A 3D-printed hand controller for a surgical-robot simulator. It reads every joint and pushes back with real force when the virtual instruments touch something. Scroll to take it apart.
The part your hand holds. A 130 motor in the handle pulls the pinch lever through a braided-line capstan at about 4.4 : 1, so you feel it when the virtual jaws close on something. An AS5600 in the fork wall reads the lever from a magnet in its pivot.
136 mm from elbow to wrist. One end carries the elbow capstan sector, the other two wrist bearings and the wrist encoder. Two nuts lock the elbow axle to the forearm, so a magnet on its tip reads the elbow angle.
The upper arm carries the elbow motor and swings on the shoulder axle. The sector behind the pivot is the shoulder capstan. The sensor cup on the end of the axle reads the shoulder angle without touching it.
The yaw stage. Its 156 mm rim is the biggest capstan on the controller, driven by a drum on the motor below. The yoke on top carries the shoulder bearings and the shoulder motor.
A flat plate on four 38 mm feet. The yaw motor stands upright in a clamp sleeve, and the yaw encoder sits underneath, reading a magnet on the bottom of the yaw axle.
Build two, one per hand. The left one prints from mirrored files.
Arduino UNO Q firmware, a Python serial bridge and a Godot 4 simulator complete the system.