Bioloid Assembly with the AX-12

Even though the Dynamixel's are made from high quality components they can be damaged if they are installed incorrectly.

The Dynamixel's can only be damaged:

• if you tell them to go to a certain position,
• something is physically stopping them from getting to that position, and
• they continue trying to achieve the target position.

If the Dynamixels are left like this long enough they will 'burn-out' their motor, i.e. take too much current into the motor over a short period of time and be permanently damaged.

There are 3 common reasons why this occurs:

1. if you install an M6 screw into the AX-12's horn longer than 6mm. What happens here is that the longer screw embeds itself into the plastic casing of the AX-12 and the motor is prevented from spinning.
2. in the illustration below the RED circle highlights a marking on the horn of the AX-12, this is the AX-12's centre position. If a robot is assembled and the centre positions of the AX-12's are not considered then when you try and move the AX-12's they may try and move to an unattainable position, keep trying and in doing so 'burn-out' their motor.
3. if you remove the horn from the AX-12 and then it is remounted with the orientation of the marking on the horn and the physical position of the horn not being considered - if you remove the horn for any reason make sure it is remounted in its original orientation.

Please be careful to consider this when constructing your Robot from the Bioloid Kit.

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