Author Topic: Robotics  (Read 2911 times)

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Offline chimera15

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Robotics
« on: Wed, 03 November 2010, 23:12:27 »
My ultimate goal/want is to create androids.  But I don't have any money.  Anyone else?  Anyone here build/make pro or hobby robots?

I've had a long term project of playing around with muscle wire sitting on my desk for close to 5-10 years now.  Anyone know if there's been any improvements as far as that goes?

I wanted to weave the wire like real muscle, but could never afford enough of it.  Also the programming/electronics was pretty daunting.

Playing around with the teensy controller with DMW gave me an inkling that I might be able to do something with it.

I'm kind of bogged down on my keyboard project though, cause I can't cut square holes in a sheet of metal, which is kind of frustrating me.  I want to get that keyboard done before I start on this again in reality.
Alps boards:
white real complicated: 1x modified siiig minitouch kb1903,  hhkb light2 english steampunk hack, wireless siig minitouch hack
white with rubber damper(cream)+clicky springs: 2x modified siig minitouch kb1903 1x modified siig minitouch kb1948
white fake simplified:   1x white smk-85, 1x Steampunk compact board hack
white real simplified: 1x unitek k-258
low profile: 1x mint m1242 in box
black: ultra mini wrist keyboard hack
blue: Japanese hhk2 lite hack, 1x siig minitouch pcb/doubleshot dc-2014 caps. kb1903, 1x modified kb1948 Siig minitouch
rainbow test boards:  mck-84sx


Offline CodeChef

  • Posts: 280
Robotics
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 04 November 2010, 10:24:25 »
Yep, one of the captains of my school's robotics team. Two years ago (when I was just a nooby gopher) we won Trinity Firefighting Competition, beating out the Chinese, the Israelis, and every other team from the US.
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Offline chimera15

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Robotics
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 04 November 2010, 13:07:47 »
Quote from: CodeChef;242510
Yep, one of the captains of my school's robotics team. Two years ago (when I was just a nooby gopher) we won Trinity Firefighting Competition, beating out the Chinese, the Israelis, and every other team from the US.

Amazing.  Have you played around with muscle wire at all?  One of the limitations it seems like to me is the use of motors/gearing.  It seems like there needs to be a muscle wire that will work like real animal muscle to really get a realistic/efficient android movement fully implemented.  It seems like that's right around the corner.  I'm really surprised I haven't seen a robot arm at least that uses that technology.
Alps boards:
white real complicated: 1x modified siiig minitouch kb1903,  hhkb light2 english steampunk hack, wireless siig minitouch hack
white with rubber damper(cream)+clicky springs: 2x modified siig minitouch kb1903 1x modified siig minitouch kb1948
white fake simplified:   1x white smk-85, 1x Steampunk compact board hack
white real simplified: 1x unitek k-258
low profile: 1x mint m1242 in box
black: ultra mini wrist keyboard hack
blue: Japanese hhk2 lite hack, 1x siig minitouch pcb/doubleshot dc-2014 caps. kb1903, 1x modified kb1948 Siig minitouch
rainbow test boards:  mck-84sx


Offline keyboardlover

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Robotics
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 04 November 2010, 14:27:16 »
I've heard good things about Lego Mindstorms. Wonder if Ripmeister has played with them at all?

Offline WhiteRice

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Robotics
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 04 November 2010, 15:34:17 »
Mindstorms is like the best entry kit <$1000

Offline chimera15

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Robotics
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 04 November 2010, 16:33:18 »
Quote from: keyboardlover;242613
I've heard good things about Lego Mindstorms. Wonder if Ripmeister has played with them at all?


I built some experiments with it.  I hacked the pic and power supply to drive more complex and better r/c servo motors though, and not to just run off batteries.  The problem with my set is that it's one of the early ones though and only works really with windows 95.  It gets the job done though and doesn't require a lot of coding as they have their little snap together control program which is awesome, although you can program it with more advanced scripting as well.  It's really great cause it allows for all levels of knowledge.

I always wondered what the possible power output was from it though.  I was scared to change the voltage/amps cause I wasn't sure if it would destroy the pic or not.

