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Where is Everybody? — Parallax Forums

Where is Everybody?

ercoerco Posts: 20,244
edited 2010-07-25 22:12 in Robotics
I was sure that·UPEW (no, I couldn't go) would have galvanized people into running home·and building cool things.·I keep checking in to see new robots people have been building, but it seems even quieter than before. Sure, maybe·some people are·on vacation and traveling. But surely·others are home·near their·soldering irons!

OK, I'll lead the charge and hope others follow suit. I'm gonna work on·my latest little robot·this week and post some info & videos here later. It's built from a plastic Sterilite trash can, and will have a nifty walking gait. Lots of bling on it. Just a fun little remote-controlled·bot with LEDs, an MP3 player and every cheap Chinese gizmo I can find on Ebay, but it's something...

I combined elements of Robbie, Knight Rider, the Silent Running drones Huey Dewey & Louie, Wall-E, and the 2001 Space Pod. Here's an early video of·some LEDs and some·spinning "sensors"·(those arms are bogus, but a real one's coming): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Qo1_uF8CE

So what·HAVEN'T you·been building and why not git·something going ASAP? Jump in here, or start your own thread.··Time's a-wasting!··Summer is half over!

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Comments

  • Tom CTom C Posts: 461
    edited 2010-07-12 16:44
    erco,

    I am presently working on my version of Steve Norris' BDS that appeared in the Completed Projects Forum and in the latest issue of Robot Magazine.

    I already had the Parallax Motor Mount and Wheel kit mounted on a development chassis, so I purchased one of the Robot Base kits and transferred the Motor Mount and Wheel kit to it. I have already mounted the HB25s and a power relay to turn the HB25s on and off. I have also built the IR beacon sensor. I am using three PING))) sensors in the front for obstacle avoidance.

    My version is about 32" tall with the IR beacon sensor mounted above the motors and then two shelves for beverages and snacks. The top level houses a Servo City power servo that opens and closes a curved sliding door infront of the shelves. The main body is a 12" dia concrete pillar form. I plan to start wiring up the motors and the Parallax Propeller controllers this coming weekend.

    I will include some pics from the coming weekend's build effort.

    Regards,
    TCIII

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    If you are going to send·a Robot·to save the world, you·better make sure it likes it the way it is!
  • ScopeScope Posts: 417
    edited 2010-07-12 16:47
    My robotics pursuits are somewhat on hold for a while - I'm writing two books and I'm spending time with my two new friends:

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  • iDaveiDave Posts: 252
    edited 2010-07-12 18:03
    Sweet bot erco! Very unique looking with the different elements your trying to tie together. Especially like the Robbie spinny thingies. Though dont see my old pals huey,dewey and louie. Remember...we've got plants to water!

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    “How much of human life is lost in waiting.” Ralph Waldo Emerson"
  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2010-07-12 18:37
    Hey Erco, you have some interesting wheels on that thing. Is it designed for climbing steps??? smile.gif
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2010-07-12 19:12
    @iDave: You'll see the resemblance to H/D/L in its walk, hopefully·this week.
    @wjsteele: No step climbing, just a cute left/right walking action.

    With some added bogie detail, they'll look like Wall-E's triangular tank treads, but actually they are simply triangular wheels that rotate 120 degrees at a time, then index flat against the ground. 3 magnets around the wheel trip a reed switch for indexing. Ordinary "walking" is alternating left/right wheels, and I also have "sprint mode" which rotates the wheels together in sync to drive straight ahead.

    I built this a while ago and had it walking quite nicely, but never made a video. DOH! Then I took it apart to add the LEDs, and then the twins came and only now am I getting back to it. The girls·have started to crawl now and I need something fun for them to follow around...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haFMPAjVJ-g· Another "proud papa" video, pardon!

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • M. K. BorriM. K. Borri Posts: 279
    edited 2010-07-12 19:12
    I've been wrapping up the Antbot platform, they're for sale if you want them. The main advantage with respect to the scribbler is that they move faster. Also all schems and firmware are free of course, wouldn't do it any other way [noparse]:)[/noparse] other than that, well, i'm sorting out my US work visa so...

