loved being along for the journey Jeremy, hope you get it hashed out soon!

Quick thought for the relay issue, is the robot arm relay rated at a high enough voltage for the plasma cutter? I would guess the normal robot gripper is a relatively low voltage DC solenoid, while the plasma cutter may be switching mains voltage or higher. If the relay is rated too low, the power / signal will just arc over the contacts whether open or closed.

This is one of the best RU-vid channels. I love this series on the shop built robot. I learn so much from these videos about how to think about things.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You are one of the most intelligent guys that I watch on RU-vid. I love watching your troubleshooting. You will figure it out. Love your channel

Incredibly important point on annotating your changes/fixes. As a professional technician troubleshooting a difficult problem, I have to constantly remind myself to test 1 change at a time in order to identify what ultimately fixed my problem. Many of us often find ourselves fixing a problem and not knowing which solution to point our finger at when determining what the cause of failure was.

never change your content. The majority of youtubers would go from min 0:00 to the end without showing the true journey, and that is why I'm here because you show what it's really like for those of us who have been there.

On the bright side, at least the video's title didn't become, "I attached a plasma torch to my shop-made robot, and now my wife's car has a sun roof." I enjoy your explanations and coverage of troubleshooting in this video. Very informative and entertaining. And congrats on solving the relay malfunction.

My 25 years ago ME403 class calls you at least a 4/5 in some categories, but has no comment others. Again, I can't tell you how much this is awesome. Thank you!

Philosophy for finding the problem with remotely turning the plasma cutter on and off: Maybe look for points of failure. 1. Relay inside plasma cutter turning torch on/off 2. Signal to enable plasma cutter: Time dependent 3. Setting on cutter of whether plasma cutter is triggered using computer or not 4. Type of signal sent from computer to plasma cutter to turn on/off My friend had a cnc plasma cutter that I got to use once. The always on plasma cutter was an issue for him, too. There was both a switch he flipped on his cutter and a software setting he had to worry about in order to drive the plasma cutter correctly, and turn on/turn off the cutter for making holes. Anyway, failure mode effect analysis could be your solution. If you start with the plasma cutter and work back from there, you should find the problem. Your videos are an inspiration. Thank you so much for sharing.

Watching these videos and many others over the years, I’m a plumber by trade but considering going to Uni part time to study mechanical engineering after watching all these, so thank you! 6-8yrs here I come!

Thank you for documenting what you're going through and the problems you run into. I myself am in the process of building a CNC machine and eventually a robotic arm, and this channel has absolutely showed me that I'm not on a wild goose chase and it can be done with a lot of time, research and work. You're videos are amazing

Your wife is a saint for providing you the opportunity to tinker in your shop until the wee hours. Thank you Mrs. Fielding for lending us your husband and taking care of the kids. Also, little Fieldings, thank you for lending us your dad and I hope you have as much fun hanging out in the shop with him as I did with my dad when I was your age.

Great video! A few years ago I stumbled upon one of your videos about DC Motors when I was building my CNC Laser. I was going through many videos from many creators so, sadly I just saw the video and rushed on to the shop trying to make the laser work. It did help, so thank you for that! Fast forward to today. RU-vid recommends a video about a robot, and I see a familiar face. I realized I made a mistake about 3 years ago. I have missed out on a literal goldmine of expertly crafted content. I should have subscribed then and there. But there's an upside to this. I have 100 videos yet to see and I now have you on my notification list. I counted. Exactly 100 videos and I intend to watch them all!

Reminds of the countless hours we spent debugging industrial robotics when running my own industrial automation shop a decade back. Thankyou Jeremy for showing the true nature of engineering problem solving.

The failures are what keeps us learning and evolving, thank you for sharing this

Love your vids, keep them coming...People like you make life easier for people like me...We need more pioneers and engineers like u...👍👍👍

Thank you for showing the failures! I'm a service engineer and I too had frustrating robot issues today. I'm pretty green, so it's encouraging to see a more experienced engineer stumble from time to time, too.

Love. Watching. You. Solve. Problems. Honestly, Mr. Fielding, most of your projects are out of scope for anything I could attempt, but watching you butt heads with the unexpected and your resilience in grinding your way towards solutions is something I can and should take into my world. Thank you.

I've got to say... you are my idol. I really appreciate your videos and I love your shop. Keep up the great educational content. Thank you.

I appreciate that Kiwico is a sponsor but it was great to see you and your family interacting with a Kiwico kit. Thanks

Am a software engineer... I wanna get into mechanical and even electrical because of you. I have been hooked on your contents...

