Mom of Elem. School Robo Team Member needs help please!

Hi, I’ve been searching the web for over a week for what I thought would be a simple request…after emails to Japan, England, California and several phone calls to no avail. I’m hoping some kind soul here can help.
Problem: My son’s robotic team (5th graders) had an Elekit MR-999 Robotic Arm donated to them. (this is the English or Japanese version of OWI-007 or possibly OWI- 535) Very cool. Except that it didn’t come with the manual and apparently had a problem. One of the teams Dad decided to work on it and managed to destroy the terminal housing connector and pins on the remote. He attempted to fix his work by filling the holes of the housing with super glue after breaking the pins off by not knowing how to remove them or using the right tool. Because I do repair computers and fix things from toys to major appliances (my husband was in navy for 22 years had to learn to fix things :wink: ), my son asked me if I could attach or send in a new plug for the arm. I told him to bring it home and I’d give it a look. I couldn’t identify or locally buy the correct housing for the remote but was able to modify and old AMP connector and crimped new pins on it. Not pretty but it works. Obviously this did not address the original problem: The shoulder movement doesn’t work properly, it handles the down movement ok but can’t go up without a little help after being moved approx. halfway down. I’m guessing that there should be a stop(the other 4 motors stop at certain point), or maybe a broken part, is incorrectly assembled, or correctly assembled and something is loose or worn out. I’m just not sure without ever seeing it work properly and no manual for reference. If anyone can either point me in the direction of the manual, send me a picture of the clutch assemble correctly assembled, or any help I would be most appreciative. This thing has been sitting on my desk for over a week now and I really don’t want to send it back only partially fixed. The website for the actual product is: http://www.elekit.co.jp/material/english_product_html/MR-999.ph Thanks in advance for any help! Robin

Hello,

Unfortunately, we do not have any in stock right now, so I couldn’t take a look at the instructions. Have you tried contacting:

http://robotikitsdirect.com/products/owi007.html

Good luck!

- Jan

Thanks for the link. I contacted them by telephone and email two days ago-still no response. However, I finally caved and took apart the the shoulder section and found that it was missing a 3m hex nut. I don’t know if the original builder forgot that(doubtful) or the guy with the super glue lost it. Also noticed that the screws didn’t match so I wonder if there are any other missing parts.

I added the missing hex nut, still didn’t work too well, added a lock washer and shoulder works 100% better.

I’m going to sleeve and heat shrink the cable and send it back to the school. If I can obtain the directions and the arm holds up to the test of the 5th grade robot team, I think I might look into the other accessories and/or encourage them to at least add a few enhancements to it.

I must admit I’m having a hard time NOT at least changing out the lighting with some cool LED’s while it’s here…:0)