Well the first thing I remember taking apart was also my first robot.

I did manage to get it back together and it still worked. I was 5 or so maybe. I was mostly interested in cars when growing up. Took a lot of shop classes in high school. Had basic electronics then too. My first TV was one I got that didn't work. I played around with that for a while then my neighbor threw away one and it had the same chassis. "Parts"!! . So that was my first color TV. I went to collage for 2 years studying auto mechanics. After I got out I got a job as a mechanic? No ! Laying carpet. LOL! A few years later I did do mechanic work but decided there was other things I wanted to do. Went to work for a company that built conveyer and glass house bottle packers . I learned a lot there , hydraulics pneumatics and a little more electronics then I had learned in high school and collage. Also welding metal fabrication and machining. Eventually I ended up doing apartment maintenance and handyman stuff . I was doing auto and furniture upholstery before I got the job I have now. The last 12 years I've been a hospital engineer. Great job for me because I'm always doing something different. I get job burnout I guess cause I learn so fast then I peak and get board.
my hobbies I built a house on my vacation from work LOL 1236sqft. I also built myself a little shop too. 2600sqft. :)

my dad was a hospital engineer until 79 when he retired i did work as a carpenter for few years made large addition to another house i had for my playroom with jucuzzi my hobbies are baking alot,and travel ,been to jamaica 50 times,china 4 times,and all over france twice ,plus london 5 times,plus alot states in us,and other countries ,also collect movies,dvd over 700 movies and counting,robots i have mmmm may be 40 at work i do welding,plastic,and machine work,ART OR PAINTING not great at

Wow 79 ! that's cool ! I'll bet your dad was twice at good as the younger engineers! I think I like playing with metal probably more that anything.

he was named man of the year and was in the news 5 years ago when he retired was very close to 80 ,38 years working at the biggest hospital in florida

@ww321q that's real neat metal work!!!! very impressive!

@DJ tell us about you and your hobbies

robotmaker I'm hoping to retire at 60. I really need to or I'll never get all my projects done before I die! LOL ! :)

i am kinda retired,i do freelancing for company i work for,when ever they need me to travel or design and make a tester at home,i make more then twice as much as working full time each job i can ask any price mostly near $5000 each job that takes about 2 weeks or less,sometimes more so i have much much time at home working on ROBOTS plus travel alot and have all the equipment i need to make my robots also

Im 40 and in the health care field in Radiology/Cardiology. I was told that my parents stopped buying me toys because I tried to take them apart anyway possible so im assuming thats were the love of taking things apart came from.......Im married, I love to play volleyball and golf. Im in the plans of purchasing my first home by summer( more room to build more robots). Also, Im a leo and I like long walks on the beach...........call me...... ;)

@GOTROBBED i built long time ago a 4 lead EKG MACHINE in college and looking at building EEG machine for my telementry suit i am designing also next month getting a EEG headtset for $350 also know about MRI machines since i make magnet field generators

Most of you guys sound like you come from some sort of electronics background...

I am more the artist type, and Jill-of-all-Trades. Personal assistant stuff, I help start ups get going, design processes, accounting etc. I write sell sheets, design stuff, websites, etc. I have dabbled with programming but I am so not a programmer.

Personal hobbies, scultping, painting, building things. I'd rather make something then buy it. I am also writing a book. Fantasy, witches, elves, necromancers, zombies... the fun stuff.

Recently got into robotics and I also found out I was accepted as part of the Make Beta Team. Can't wait to see what kinds of projects they give me....

I'm in the wrong crowd tired

I'm just a lowly Building Mechanical Maintenance guy looking after 20+ buildings ( you know, HVAC's hot water tanks, boilers etc. ) no biggie , but I think I have @robotmaker beat, I have just over 150 various robots.

Dave

Put Put you probably do the same kind of things I do. But I don't have 150 robots ! :)

150... Oh my. I am still on first one. Then I have spykee I want to hack.

I thought that was spykee sitting on the side :)

Oh yeah he's kind of got a bad firmware flash I am having issues with but spykee has a great base. Next project.

30, work for a mortgage broker......i push paper all day.

I work for T-Mobile in Sales , mostly sale data /internet devices , tablets , modems, 4g hotspots ect.

@put_put ,are 150 are they homemade robots,or hacked robots or just collecting robots

I have a spykee. I hope to make time soon to add support for it :)

That would be awesome. Right now mine doesn't work. Bad firmware flash. Ugh!

I'm a facilities manager in bio-research. Did automated building controls for several years. Raced cars for a few years. Mostly I just like to tinker. Been taking things apart since I was 5. Been in love with robots since then too. It is so cool to actually build one, Thank you DJ.

spykee will be a cool one to hack DJ and other 2 more is RECON 6.0 AND SPYGEAR TRAKR both low cost looks easy to hack ,trakr as a usb port ,usb computer port and memory card i have both of them,look great to hack but would be nice to have a control for it too. as you can see love buying all types of robots ,getting heatkit hero soon and then a very advance robot latter,seen a few near $5000 to $10000 i lke alot,so my be in a few months will get it

@robotmaker,

Some are home builds and alot are collected...I have almost all of the Wow Wee robots large and small, RS Media, RoboSapien V1/V2 , Robo Boa etc. Tomy Omni bot 5402 , I-Sobot, I-Que, I-Cybie , some tin guys, I also have a power chair bot in the works and this unique bot that that uses a gyro to make it walk plus others.....o ya, and Wall-e.