Your expression at 4:15 is so incredibly relatable. I'm a mechanical engineer working in industrial automation and robotics, and I feel like that's me at some point, several times a day, on most days. I came here to see a robot do some plasma cutting, but stayed because of your authenticity when it comes to problem solving. Thank you for showing the whole process, especially when things go wrong, because that's an opportunity for the rest of us to learn from you every step of the way. While the technical details are always interesting, I think what really makes your videos stand out is the way you approach each technical problem, and the way you keep your cool and work through it no matter how frustrating things get. Keep up the good work!

The Patreon is lit! You are a awesome role model and I love how you explain your learning experiences instead of trying to look like a "perfect" RU-vidr. Thank you!

Man your glass is always half full and that is so good to see. I have a small home shop CNC and I know how things get out of phase as I say so with what you are doing is unbelievable. Thanks for sharing your journey.

I'm not even half way through this video but am inspired to say thank you for being real about your experience. A lot of channels just show a happy polished tiktok style video, but for me, I deeply appreciate seeing the frustrations and problems. At least to some degree. Its relatable and endearing seeing you scratch your head and raise your eyebrows, honestly confounded by the issues that arise. Your patience and kind committed attitude are an inspiration. Thank you.

I just saw the image of your servo controllers and was overwhelmed. You're doing great with this stuff! Love that you're showing the head scratching and frustration with this. It lets everyone know it's not as easy as it sometimes looks.

After 50+ years in engineering, you demonstrate a very important principle. We called this principle "the Law of the Grovel". Persistence, in tackling multiple and varying problems, ultimately results in success. (when you keep your head and a sense of humor)

Making mistakes and learning is way more important than immediate succes. You did great!

Thank you for sharing your projects with us. Jarvis is quite an amazing project. You tell us you are an amateur but your avocation is inspirational. I have been a subscriber for about 4 years. Always eager for your next video to come out. Every one is interesting and teaches me something. Keep up the good work. Blessings, Don

Commenting to say that watching the trouble shooting in progress is my favorite part of this video. A working machine is great, but watching all the trouble shooting involved with getting that machine to its final state really makes you appreciate and admire the hard work that went into it. Thanks for sharing.

My son is working on his mechanical engineering degree at WSU Pullman. We discuss every one of your videos. Most of it is way over my head but I'm happy he is enthusiastically engaged ... it's costing me a fortune, so I hope this will pay off.

I can't tell you how much I love the e-stop in the hand.

I'm currently studying electrical engineering so it was fantastic to see you troubleshooting much in the same we've been for UGV's. Gave me a chuckle too when you said you were using a teensy to power something this large and powerful.

in addition to the advice you provided regarding taking notes. something that has saved me more than once is to not change more than 1 thing at a time when ironing out details. its easier to know 1 item caused an issue than to figure out which of many changes caused the issue

amazed at the depth and breadth of skills required for all this.

There are so many reasons I love your channel (and am glad to have finally been pointed to it by another RU-vid). One of those is that you show the full engineering process, not just the happy path. As one engineer to another, that's huge and shows where the challenges, and thrill, of engineering lie.

Jeremy You have such a gentle personality You a calm soul God bless

At my job we use robots for testing electrical devices such as remote controls. We have a combination of solenoid plungers and X,Y robots and have a few different setups. Our first setup splits up the task on different machines, the Festo robots come preinstalled with a dedicated win7 pc, the main GUI is on a separate win10pc with remote access to the robot pc, and controlling them both is a dedicated linux pc, three pc's in total. The other setup we have is a VM for the linux pc running on the same pc as the main GUI and remote access to the robot pc. We use Festo software, VMware, and P-CANview software with custom coding for positioning. We have 4 limit sensors placed in key areas that will trigger a fail if triggered by a rogue movement. We were a 9 man team for testing refurbished remotes for the cable company.

Just when you though it was safe/under control you give a robot a fire based weapon. What could possibly go wrong!? ☺️😆😆

My favorite part of your channel is how you share your failures! You are a beast! You put it all out there and seeing you deal with failure so gracefully is just as inspiring as seeing the amazing things you build, and twice as theraputic.

Greetings from Germany, im Working on Cloos Welding Robot and Kuka Laser Welding Robot. In Comparising to your Robot its Just Plug an play. Its amazing how you Build your Own Robot. Even with trial and error. Fantastic Work! I will follow your Progress and wish you luck to get finish this project.

Have you considered moving to a more industrial control system? Your servo drives likely take analog control instead of step/dir. You can then use a Y splitting cable on the encoders so that they go to the drives but also to the controller. This closes the loop and allows for the servo motors to work as "they" want. An example controller is something like Galil DMC. Even if you don't go this route then you should still be able to split the encoder output to go to the servo drive and your teensy which can keep track of a quadrature encoder. I have a teensy 4.1 keeping track of 300 mm/s moves on a 0.1 micron linear encoder. I should say it is the only thing it can keep track of...

