So, OBC what do you think? Will the "levels of deception" live up to the "mystery"?
-Matt
You're supposed to be eating clam chowder and chomping big cinnamon rolls in Pismo Beach. What are you doing here anyway?
How are you going to unveil this mystery project? People are expecting personal jet packs, solar-powered UAVs and DIY nuclear power. .. and you're going to tell them that we now stock 1/4 watt resistors in any size they can imagine? Oh man, last time we give you the keys to the marketing office. If Bump were on the forums during weekends he'd probably slap you an infraction under the "new rules" but you're under the radar at least until Monday.
OBC, that's pretty funny how that worked out! I actually knew before it was a "mystery project" because I happened to be at Parallax to discuss a work-related project with Matt while others were "brainstorming on an idea for
" in his office area. (I was asked to keep it to myself even at that stage)
I do hope that Matt was joking in the delay for the announcement. In my experience, delays for something of this magnitude can happen easily due to the amount of work, effort, and required collaboration necessary to make it all happen, but I hope that is not the case here.
Gee matt, If we knew you were coming to pismo, We might have cleared up some of this fog for you...
let's see what we can do tommorow, How about 70+ on the beach.. sound good?. Ok, we will set it up for you.
Oh and the good clam chowder is right down the street from the splash cafe, Pismo fish and chips. Right next to the bike rental store...
And it's about time I can get all my 1/4 watt resistors in one place now, great idea.. way ahead of it's time...
Oh and the good clam chowder is right down the street from the splash cafe, Pismo fish and chips.
Tommy -
I thought the best CC was @Splash?! We're having Clam Chowder in a Breadbowl @ 6:00pm, then taking it to the sand, and dine on the beach @ sunset...you're welcome to join us!
Thanks Matt, sounds like fun,
My wife and I might just put the bicycles in the truck and ride the "Bob Jones trail" to Avila beach,
and afterwards, stop In Pismo for the sunset, and clam chowder bowls.
I might just get some brownie points from my wife...
Time to end this silly thread!!! The special day is here! I don't care if Maker Faire isn't awake yet.....let them find out when they awake!
Reveal! Reveal!!! It's time to let the secrecy die....
...unless the Mystery Project is "Open Source Secrets" - Fully documented and open secrets that tell you everything EXCEPT what the secret actually is!!
Maybe it's like Mr. Ping's Noodle Soup - the secret is there is no secret ingredient!!
Regardless of this Mystery Project stuff, even at $999 Eddie represents one of the best values out there for an educational/research robot. It beats the price of just about everything else. Compared to, say, the Turtlebot (I'm sure a fine platform in its own right), Eddie is $400 less *AND* can haul a full-grown person around a room without breaking a sweat. I understand when Ken isn't around Parallax employees hold races around the parking lot. MattG is current champ, I'm told!
I'm jazzed Parallax is moving into this space, and jazzed even more with the possibilities of teaming up a Kinect and Dev Studio with just a robust platform.
Yes, it was the Eddie: http://www.parallax.com/eddie
There will be a lot more noise about this development in the near future. We're all very excited to be moving in this direction with Microsoft, and I can't wait to see what people do with the Eddie once they've arrived and shipped off to their new homes. A lot of potential in the robot.
Nice!!! I had a feeling it would be a Mid-range robotics platform:)...$999 is a little pricey for someone with my budget though. Anyways, i am still curious to see more info about it. Looks like it has a pretty powerful drive system? Enough to carry a human around?
Note to Microsoft (for their RDS page): It's not "differential drive." It's differential steering. Cars use differential drive -- assuming they have a differential. Robots (and bulldozers and tanks and...) use differential steering. Whole world of difference in these two differentials.
Looks like Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio requires Windows 7, I can't play. I have a Kinect laying around to.
RDS 4 does, but not 3, and the earlier versions are still available. Maybe you can use the earlier version without much loss of functionality. RDS has always suppored differentially *steered* robot platforms. They abstract to functions and expose those, and of course you can always create your own classes.
Thanks Gordon, I'll look into a compatible version.
EDIT:
It seems R3 is compatible with Vista. -"Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP"- Now I wonder if R3 has support for the Kinect?
Just returned from Maker Faire. First time and it was a lot of fun.
Got to meet the crew in person. An absolute joy to chat with. Only problem, the Inventor Wands didn't make it.
To see Eddie, you only had to walk thirty yards to the Microsoft tent. They had three units running in area. Each had different ways to control them. I was focused on the Kinect interface, so I didn't get to get into the other means of control, (too many kids driving the unit around)
The Kinect interface let you drive the robot around with arm movements, about a 45 second learning process for the driver.
I think Parallax and Microsoft did a great job, given, (what I was told), was a two month timeframe to get this out.
I'm glad Parallax products are again being supported by the Microsoft Robotics development after support for the BS2 went away a while ago.
The Kinect API probably requires Win7. There's a whole slew of sensing technologies natively supported by Win7, and not available in the earlier versions.
I have Win7 on a desktop machine, but my laptop is too underpowered for it, so it's still on XP. So on my Madeusa I use XP talking to a microcontroller that in turn does the low-level interfacing to the HB-25s and various sensors. I don't currently use RDS, but I do use Visual Studio for programming. The libraries I use are simple, and connect to the sub-controller via serial. The command string structure is my own, and not as refined as that in RDS, but workable.
To play with a Kinect I'd have to use my desktop, which is a large tower weighing about 35 pounds. Madeusa *can* cart it around, but the power cord keeps getting in the way.