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    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=650217

    meow, i have my own topic now? (sorta)
  • P!-RoP!-Ro Posts: 1,189
    edited 2010-07-12 19:15
    I was working on Black and Blue before UPEW, does that count? But now that it's over I haven't had much time, I've been spending this week with relatives in Oklahoma and after a week at home I'll be in Portland for a while. I have, on the other hand, been able to learn PASM however, so hopefully I can use it to make my robot's paintball turret run more effectively than I could in spin.

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    90 * 2 = Pi
  • johnnycarlosjohnnycarlos Posts: 44
    edited 2010-07-12 22:29
    Wow Erco, that's a really nice looking and inspiring robot you're building. Thanks for posting!

    As for me, I was at UPEW and am totally motivated to build stuff. But I am new to robot building(and I have a newborn), so things are going pretty slowly. There is much for me to learn even before I can get started building. I'm really hoping to get faster at it soon.

    I did put my Cylon Princess on top of a Stingray last weekend.

    Generally speaking, are starting new threads discouraged here at all? For some reason I was under that impression.

    Thanks,

    John
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2010-07-12 23:34
    jc: Thanks, and nice Cylon Princess! Re: new threads; we all live for exciting new threads, so·post freely please!

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • johnnycarlosjohnnycarlos Posts: 44
    edited 2010-07-13 00:00
    Thanks erco. I can't wait to see your MP3 player. I have a few projects in mind that will require playing audio.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2010-07-13 00:23
    jc: I actually consider the MP3 player as the most obvious and least exciting part. Every robot ever shown at CES has an MP3 player built in, and many of them "follow you around" as they play your favorite music. For some, that's all they do!

    But having built MP3s into projects before, I know they have very good audio quality, much better than conventional sound recording chips. So besides playing Lady Gaga's latest, they can spout canned audio from Robby, B-9, Hal 9000, etc...

    PLUS, I'm hoping that the voluminous plastic trash can I used for a body might be subdivided into lightweight chambers that act as reasonable speaker enclosures. They won't be extremely rigid, but I don't need 1000 watts of audio, either!

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2010-07-13 01:52
    Besides working on a wall following program using Ping))) for my CBA robot. My son built a Lego NXT Llama which we programed using LabView.

    My next hardware project is a hybrid Lego/Basic Stamp robot arm. I'm using the Technic beams to build the structure, RC servos for motion, and the basic stamp to control the servos. Out of the box the NXT brick can't control enough servos for a decent arm, and adding a servo controller to it is not cost effective. The arm control circuit is also going to have an LCD which is my other recent purchase.

    I plan to have an IR sensor on the gripper so it can detect objects and try to pick them up. I've been thinking of getting a line scan camera as well. If I do the objects will have a bar code on them and the robot will bring them to the line scan camera for identification. I plan to try and have it sort the objects or do a tower of Hanoi.

    So far I've been building the arm structure which has truss sides, but a frame top and bottom (not enough of the right pieces). I'm attaching the servos by hot melt gluing Technic beams and a plates to them. The idea is to them pin and stud them in place with the structure around them taking the load, not the glue. The hard part is going to be finding a way to connect a servo to the Lego turntable for rotation. Lego purists would scoff at using glue, rc servos, and a stamp, but I'm not a purist.

    A ten inch Technic truss weighs about two ounces and is surprisingly strong. So far the gripper and wrist servos are going to contribute most the arm load. Attached is an image of a truss someone else built. Mine is similar, but I don't have enough pieces for the side bracing which is why I ended up using plates for the top and bottom. Not quite as strong though.
    800 x 600 - 61K
  • johnnycarlosjohnnycarlos Posts: 44
    edited 2010-07-13 02:52
    >I actually consider the MP3 player as the most obvious and least exciting part.