I'm not a robotics expert, but I do work with the tracking of a plasma robot in an automotive setting. It's really amazing how many of the problems you've knocked down. Keep trying.

Great video. Problems are the best teacher in the world. Keep up the good work.

I am always learning something new when i come across your videos...amazing work JEREMY..Am from Kenya

you know what is missing? a little distance sensor like a cheap sonar (or a TOF sensor if you want mm precision) to keep consistent distance from the piece AND avoid crashing into stuff

WISH I HAD A FRIEND LIKE YOU. I HAVE BEEN LEARNING CNC COUPLE YEARS WITH MY FREE TIME FROM JOB. ITS A LOT TO FIGURE,,. ANY WAYS THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO.. LOVE YOUR CHANNEL.. GOOD CONTENT

This is my favorite series on RU-vid right now. These types of problems really humanize the process of what it takes to get these types of machines to work. Great stuff, and don't give up!!!

I so appreciate your honesty and grace in the face of the discomfort of learning and occasionally failing. You capture the pain (and also the satisfaction) of a complex engineering task really well!

I was just explaining to a friend how I love the way you frame setbacks in your videos. Watching you troubleshoot a situation that isn't working correctly is very inspiring. This video ending without a conclusive answer will only make the next one that much more satisfying to watch. Thank you so much for the videos you make. They mean a lot to me and so many people.

So set me straight with this relay - the plasma cutter comes on immediately power is provided to the circuit then the relay has failed - welded closed, or does it comes on after being told to switch on, but won't go off, then its latching, possibly due to over-current and partially welded contacts. But is there a third option??? Anxiously waiting for the next video! I commend you Jeremy for having the cahoonas to take on these extraordinary project and punching through the disappointments, moments of self doubt, panic and the perseverance and brain bleeding it takes to learn new stuff in order to use the knowledge in your projects.

I rarely comment, but I'm a manufacturing engineer in electronics who dabbles in home improvement and I really enjoy your channel. Your IRL job and mine may well overlap, there are companies in your neck of the woods that we provide for. That said, you really are brilliant in the explanation of subjects you understand well, great presentation and understanding of what aspects need attention. Add to that your mischievous curiosity and openness when delving into the subjects you don't, and you've got a very fun journey to follow. Keep up the good work, especially the "best practices" bits, the guys on the production floor will make you saint someday when this catches on.

Great job of showing what goes on behind the scenes of engineering 👍.

That last part about the plasma turning on without power to the relay: 1. look at ALL connections to the plasma that might have any power. 2. is there ANY chance of "left over power" as in a capacitor, or something that might function like that. 3. if push comes to shove, a "flush" routine in the program might be a good idea. Basically, you'd have a startup and shutdown routine in your code. These routines can have delays, go to home position, go to inspection/cleaning position, etc... Note: you might want a "confirmation sensor". If you can wire in some kind of sensor that can tell the distance, sonar, laser, etc.. I'd also suggest two things for the programming/ number of commands problem. If you can issue a "big move" command straight to the motor, something along the lines of "move 50mm" as ONE command direct to the motor vs 50 move 1mm commands. If you can, then write a function that breaks things down and determines if a big move or a small move is best. If the big move command direct to the motor/controller won't work, then a "sub controller" for each motor that gets, stores at least two types of commands (real time and batch) and sends status update responses. So you have a main controller that sends one of two commands: Example 1: real time command: move 1mm to the left, respond when done. Example 2: batch command: move 100mm to the left, respond every 10% done. Each of these takes the same amount of time from the main controller, all the "house keeping" is handle by the sub controller. I've been a professional programmer for a very long time, let me know if you need any help.

Great video, thanks for making the time to share it with us. It's fun to watch and to also see your human :)

from talking to engineering buddies and watching lots of RU-vid videos I don't think engineering is about knowing everything or being able to figure out how to solve problems... I think engineering is about not giving up or letting the frustration get to you after days of trying to solve the same problem, only for the solution to cause a different problem to arise.

this is one of the coolest DIY projects I think I've ever seen Jeremy, amazing work! At first I thought the robot arm was off the shelf but appears to be totally custom, incredible!

You never fail to inspire. Thank you kindly

As a mechanical engineering student your videos definitely help me through my classes in critical thinking. My lack of coding would keep me away from projects this dense, but one thing that you really need to address to really move things forward is closing the loop so the controller knows where the robot is. Thank you for posting failures and issues, because that's how collectively we learn the most from something. It's easy to get something right without understanding, but hard to get something wrong and actually understand the issues.

