The fix was slightly more difficult than I thought it would be. Mostly just because it is hard to see against the black PCB. So far, 100% success rate.
Hey everybody - just want to give a tremendous thank you to JohnR, WBA Consulting, Humanoido and every single one of you who donated to a charity for a couple of Penguins. Best of luck with the rework process - do a good job and you'll have a couple of birds! If anybody slaps a Propeller on the top please do share!
I modified both of mine assembly-line style. Both are working just fine. The rework was very easy. Good instructions. Now I just have to assemble the mechanical parts.
Photos show the penguin brains in operation. One running Tenergy rechargeables from all-battery.com.
I received my 2 today, the fix looks like it won't be that difficult. A big thank you to everyone involved. I also just received a couple of DS1307's so I need to get these birds fixed and piggy back a couple of I2C time clocks.
I received my 2 today, the fix looks like it won't be that difficult. A big thank you to everyone involved. I also just received a couple of DS1307's so I need to get these birds fixed and piggy back a couple of I2C time clocks. Jim
Bee_man, so you'll have the only Penguin that knows exactly when to migrate! I look forward to seeing this addition!
Got my birds last night, Thank you Ken, John R, and everyone. One will remain stock and the other one will get a prop transplant to go along with my prop powered Toddler.
Curt
Got my birds last night, Thank you Ken, John R, and everyone. One will remain stock and the other one will get a prop transplant to go along with my prop powered Toddler.
Curt
Curt, is your Prop-powered Toddler described on the Forum somewhere? Or do you have a web page about it?
No, I've never mentioned it before. I've just been tinkering with it for a while. I've got a prop protoboard and a blank protoboard installed along with a Ping, an XBee, a memsic 2125 and a hm55 compass. The ping and the 2125 data is reported back from the xbee to a small data station with an lcd so I can read the data of where its at as it trundles its way around. The compass is the next thing I'll get working and then think of something else to put on it. I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can cram on the Penguin, should be interesting.
My Penguin kits arrived today 2/18/2011. I would like to say thank you to Parallax, JohnR, WBA Consulting and everyone else that helped to make this happen.
My Penguins arrived right on schedule. Thanks Parallax, JohnR, and WBA Consulting.
I also examined the battery board which requires rework. With a lighted magnifier the trace and SMD parts are clearly visible and match the re-work pictures. The speaker will make things a bit tight for the soldering iron in a few steps, but it looks doable.
No, I've never mentioned it before. I've just been tinkering with it for a while. I've got a prop protoboard and a blank protoboard installed along with a Ping, an XBee, a memsic 2125 and a hm55 compass. The ping and the 2125 data is reported back from the xbee to a small data station with an lcd so I can read the data of where its at as it trundles its way around. The compass is the next thing I'll get working and then think of something else to put on it. I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can cram on the Penguin, should be interesting.
Be sure and post any pics you have showing the walking Propeller versions.
OK Gang, we're getting close! We're down to 12 slots left!
Here is a preliminary balance of colors left:
-2 Red
12 Blue
29 Black
24 Clear
There are another 38 birds that are "don't care", so those have to come off of those numbers.
I figured that I was sure to get two black birds but to my surprise I got a black one and a clear one! Anyway I assembled the clear one last night and decided to disconnect his cord before I performed the rework, and he kept going! I pressed the reset button, he reset and continued to run his program. It wasn't until I cycled the power that he locked up, but if I plug the usb cable in the program starts to run, at that point I unplug him and he continues about his business!
So if you load a program on the Penguin it looks like he will work without the usb cable until the power switch is cycled.
Package of penguins arrived in Hungary today! Very impressive delivery time, as they appear to have been sent on the 17th, so that's only 4 days!
Big Big Thank you to all those involved in this, including congratulations to all those that made donations and have become guardians of the waddle.
Extra thanks to Parallax... When I opened the 2011 catalogue in my penguin parcel it seemed to open on the S2 scribbler page all by itself...
That purchasing decision has tormented me for a while (do I or don't I REALLY need it!!??!! - "I" meaning the whole family of course!!).
Well, it seemed the right time this morning as the pengi will need a PropRobot buddy, and I would also like to experiment with the code Bean is working on. So our local Parallax Distributor has benefited an extra sale too !
Now I need to strike the right compromise: No coffee == steady hands but shaky mind. Coffee == shaky hands but steady mind. Phew, maybe this will be a 2-part job.
I suggest that everyone who got the Penguin giveaway donates a few bucks into a kitty so we can buy it just to find out who he is and publish the ne'er do well's name here. Of N recipients, we can count on donations from (N-1) people.
Shame on this scoundrel.
Edit: His copy SAYS he's donating the proceeds (less shipping) to charity. Still worth following up on for verification, IMHO.
Wow!!! My Penguins arrived! They arrived! They arrived!!!!
Now you can expect more Penguin programs.
Let me know what you want.
I'm putting the finishing revisions on the Penguin English program.
Wow! Did you ever think Penguin could handle English?!
When completed, it will go on this Penguin page.
I don't think there will be any "shipping notices" for international (or any non-UPS) shipments. Please keep in mind, that absolutely NO money went to Parallax, and Parallax is contributing all the Penguins, the rework kits, and even the shipping costs.
