[Milsurplus] Action Tremors and solutions there to

[J. Forster]

If you can control the position of your hands and the tremors are
oscillations around fairly stable positions, you might be able to use
motors driven by a joystick with low pass filters to remove the tremors.

Also, have you tried resting your wrists on something firm to eliminate
the effects of your arm muscles?

-John

============

> My hands shake, sometimes fairly wildly, when I'm trying to do things
> that require them to stay steady.  Thyis is frustrating since even the
> most simple soldering job is rendered difficult with the wide open
> spaces in boatanchors to impossible with SMDs.  It's called Action
> Tremors and there are several causes with a limited number of
> treatments including using meds to counter side effects of existing
> meds.  In a rather ironic twist, one of the counteracting meds is one
> I already take for another irritation but the dosage is too light.
>
> Not being able to solder is simply not acceptable.  How can I convert
> an NOS T-15/ARC-5 into a SSB exciter or install crystal filters and a
> product detector in an S-38 if I can't solder?  Sooo, I'm calling on
> my edjamakashun (I'd have at least a bachelor's in EE & ME - split
> major - with some graduate work in place if academic politics hadn't
> screwed me and a few others.) and interest in robotics & process
> control to Save the Day.  Or something.
>
> So, anyway, I've been designing motor drives for the lathe accessories
> that require a steady hand but soldering presented a special and
> interesting case.  To handle that, I've been sketching a resistance
> soldering head on a positioner driven by stepper and servo motors and,
> in a few cases, solenoids.  There are two different designs for the
> positioners, an X-Y-limited Z device and something along the lines of
> a robotic arm.  In both cases, the head itself has several degrees of
> freedom of rotation for the final positioning so it can get into about
> any situation without running into components on the equipment.  While
> I was originally thinking of combining the two ideas, I now believe
> the arm approach is the better choice since it can better emulate how
> I would approach a solder connection but with greater flexibility.
>
> Resistance soldering allows me to concentrate more heat into a smaller
> space with a minimum of effort.  Using a variety of different head
> designs, it should be able to handle about any reasonable soldering
> situation (ie, soldering together lengths of copper tubing is
> definitely out.) plus possibly resistance welding (including capacitor
> discharge welding) and SMD positioning.
>
> The control electronics will be the familiar bipolar TTL (74LS mostly)
> with some 74HCT included, for those who are familiar with the
> different families.  Computer control including PICs et al isn't
> planned; it will be all manual with a fairly basic control panel to
> handle the motors.  (A VR glove won't work for what should be obvious
> reasons.)
>
> Aside from a radio telescope antenna positioner that used a couple of
> national SC/MPs (my all time favorite microprocessor), all my
> robotics/process control machines to date (including the microbots)
> have been more toys and experiments than anything else.  After almost
> 40 years, this is the first one that will do real practical work and
> I'm kind of excited by it.  There are a few problems remaining, motor
> weight and balancing the whole thing properly among them, but I
> haven't had this much fun since .... er, okay, I won't go there.
>
> The things I won't do to continue melting solder.  :-)
>
> Best regards,
>
> Michael, WH7HG
> --
> http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx
> http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/
> http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com
> Hiki Nô!
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