This is excellent. I took a 3 month class with Fanuc robotics (just because). I was glad I did. I was so fascinating and learned so much. Thanks for sharing this series. Great stuff.

Just found your channel after a partner told us you were using our plasma on a robot. Going down the rabbit hole now. Awesome work 💪

Great work Jeremy! The progress shown is impressive. The last bits of a project like this are always the hardest. It'll all pay off in the end. I'm a controls engineer for a custom automation company and happy to help with your relay issue. I know how frustrating these things that seem "simple" can be. Can you share specs on the two relays? What voltage is the plasma cutter circuit you're controlling? Solenoid voltage? I would suggest a solid state relay if you're using a mechanical type. Knowing the difference between the working and non-working components should point to the issue.

As a robotics engineer I'm super exicted for these kinds of projects! This one and the autonomous car project are simply awesome!

Hey, I do know I'm late to the party but I checked your Servo Drivers manual and you can set an encoder output divider providing you the possibility to run the robot in a fully closed loop system, as you can set it to 20 if I remember the numbers correctly and get 512 pulses per revolution as you mentioned you need. It might be harder on the software side but definitely worth it!!

One expensive but powerful control solution for you might be a Kflop+ Kanalog. It can run eight separate encoder channels and is very customisable (though you do need to be able to program C). The maker of it also provides amazing customer support by simply answering everyone's questions himself, as far as I can tell. It does come with a pretty hefty price tag, though.

I’ve never heard of this channel before but after less than 20 seconds, I already like this guy! This is really cool!

lol, your face when you hear the sound. Thanks for all you do for us. Much respect!

What a great video. Welcome to real world engineering. My experience with ABB robots tells me even big budget companies also have work to do on already fantastic and very capable systems. Ive experience with relays feed back which can keep the relays stuck on, an inductance issue, your relay should have a diode accross it to cancel out the inductive load. That can also be caused by the wrong voltage, polarity or ampage accross it. Again, great video. Cheers

It's a magical thing when a robot becomes capable enough to make better parts for itself and for the next generation of it.

When you started talking about position problems my mind immediately went to steps. Building 3d printers I've had to do many calibrations on steps. Using a raspberry pi to crunch the steps might improve performance. It's one way they solve it in 3d printing with klipper.

GREAT video. I love to see things FAIL and then get diagnosed. Tells me all kinds of things. Your determination is key - 'hours later' = you kept at it! Cheers!

I know it’s frustrating, all the settings, coding etc. But all this time, you’re learning and so the effort is valuable. Great video thanks Jeremy.

Epic keep up the good work. Suprising the viewers haven't chimed in on some problems. I have no idea I didnt even know there were motor that had 10k points

I love your work. Inspirational. Well done. If repeatability is a problem, you might be suffering from induced EMI. The plasma cutter generates high current high frequency harmonics that may interfere with your step and direction signals. I don't know your exact setup, but check your repeatability with and without the plasma cutter and compare the results. Good luck!

I am a mechanical engineer, I had this problem when building mine. Mine didn't have the budget for the plasma cutter, I only paid $ 80 for my Chinese sale cutter, so I had to modify it. The biggest problem with plasma cutting is the emf(field)/emp(plus). It interferes with your data lines, to the controller. After a lot of trial and error, even grounding(which might be your problem), the thing that worked for me was. Connect a low resistance(10 ohm) but high wattage resistor to the torch (negative, head of the torch) to the work peace (positive, the metal you are cutting), I routed my wire in a loop around the torch wire (decreasing the antenna effect). I used a geysers element in water. The CNC plasma worked without changing position or coordinates after that. Please let me know if you gave it a try and what the results were.

No matter what problem is that you are trying to solve, or how frustrating the problems are, you always manage to keep a smile on your face. Very well done with that ... 😃

I love this channel. You have a great idea and then tackle problems as they come up.

I'm working on a robot arm design right now and it's really motivating seeing you work on an application like this!

New viewer, am so glad you were recommended to me. I feel like I need to go back a couple of vids to see how we got here. The notes thing is really important to me, and the other thing I've learned is to slow down and only change one thing at a time. Get yourself a lab notebook and follow a protocol. Document what you intend to do, the steps you think you need, and what the end result should be. Then document the steps you took, whatever deviations to the plan, and the results of the actions. refine and repeat. Slow, steady progress, beats a "Tada!" moment because most of those are a failure. and for sure celebrate the successes. That's more to remind myself than telling you what to do.