WowWee Rovio on Woot.com for $99

W9GFO

Not too bad for $99.



Rich H

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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.

erco

XLNT find, you beat me to it, Rich!

Of course I had to get one. Maybe NOW my collection is complete. Now my $99 Woot Spykee robot has something to battle.

WowWee is losing their Smile on this one...

How long before we see a PLEO Woot-off for $99?

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Bane

I had to pick one up too. Just too good of a price. Can't wait to get it.

Martin_H

I already spent $115 this month on robot supplies, so I must resist. I can blame Whit because I got the idea for what I bought off his blog.

erco

Wow, Martin. Up 'till now I thought you loved your son and wanted to give him the best possible robotic education! [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Martin_H

Lol! Yeah the problem is that doesn't quite look as educational as the robot kit I bought. I have to admit the price is really compelling as that thing used to cost over twice that.

erco

My Rovio·arrived yesterday. I haven't installed yet, need to sift through·all of the software/firmware upgrade downloads at http://www.wowwee.com/en/support/rovio·I have to say, it looks like·a very·nice robot. Components are worth far more than the price of admission.

Too bad they opted for those cheesy Omniwheels. Sure they look cool and work fine on a smooth flat floor, but most of the time, they function like 3/4" diameter wheels (the minimum diameter of the rollers). Lots of friction and dog hair wrapped around the axle! In a household-roaming robot (which this claims to be) that has to go over bumps, that's not good. Clearly a form over function decision. Marketing wins over engineering AGAIN!

Also, the True Track (Northstar) beacon only allows navigation in one room. Have to see how that works out.

In a related story, check out this guy selling test drives of his Rovio on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/WowWee-Rovio-Test-Drive-drive-it-in-my-house_W0QQitemZ160418011280QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2559a89890·Looks like just one person has paid him $1 for the honor. In the copy, he says:

i am working on building other robots that work similar to rovio. if you are interested in a bigger, stronger robot, for security or just for fun, contact me. you can control the robot from the iphone or maybe other smart phones that has a browser, or any computer in the world hooked up to the internet

Curious business model. If it works, we'll all be scrambling to put our·telepresence bots on EBay!

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Post Edited (erco) : 3/28/2010 5:16:38 PM GMT

Duffer

"Surrogates", the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/

Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

Duffer

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Any technology, sufficiently developed, is indistinguishable from magic.· A.C. Clark(RIP)

erco

WOW, WEE, it works GREAT. Should have bought TEN at $99...

It comes with a software CD, and in the same bag there's a note that says "DON'T USE THIS CD!" It directs you to a website with new software & firmware. No problems downloading, installing and upgrading. Works as advertised, they fixed the glitches in the many early bad reviews.

I do see why they tried the Omniwheels. Driving a telepresence robot is tough using visual cues alone. Lining up to go through a doorway or avoid an obstacle with video lag and steering overshoot is tough. The omniwheels allow a "side slide" traverse that helps align & aim the robot more easily using visual cues.

But the Omniwheels are poor performers around a house. These wheels are 3" overall diameter, even smaller than Tribot's 4.25" wheels. When driving straight forward, that perpendicular real omniwheel becomes a 3/4" diameter roller and hangs up on the many small throw rugs we have in our house, as well as the threshhold between our kitchen linoleum and adjacent carpeted rooms. When you drive the robot "live", you can anticipate that and try to hit these "singularities" at an angle and/or back up and retry as necessary. But when the robot is self-navigating using the Northstar (AKA True Track) beacon, it just hangs up and spins the wheels madly. Kind of like watching "Little Geek" (the underwater ROV in "The Abyss") struggle to get away when tied up. Aw, untie the poor little fellow and let him carry his deadly bomb down to the NTE's...

But I digress. Nifty features abound in this robot. Great telepresence features, microphone & speaker, so you can have a 2-way chat while you're driving the robot around. And I love the fact that the robot is its own web server. You don't need to leave a host computer on 24/7. It accesses my wireless router (which IS on 24/7) and gives me an IP address. I create usernames & passwords that can log on to that address from any computer on the Internet. So I can log in (or let family & friends log in) and use the robot from anywhere. VERY cool feature.

If you didn't get one, you missed out. If you ever get the chance to get one at this price, NAB it. You won't regret it.

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·"If you build it, they will come."

erco

BTW, that "one week only, half-price" sale ($39) is still good, I downloaded it. Won't have time to play with it for a while, so I can't say if it's worth it. Per the seller, it's a general computer vision app (webcam, robot, whatever) and is not limited just to Rovio.

·http://www.roborealm.com/woot/rovio.php

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·"If you build it, they will come."