compact two axis servo mod

there is a lot of wasted space in servos. the standard servo was designed in the 1500s by a japanese ninja named futaba. back in the 1500s they didn't have very small electronics, so they had to make servos large.

now electrons are small. you could fit all required electronics inside the connector if you wanted to. maybe a better idea is to just forget having the servos have electronics at all. they should just be a motor and gearbox and an encoder (pots are lame).

here is what happens when you cut out all the useless space. i think these are 20 year old s48 servos.

yep. i was a little aggressive with the dremel. (i actually cut one before i got the dremel. damn that sucked. dremels are awesome.) now i need to find some short crazy futuba servo screws.

so the plan for these babies is to make a self-balancing foot. omg. yeah. i said he was going to have a ball for a foot, but after the ebay spaceorb fiasco i have changed my mind.

the foot (ankle) will be 2 axis with the accelerometer used to do a lame-ass feedback style balancing. the goal will be to put it on a book and be able to tilt the book around with the foot & lower leg being balanced. After that I'll get a bit trickier and add a leg. At that point it'll just be a gimmick and I should get to work doing a real balance simulation.