Comments
Guess we'll see an official announcement tomorrow. Maybe I'll grab a photo and post it.
OBC
-Phil
I didn't know when I started the thread...
-Phil
So, OBC what do you think? Will the "levels of deception" live up to the "mystery"?
-Matt
You're supposed to be eating clam chowder and chomping big cinnamon rolls in Pismo Beach. What are you doing here anyway?
How are you going to unveil this mystery project? People are expecting personal jet packs, solar-powered UAVs and DIY nuclear power. .. and you're going to tell them that we now stock 1/4 watt resistors in any size they can imagine? Oh man, last time we give you the keys to the marketing office. If Bump were on the forums during weekends he'd probably slap you an infraction under the "new rules" but you're under the radar at least until Monday.
Ken Gracey
OBC, that's pretty funny how that worked out! I actually knew before it was a "mystery project" because I happened to be at Parallax to discuss a work-related project with Matt while others were "brainstorming on an idea for
" in his office area. (I was asked to keep it to myself even at that stage)
I do hope that Matt was joking in the delay for the announcement. In my experience, delays for something of this magnitude can happen easily due to the amount of work, effort, and required collaboration necessary to make it all happen, but I hope that is not the case here.
let's see what we can do tommorow, How about 70+ on the beach.. sound good?. Ok, we will set it up for you.
Oh and the good clam chowder is right down the street from the splash cafe, Pismo fish and chips. Right next to the bike rental store...
And it's about time I can get all my 1/4 watt resistors in one place now, great idea.. way ahead of it's time...
-Tommy
Tommy -
I thought the best CC was @Splash?! We're having Clam Chowder in a Breadbowl @ 6:00pm, then taking it to the sand, and dine on the beach @ sunset...you're welcome to join us!
-Matt
it ain't gonna be me!
-Matt
My wife and I might just put the bicycles in the truck and ride the "Bob Jones trail" to Avila beach,
and afterwards, stop In Pismo for the sunset, and clam chowder bowls.
I might just get some brownie points from my wife...
-Tommy
I think it will do that nicely..
The city's central computer told you? R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!
OBC
Reveal! Reveal!!! It's time to let the secrecy die....
...unless the Mystery Project is "Open Source Secrets" - Fully documented and open secrets that tell you everything EXCEPT what the secret actually is!!
Maybe it's like Mr. Ping's Noodle Soup - the secret is there is no secret ingredient!!
Who's gonna spill the beans? The NY group? You? Lauren? Me? -
Make a decision Chief!
This charade has gone on long enough!
NO MORE SECRETS!
-Red Herring
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Robots/AllRobots/tabid/755/ProductID/775/List/0/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName
Yikes! The economy must be good someplace...just not here...I know I can't afford one of those!
Thanks for playing!!
My Marketing Mentor from years ago, once told me:
"Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Then, tell them. And then Tell 'em what you told 'em"
-Red Herring
I'm jazzed Parallax is moving into this space, and jazzed even more with the possibilities of teaming up a Kinect and Dev Studio with just a robust platform.
-- Gordon
http://www.microsoft.com/robotics/#Robots
Kinda cool.
It does looks like an awesome product.
Will the presumed new robot controller board be available?
Is it mostly just a peripheral to the laptop (talking the open USB protocol) at this point?
Does this mean there is support for programming Propellers in the new Robot Developer Studio??
There will be a lot more noise about this development in the near future. We're all very excited to be moving in this direction with Microsoft, and I can't wait to see what people do with the Eddie once they've arrived and shipped off to their new homes. A lot of potential in the robot.
EDIT:
Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio R3 - "Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP"
Yes. See my post above.
Note to Microsoft (for their RDS page): It's not "differential drive." It's differential steering. Cars use differential drive -- assuming they have a differential. Robots (and bulldozers and tanks and...) use differential steering. Whole world of difference in these two differentials.
-- Gordon
RDS 4 does, but not 3, and the earlier versions are still available. Maybe you can use the earlier version without much loss of functionality. RDS has always suppored differentially *steered* robot platforms. They abstract to functions and expose those, and of course you can always create your own classes.
-- Gordon
EDIT:
It seems R3 is compatible with Vista. -"Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP"- Now I wonder if R3 has support for the Kinect?
-Ron
Got to meet the crew in person. An absolute joy to chat with. Only problem, the Inventor Wands didn't make it.
To see Eddie, you only had to walk thirty yards to the Microsoft tent. They had three units running in area. Each had different ways to control them. I was focused on the Kinect interface, so I didn't get to get into the other means of control, (too many kids driving the unit around)
The Kinect interface let you drive the robot around with arm movements, about a 45 second learning process for the driver.
I think Parallax and Microsoft did a great job, given, (what I was told), was a two month timeframe to get this out.
I'm glad Parallax products are again being supported by the Microsoft Robotics development after support for the BS2 went away a while ago.
I know Phil will not buy one. Requires .Net
Jim
I have Win7 on a desktop machine, but my laptop is too underpowered for it, so it's still on XP. So on my Madeusa I use XP talking to a microcontroller that in turn does the low-level interfacing to the HB-25s and various sensors. I don't currently use RDS, but I do use Visual Studio for programming. The libraries I use are simple, and connect to the sub-controller via serial. The command string structure is my own, and not as refined as that in RDS, but workable.
To play with a Kinect I'd have to use my desktop, which is a large tower weighing about 35 pounds. Madeusa *can* cart it around, but the power cord keeps getting in the way.
-- Gordon