    I don't disagree, but it's common enough that I'm looking forward to seeing how you implement it for my education. I have a lot to learn, and I am excited I want to learn it all as fast as possible [noparse]:)[/noparse]
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,386
    edited 2010-07-13 03:09
    I think you're right - I know that many people from Parallax were on vacation last week. Given UPEW's excitement followed up with an inventory count and a 4th of July holiday several of us just added four more days. I took the four days off and combined it with two weekends. Didn't take long before it felt like I was John Wesley Powell as I explored the Green River in Utah. This kind of activity is pretty far from electronics and robotics, but the freedom to think outside of an office gave me some great ideas for my next project.

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    Parallax Inc.

    Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.
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  • RavenkallenRavenkallen Posts: 1,057
    edited 2010-07-13 03:24
    Even the good folks at Parallax need a couple days off. Slaving away night and day to create the prop 2 must be hard work, haha

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    Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet
  • rpdbrpdb Posts: 101
    edited 2010-07-13 04:16
    Hi erco and all,

    Still working on translating the wheel kit position controller from C (on the ATTiny) to a spin object, then hope to make it work in PASM. Jeff Martin and Kevin McCullough spent a lot of time helping me at UPEW, and yes I know I could probably just compile the C code with Catalina or such, but I am learning so much about passing pointers to pointers. My main focus is to keep it compatable with the original API so others may use it easily (not so easy).

    I am in the process of moving house so now I'll be 46 minutes away from parallax instead of just 40 minutes (but not much spare time for working on piggyBot right now with moving and all).

    My son just got me an RC Tx/Rx for fathers day and I bought a pan and tilt from servo city ST200 and I have a video cam mounted on that. I want to mount two cams a couple of inches apart and count pixel difference on blob centers to get depth perception for distance. Got the XBee pros talking good at 250kbs. Working on interProp communications 'cause 8 cogs aint enough. GPS is working too. Got some lasers from HomeDepot for leveling pictures on the wall and thought I might use a pair as "light houses" rotating at different rpms on Bot drop tripods and detectors on the Bot on servos with encoder wheels to see angles and triangulate position. Might be a good use of the sine tables in the Prop ROM.

    So, no, not much going on since UPEW. I remember they had parties after "Burning Man" called "AfterBurn".... Is this "AfterPEW"?

    rpdb
  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,545
    edited 2010-07-13 05:19
    erco,

    "I built this a while ago and had it walking quite nicely" - and I thought all along the twins were your little robots under construction smilewinkgrin.gif ... I was fully expecting to see them crawling/walking with some modified gait you had captured on video smilewinkgrin.gif

    Ravenkallen,

    "Slaving away night and day to create the prop 2 must be hard work" - yes, but I truly enjoy it! ... attached is a view of just one I/O pin ; the project I have been working on.

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    Beau Schwabe

    IC Layout Engineer
    Parallax, Inc.

    Post Edited (Beau Schwabe (Parallax)) : 7/13/2010 5:38:19 AM GMT
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  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2010-07-13 08:20
    THAT is one pin! . dude you are amazing!! .........

    Peter KG6LSE

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    "Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
    peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
    LOL
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2010-07-13 09:48
    Erco:

    New robots? Yes, lots of Penguin variants and a new version
    Toddler Humanoid (posted in the Projects Forum).
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=912126

    There's a robot brain being grown and tested here:
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=921524

    The robot brain is actually the UltraSpark 40, a small project with
    40 props for 320 computers with 1,280 ports and 6,400 MIPS
    to 8,320 MIPS speed.

    This stack fits nicely on top of BoeBot, making it very smart.
    The smartest BoeBot is seen here:
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=922262

    attachment.php?attachmentid=71798
    The smartest BoeBot is expanded
    with a skyscraper of 20 loaded
    Propeller boards.


    I also have a small space program, for launching robots into space and
    analyzing the data.