This bot has wireless almost everything and since this pic I've added wireless cam to Robot Realm, and sonar, it can walk in any direction at multiple gaits and has an accelerometer for balance.

Basically it's my test bed for a larger project in the future.

put put i have 5 of the WOWEE ROBOTS i-sobot,robosapien and elvis and others,then have 2 very large robots ,one adding arms to it and all have AI SOFTWARE CALLED LEAF ,has emotions,face recognition,full face emotions and lot more,maybe 30 or more toy robots to hack,plus AR PARROT DRONE ,ROVIO ,SPC-101C ,HEATHKIT HERO ROBOT,A FEW PALM CONTROL CAR ROBOT,SEEKER 3 i design my next major robot in a few months is 1 of these 3 ,whitebox 914 $5400 or COREBOT $4400 or hanson robot at $45000 ,hanson is mainly what i want and have the money to buy it,havent yet piick witch one first to buy,i was one of the bidders on the real JOHNNY FIVE ROBOT a few years ago when on ebay ,almost got it,sold for $100000,my last bid was $68000,i love very very high tech advance robots as you can see,but also love hacking too,main reason i like EZB board very small pcb ,lots of functions,another one is TURTLEBOT by willow garage,but my design,plus few other robots others design,i like trying different robot designs of all types another build it full size full detail and working JOHNNY FIVE my favorate of all robots ,like R2-D2 type input-inc getting plans ready soon and have some parts ready SPC-101C is a great robot hard to find and $3000 from japan,got it at $1000 great deal

also if you have the wowwee robots there is a program somebody made and cheap EEG MIND control headset called EPOC HEADSET $300 i order one and have the software for it and now has ROVIO support and I-CYBIE is a little like SONY AIBO ROBOTDOG by sony is alot better design,another looking to get

Robotmaker,

Those are some very impressive high end bots that you are looking to buy, my interest is on the hobbies level so approx $2500 bucks into the bot in my pic is as far as I'm willing to invest for a hobbies bot.

What ever bot you buy I would really look at it's ability to identify it's surroundings and apply that info to a very high degree of collision avoidance in a natural environment.

It's easy to set a bot in a square room with multiple geometric shapes/equal lighting and avoid everything, take that same bot outside on as sidewalk and the first thing it will do is fall of the sidewalk because it doesn't have a means of sensory input to look down at edges.

I think that a platform that is able to manover in the public enviroment at the same speed as a human with full colision avoudance ( if it's wheels, tracks or legs ) will be the beginning of the first truly domestic robot that will enhance our everyday living, all other things such as speech, hearing , vision, emotion etc will follow.

If you look you will see that the basic walking of todays bots is still in it's infantcy , there is only a small handfull that can walk decently and even fewer that can run without falling over.

But hey, a $45000 robot would be fun for awhile.

It's great to know what everyone is doing for a living. I run a R/C Hobby web shop at www.aprohobbies.com, what got me into the business was getting into the hobby myself in the first place, been in this hobby for over 5 years. I designed and install a few backlight kits for R/C transmitters that don't come equipped with one:

www.aprohobbies.com/screen-backlight-spektrum-dx7s-blue-p-536.html www.aprohobbies.com/screen-backlight-xp9303-x9303-dsx9-9xii-mx22-p-123.html www.aprohobbies.com/screen-backlight-spektrum-dx6i-p-155.html

I'm getting into robotics because of EZ-Robot (working on my Wall-E as we speaks) and for the same reason EZ-Robot is now available in our store for all Hobbyist to explore a new hobby opportunity Thanks to DJ.

Best regards, Louis

Cool!

I don't have a job as i'm just 14 years old but i've designed and built the world's smallest Arduino. I'm planning to do a kickstarter for it soon to get my business up and running so i can make more stuff (money is the limit of most of my projects :D)

thats very cool NIEK ,i made also super tiny arduino same size as a 40 pin chip kinda linda like the basic stamp stich but smaller and looking at making about have that size with surface mount chip

how big is yours,

mostly i send my pcb i design to company who makes them fairly cheap,plus has free software looking to sell soon some of my designs for robot builders,from sensor boards to arduino boards problem selling arduino boards ,to many clones are on the market some very tiny and very cheap here is one like mine complete for $10 only i added usb on top of it

smallest arduino board looking at making half the size for my projects,but i dont think i will be able to sell them to many many arduino clones going cheap,plus not really looking to make more money

i think i made and design well over 400 boards working for the company some testers take up to 7 boards ,main reason is easy to repair, plus universal

@LTT this outrunner motor C05M 11000Kv Micro Brushless Outrunner Motor is it good for a quad copter design and what blade would be good for it and what would the lift power be about with 4 of them

@robotmaker

Don't know much about quad copters but it's quite powerful for a tiny brushless motor, we normally uses these in Blade MCPX helicopter brushless conversion and it has quite a lift for 3D maneuvers. I can't imagine what would 4 of them will be able to life. There is a more powerful motor, check the HP05S, i have two models, one spins at 13,200Kv and one at 12,500Kv, very powerful lift for its size.