Those that got shipment notices only got them as an automated part of the shipping process, and only if the system was able to match their shipping information with records on file.
So, the natural question becomes, how do I know if my birds flew the coop? There isn't an easy answer, but let's make life simple. Most (all) of you have ordered from Parallax before, or should have some idea how long a package takes to get through shipping, customs, brokers, etc. So make the worst case assumption, and figure your Penguins got shipped on February 16th. (They almost certainly got shipped sooner than that.) Add your normal UPS or USPS shipping time as appropriate, and then add a few days or, for international shipments, add a week. If you haven't seen birds by then, report back here, and we'll see what we can find out.
Please do not contact Parallax. Part of the deal here was offloading the administration from Parallax, and they have been fantastic. Also, this has been handled "off line" and "out of the loop", so the normal tools that support staff would use to check on things simply will not work.
If we see a problem or two, I'll get them collected up, and forwarded to the appropriate folks at Parallax, and get the answers back. Please feel free to either post here or send me a PM. The "penguins@" address is shut down, so that won't work (feel free to send anything there, but realize the only reply you'll get is "no such number" :-) ).
OH - Those that got your birds already, anyone done the fix yet? I plan on running mine with the USB cable attached to start with, then I'll get brave.
So it is now the 23rd of February and I'm assuming thing was shipped before Feb 16. I live in New Jersey and things don't usually take more that a week to reach me. So I guess I should give it a few more days before pushing the "panic button". Does anyone know anything different?
Aap, you should give it some more days as your shipment may be toward the bottom of the list. You could also ask the Forum here if anyone is still waiting for their Penguins to arrive. When did you send it in? Mine was an international shipment and there was no shipping notice for it.
*******My previous listing was canceled due to an error in listing and coincidently sold outside of ebay in the interest of more money going to charity and less going to fees, I have been contacted by other enthusists that participated in the parallax promotion, to list birds for them as well so depending on if i continue to be contacted there may be additional birds available after this one *********
Comments
Rich H
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?129170-Build-Your-Own-SMD-Microscope&p=972302#post972302
I've made a blog entry as well http://forums.parallax.com/entry.php?134-Parallax-customers-raised-12-000-for-charities.-.-.-all-for-some-Penguins!
And thank you again.
Ken Gracey
Photos show the penguin brains in operation. One running Tenergy rechargeables from all-battery.com.
Thanks,
Matt2
Jim
Curt
Regards,
zappman
I also examined the battery board which requires rework. With a lighted magnifier the trace and SMD parts are clearly visible and match the re-work pictures. The speaker will make things a bit tight for the soldering iron in a few steps, but it looks doable.
I figured that I was sure to get two black birds but to my surprise I got a black one and a clear one! Anyway I assembled the clear one last night and decided to disconnect his cord before I performed the rework, and he kept going! I pressed the reset button, he reset and continued to run his program. It wasn't until I cycled the power that he locked up, but if I plug the usb cable in the program starts to run, at that point I unplug him and he continues about his business!
So if you load a program on the Penguin it looks like he will work without the usb cable until the power switch is cycled.
Big Big Thank you to all those involved in this, including congratulations to all those that made donations and have become guardians of the waddle.
Extra thanks to Parallax... When I opened the 2011 catalogue in my penguin parcel it seemed to open on the S2 scribbler page all by itself...
That purchasing decision has tormented me for a while (do I or don't I REALLY need it!!??!! - "I" meaning the whole family of course!!).
Well, it seemed the right time this morning as the pengi will need a PropRobot buddy, and I would also like to experiment with the code Bean is working on. So our local Parallax Distributor has benefited an extra sale too !
Now I need to strike the right compromise: No coffee == steady hands but shaky mind. Coffee == shaky hands but steady mind. Phew, maybe this will be a 2-part job.
http://cgi.ebay.com/new-sealed-parallax-blue-robot-penguin-kit-rework-kit-/260741667903?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb56a1c3f
The first kit + rework to hit ebay.
Shame on this scoundrel.
Edit: His copy SAYS he's donating the proceeds (less shipping) to charity. Still worth following up on for verification, IMHO.
Now you can expect more Penguin programs.
Let me know what you want.
I'm putting the finishing revisions on the Penguin English program.
Wow! Did you ever think Penguin could handle English?!
When completed, it will go on this Penguin page.
Should I be worried if I have not received my Penguins yet?
Is there someone I need to contact?
Thanks
AP
Yep.
So it is now the 23rd of February and I'm assuming thing was shipped before Feb 16. I live in New Jersey and things don't usually take more that a week to reach me. So I guess I should give it a few more days before pushing the "panic button". Does anyone know anything different?
Regards,
aap
Anyone still waiting for their Penguins?
My order was on 1/31
aap
Sandman333
anyone else waiting for Penguin?
and he posted this in his ad:
*******My previous listing was canceled due to an error in listing and coincidently sold outside of ebay in the interest of more money going to charity and less going to fees, I have been contacted by other enthusists that participated in the parallax promotion, to list birds for them as well so depending on if i continue to be contacted there may be additional birds available after this one *********
Unrelated story: a Russian penguin robot on EBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-RUSSIAN-PLASTIC-ROBOT-PENGUIN-BATTERY-OPERATED-/390190301042?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ad9277f72