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    humanoido
    *Stamp SEED Supercomputer *Basic Stamp Supercomputer *TriCore Stamp Supercomputer
    *Minuscule Stamp Supercomputer *Tiny Stamp Supercomputer *Penguin with 12 Brains
    *BASIC Stamp Supercomputing Book *Three Dimensional Computer *StampOne News!
    *Penguin Tech *Penguin Robot Society *Humanoid Toddler Robot
    *Ultimate List Prop Languages *Prop-a-Lot *Propalot Stuff *Prop SC Computer
    *Prop Super Mini Computing Machine *Hobby Space Program *Smartest BoeBot at
    http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=6&m=469004


    Post Edited (humanoido) : 7/14/2010 6:52:19 AM GMT
  • GWJaxGWJax Posts: 267
    edited 2010-07-13 14:24
    @Erco,
    I just noticed that the LEDs on your bots face side is not lighting up on the far left "Bots left that is". Did you not connect these up or is it a program error? BTW I love the way you build it and added detail work as well.

    Jax

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    If a robot has a screw then it must be romoved and hacked into..
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2010-07-13 14:40
    @GWJax: Good eye! One wire had broken off the bot's left LEDs.

    @Ken: Agreed, outdoor activities·are good inspiration! Sorry I missed UPEW, but I had a 200-mile bike ride·that day. One of my few remaining streaks!

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
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  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2010-07-15 16:08
    I am in northern California with my family to officiate at a wedding of a former youth group member and to see some friends.

    I may get to make visit to Parallax though - jealous? smilewinkgrin.gif

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    Whit+


    "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-07-15 17:39
    rpdb said...


    So, no, not much going on since UPEW. I remember they had parties after "Burning Man" called "AfterBurn".... Is this "AfterPEW"?

    rpdb


    I've been catching up on my "other" business since UPEW.. [noparse]:)[/noparse] Always pay for being out of town.

    Back in the shop now working on several projects for UPENE '10

    The party is in Norwalk, OH on August 28th! Be there! [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    OBC

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    Propeller Feature Projects: PropellerPowered.com
    Visit the: PROPELLERPOWERED SIG forum kindly hosted by Savage Circuits.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2010-07-15 20:17
    @Whit: Sure I'm jealous! It would be a pity if you were that close to P'lax and didn't stop in to say hi! Grab some pre-pro Scribbler 2's while you're there.

    Speaking of which, thank goodness, BP finally capped their oil leak today. I had been modifying a Scribbler 1 to go down there and do the job once and for all. Now at least I can get back to making Waste-bot walk again.

    Waste-bot, want not.

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • legoman132legoman132 Posts: 87
    edited 2010-07-16 19:17
    I'm working on a Propeller controlled sub that I hope to finish before school starts (I'm using the sub body and some motors from a Gen.1 sub I built last summer, upgrading to Gen.2). I'm in Florida though, so I couldn't attend UPEW.
  • rpdbrpdb Posts: 101
    edited 2010-07-21 03:49
    I sure wish I could make it to UPENE. It was great meeting all you folks that I saw at Rocklin.

    Hey OBC, will you have a video feed there?

    rpdb
  • vanmunchvanmunch Posts: 568
    edited 2010-07-24 20:43
    Hey erco,

    Nice bot.

    I've been working on porting my hexapod walking program from the BS2sx to the propeller. This new hexapod uses a prop protoboard to control two propeller servo controllers. The program translates the direction that the "head" is looking to the legs so that it walks in the direction that it's looking. If it detects an object then it looks left and right until it finds an opening. The body itself never turns. The whole thing walks the same way that the BS2sx did, but now I have a lot more room to program.

    New videos:

    in the "woods"


    Children attacking



    Now that I have my PropHex walking around I'm working on getting the rest of it ready for the UPENE.

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    My wife is very, very understanding
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    2627 x 1970 - 2M
    2627 x 1970 - 2M
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2010-07-25 16:50
    SWEET BOT! That young man in your video just couldn't stop reaching for your PING servo! That's always a good sign.

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • vanmunchvanmunch Posts: 568
    edited 2010-07-25 22:12
    Ya, he had tried to stomp on the robot a couple of time before I thought of trying to videoing it, but he didn't do it again. I think that he had seen me putting my hand in front of it to make it walk in different directions and that was why he kept grabbing for it. Do you think he's old enough for a boe-bot? [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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    My wife is very, very understanding
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