It's an older one so it uses an ir sensor to program the pic, and the ir sensor only runs off a com port which is why I stopped using it, along with it needing windows 95.   I pretty much need to set up a separate computer just for it.
« Last Edit: Thu, 04 November 2010, 22:23:44 by chimera15 »
Alps boards:
white real complicated: 1x modified siiig minitouch kb1903,  hhkb light2 english steampunk hack, wireless siig minitouch hack
white with rubber damper(cream)+clicky springs: 2x modified siig minitouch kb1903 1x modified siig minitouch kb1948
white fake simplified:   1x white smk-85, 1x Steampunk compact board hack
white real simplified: 1x unitek k-258
low profile: 1x mint m1242 in box
black: ultra mini wrist keyboard hack
blue: Japanese hhk2 lite hack, 1x siig minitouch pcb/doubleshot dc-2014 caps. kb1903, 1x modified kb1948 Siig minitouch
rainbow test boards:  mck-84sx


Offline CodeChef

  • Posts: 280
Robotics
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 05 November 2010, 08:45:44 »
Personally, I've had experience with Vex, and I find it's a bit more "grown up" than Mindstorms. I've seen full working suspensions and gearboxes built out of Vex pieces.
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Offline WhiteRice

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Robotics
« Reply #7 on: Fri, 05 November 2010, 08:55:28 »


Mandatory gundam break

Offline chimera15

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Robotics
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 05 November 2010, 12:39:13 »
Personally I'm going more for this:

Alps boards:
white real complicated: 1x modified siiig minitouch kb1903,  hhkb light2 english steampunk hack, wireless siig minitouch hack
white with rubber damper(cream)+clicky springs: 2x modified siig minitouch kb1903 1x modified siig minitouch kb1948
white fake simplified:   1x white smk-85, 1x Steampunk compact board hack
white real simplified: 1x unitek k-258
low profile: 1x mint m1242 in box
black: ultra mini wrist keyboard hack
blue: Japanese hhk2 lite hack, 1x siig minitouch pcb/doubleshot dc-2014 caps. kb1903, 1x modified kb1948 Siig minitouch
rainbow test boards:  mck-84sx


Offline chimera15

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Robotics
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 05 November 2010, 21:57:50 »
Watching the show "Sex Robot" on discovery health.  Pretty disgusted. lol

I have to wonder if they made that show just to discourage people from creating androids and just to make fun of them, let alone the people that would be into them.  The robots they showed were so laughable.  The people they showed with "robot fetish's" were there just to laugh at.  They also don't get it, it's not about domination.  The segment with a guy trying to turn his real girlfriend into a robot for sex play was just ridiculous.  

If you have a real girl, wth are you thinking trying to diminish and limit her capacity, and define a robot as something that is there to serve you, and has limited functions?  Just messed up and wrong.  Android makers are trying to make something to the standard of reality, but better, not a standard of some bad sci-fi robot.

If you're going to create something so limited, ugly, unusable, and disgusting why even bother, let alone try to promote it.   You just do more harm than good.
« Last Edit: Fri, 05 November 2010, 22:19:44 by chimera15 »
Alps boards:
white real complicated: 1x modified siiig minitouch kb1903,  hhkb light2 english steampunk hack, wireless siig minitouch hack
white with rubber damper(cream)+clicky springs: 2x modified siig minitouch kb1903 1x modified siig minitouch kb1948
white fake simplified:   1x white smk-85, 1x Steampunk compact board hack
white real simplified: 1x unitek k-258
low profile: 1x mint m1242 in box
black: ultra mini wrist keyboard hack
blue: Japanese hhk2 lite hack, 1x siig minitouch pcb/doubleshot dc-2014 caps. kb1903, 1x modified kb1948 Siig minitouch
rainbow test boards:  mck-84sx


Offline msiegel

  • Posts: 1230
Robotics
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 05 November 2010, 22:25:17 »
remember: through study and thought you've reached a level of discernment that most people haven't.

it's the same as with keyboards.

the good news is, many people will appreciate a high quality unit when you hand them one :)

Filco Zero (Fukka) AEKII sliders and keycaps * Filco Tenkeyless MX brown * IBM F/AT parts: modding
Model F Mod Log * Open Source Generic keyboard controller

Offline ricercar

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Robotics
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 06 November 2010, 12:00:59 »
Did you get the $150 Texas Instruments Stellaris ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller robotics kit that was on sale for $25 last month? That was a killer deal ofg a lifetime.

(ofg a lifetime, what a typo)
I trolled Geekhack and all I got was an eponymous SPOS.

Offline msiegel

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Robotics
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 06 November 2010, 12:04:39 »
Quote from: ricercar;243392
ofg, a typo


brown cherries today?

Filco Zero (Fukka) AEKII sliders and keycaps * Filco Tenkeyless MX brown * IBM F/AT parts: modding
Model F Mod Log * Open Source Generic keyboard controller