Robotic Arm

While building the Avoidance Car I gained a lot of knowlege about robot actuators (DcMotors, Servos, and Steppers) so I though I'd try a simple robotic arm.   Again, these are supposed to end up as toys for our Great Grands.   I didn't have much luck early on, until I realized hoe much current the MG996s drew.

I saw this aluminum arm on Amazon, and thought it would be a good learning experience and the GGkids would like it too.   To control the arm, I first thought of joy sticks, then saw a USB mouse being used to control an arm and thought that would be better.   I already had an Arduino R3, so I added some 3 pin extensions, a USB mouse shield, and a USB mouse.  
The Aideep ROT3U 6DOF arm didn't come with instructions or servos but I emailed the manufacturer (Aideepen) and they sent me a copy, it was originally in .docx so I changed it to .odt format.   I think Microshit office will open it, they say they can???.   I know OpenOffice or LibreOffice will.

After assembly.   I ordered the ROT3U 6DOF arm (which took a couple of weeks from China), and two of the MG996R servo 4 pack (needed 6 servos), and servo horns so when the arm arrived I was ready to assemble.   The arm didn't come with instructions, but I found some for a similar arm on the web.

A little better pic.

Different perspective.

On the gripper, the drive and driven gear pieces didn't line up so I had to make a shim (blue arrow) under the driven side of the gripper.   I used a 1/4" washer and drilled two 3mm clearance holes (about 1/8") in it so I could screw the 3mm bolts through the arm, shim, into the servo's horn.