Hey guys, I haven't been super active in the forums lately so I wanted to say hello to the fantastic EZ community. There have been a lot of good threads with tons of information. I've enjoyed reading them. Thanks to everyone for sharing.
I haven't touched my robot for a few weeks. (I made so poor engineering decisions and got flustered. I think that will be the next topic I absorb.) And not much the past month or so. Most of my time has been devoted to creating a stable revenue stream. Or in lay mans terms, finding a job.
I did happen to acquire the "Getting started with Arduino Kit" a week ago. And I have to say I enjoyed it. I'm definitely not jumping ship because while I enjoyed it, and I'll explain why shortly, it really made me appreciate the EZ Robot system so much more.
Why I enjoyed the Arduino kit? I guess my answer is because it wasn't as easy as EZ. I really wanted to know more about circuits and basics of electronics so I could understand it all better. I found the book for the kit as well as the Arduino Cookbook online for free with lot's of walk throughs and stuff.
I liked the one pin method for the learning experience. It was also one of the things that made me appreciate EZ more. It was fun but it also showed me one way the EZB has much more potential. Also if I were to blow the Uno up it's cheap and and I can just go to Radio Shack and get a new one. I was very afraid to experiment with my EZB. (I did loose 2 small speakers due to some late night drunken tinkering
)
After spending a day or two with the GSWAK book I moved onto the Cookbook and I'm about 75% through it. I learned a ton of stuff and now that I've had a chance to experiment with the basics, I feel more comfortable with my EZB as well. I personally am for the better from the experience.
While I enjoyed the coding and such it once again made me appreciate the EZ. It was cool to learn it all but EZ really simplifies some of the heavily used tasks. Servos and movement are just one great example.
I guess the best part for me was I was able to learn a lot about basic electronics and/as it applied to microcontrollers (MCs) so I related to it real well. It was nice to have it all in PDF/book format. Hopefully I won't have to ask as many questions now :)
If you're like me and robotics got you into electronics and, you want to learn more about electronics and MCs, google the Getting Started with Arduino Kit book and Arduino Cookbook. Even just reading through them is very helpful.
Then you'll appreciate your EZB even more. I know I do and I can't wait to start my next project. I'm still flustered with the one I was working on but Technopro started that cool R2 thread and I think I'm going to move onto something like that. Who doesn't want their own droid? It'll be a few weeks before I start but I'll keep you all posted.
Feel free to comment. Thanks for reading. You all are awesome.
What you learn about the Arduino can be used on the EZ-B, at least a lot of it can be, so it's always good to read up as much as you can. Most of the stuff I have learnt and explained (H-Bridges, TIP transistors etc) have come from Arduino resources and I've just "translated" them to the EZ-B.
I'm in the same boat, I haven't touched either of my robots for a while, I even took them back up to the spare room yesterday (they usually live in the living room when I work on them). A mixture of things, lack of desire/motivation, lack of money (saving like mad for the new car), other "real life" stuff etc. But I'll get back to them at some point.
Anyway, welcome back if you're back :)
@Rich - Yeah, money is definitely always an issue. This summer was like the super bowl of Transformers collecting. Alot of really awesome big ticket items came out or pre-orders became available this summer. I'm lucky my birthday is in July. I wish I had a bigger family this year. I would have saved me a lot of coin ;).
I hope you get a new car soon. It's funny how over time things that were once a luxury are now a necessity.
I'm hoping to be more active again. Thanks for all the support you give out. I learn a lot just reading your replies. I hope you're able to keep it up.
Best wishes from this side of the pond my friend.
I hear ya. I go through spurts of motivation.
I've had a Wall-E 98% complete, took it out on Monday to do some minor finishing touches. It needs a new HD mirco servo, so back on the shelf for a while.
I have too many hobbies, although if I get bored of one I jump to another.
Last week I grabbed a few handguns and headed to the range for an evening, 1200 rounds later I felt great! :D
Always end back here and playing with my EZ-B's.
I also have Arduno's but they usually have one dedicated function. I find the coding to complex, meaning I'm too lazy to learn it. eek
@Lumpy, I'm a hobby hopper as well :)
@Antron007 Hobby Hopper I like that!
My newest adventure is keeping dart frogs in a vivarium. What am I getting myself into! confused
;)
November 21, 2014. EZ-Robot's 3rd birthday. Happy BD EZ :)
I've not been very active in the forums lately mostly because I've not messed with my robotics/3d printing/super nerd hobbies in a while. I just wanted to say hello to all of the great folks in this community and forewarn you of my eminent return.
Roli came in the mail today and I've started assembling and charging it. I'm very excited to start playing with the new v4 board. It will probably be a few days till I have anything to show off and probably a few hours until I start having questions. LOL
In other news, now that I'm feeing re-inspired, I'll be putting down the controller and fixing my 3d printer fairly soon. (By end of January I'm guessing) I also have a Solidoodle Press that has been ordered for me as a holiday gift. I don't expect to have it until February as it was ordered last week and they don't start shipping until whatever they change the date to after they don't start shipping on December 5th as stated when I read their blog last week.
So I'll put myself back into the 3d Printing community here once I'm up again. I had to turn down a few opportunities so I pulled myself from it until I'm "operational" again ;)
In any event, I'm excited to be coming back around more often and learning from some old friends and meeting the newer folks.
And last but not least, one last time, Happy 3rd Birthday EZ-Robot. Thank you for all of the tools you've given us to learn, grow and play with. ;)
@Antron007, glad to read some ASCII characters created by your digits pressing some keyboard contacts. Keep us posted on your EZB(4) creations.