Checkout these vids, these aren't mine but you get the idea how powerful the motors are:

C05M: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGL3xKhR7d8 HP05S: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPSLQvg3h5g

Hey RobotMaker,

I have been thinking about a Leaf bot. I tried to get it installed and function on my desktop prior to moving to a stand alone computer. I got it to a point where all installed and it says Hello I am Leaf but cannot seem to connect with mic etc.

Interested in giving me some pointers. My email is samantha.foy@gmail.com I have posted a few things on the board for group but no one seems to respond. Not like this great group here. One of the big things I like about EZ. The community ;o)

was it leaf ai group in yahoo,re you using a web cam ,yahoo group is better to answer questions http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/leaf_an_AI_robot/ fairly east to set up once a few minor changes made or using a different operating system,also need to train the microphone with a bould in windows program,plus need to ask the right question ,that always start with (leaf) then question "leaf this is bruce" or "leaf this is robin",latter on easy to change robin name to your name aso need to install sapi and i think there is a small change for the new sapi (sapi is voice) do you have windows xp pro or vista or windows 7

Yes it was a Leaf Yahoo group, one suggested from the site. It appears people are back around again. I just tried posting a new message.

I am running Windows 7. The directions specify that if you have 7 don't install the SAPI because it will mess up the preexisting SAPI. I did not try saying who I was. I was starting with Hello Leaf...

OK that's will see what they say.

@robotmaker

Mine uses the SMD atmega328p-MU version, it is only 15x20mm in size so about 3 quarters of a square inch (i think).

Your arduino is cool, i also made one of those with DIP IC that is only a bit larger, sent it to Lloyd :D

@NIEK thats same i made also ,had a pcb company make the board ,tiny bigger double sided with usb but found out not worth selling it to make any profit,to many others have it and selling cheap @sfoy are you using a webcam,second in windows 7 you need to place the files in the right folders, and did you sign up and joined the yahoo club,cant post if you didnt and in voice you need to train your voice if still having a problem posting you can contact alex that set up the club at rbirac@cox.net he is the moderator will be much easy to post message and get answers

@Niek & Robotmaker where did you get your boards made? I am looking to have one duplicated as a replacement. Spykee has a Wavestorm and I can't seem to find them anywhere.

@sfoy

I had my PCB's manufactured at Seeed studio's. Really good quality and price.

I bought the components from Mouser and hand-assembled them.

@sfoy pcb company problem they only make blank PCB like all pcb companies do if you have a bad board,i may be able to fix it for you,surface mount is very hard ,but can see if ca n be done

this one is one of the cheapest in usa with free pcb making software

To be honest I am not sure if it's a bad board.

Long story short I got Spykee, had a Linux developer help me set up my machine to play with his files. At the end of it he told me ok here's your new firmware. PS. I did nothing to the file.
I was then like ok new firmware, so I sent it to him and he broke.

I ordered the Max232 RS232 adapter. Tried following these directions (note they might as well be written in Greek to me) but uboot does not load and he is talking jibberish.

Bad Firmware Instructions

The Spykee forum is just about dead, no one helps and they don't really respond.

Now my goal is to use spykee's base, get rid of the body, make my own. I'd like to add an ez-board.

@sfoy thats what i am looking to do ,buy the spykee,but since i have so many many robots to use EZB ,not looking to get one yet,DJ going to make much much money off me,so far bought 6 boards and looking to get another 6 and that doesnt come close to my robot builds

Check ebay. I got him for $43. He was missing an arm but then the lady found it and sent it anyway.

DJ said he hopes to add support for Spykee.

I was thinking about putting a mini itx in him, I got ideas to make a new body. His camera is terrible.

@SFOY PX10000G is a perfect board for him i have 4 of them,very tiny 1 ghz 1 gig ram ,works great with EZB and WEBCAM see it go for sometimes used $60 cost new $250,last one got for $90 and one just got sold for $50

Would he need to be fixed to use this? I'd like to be able to still control him etc.....

Probably way to big of a project for me :o)

@sfoy do you have spykee wifi ,or spykee ipod i guess you have spykee wifi also on LINUX it is very hard to use and install any drivers or firmware took me a long time to get LINUX ROS software installed

Spykee Wifi but has bad firmware. Worked great before that.

Here's a great site that shows his insides.

Spykee Anatomy

Here's what I'd like to keep functioning. Motor control. Would be great to be able to use his IR auto parking feature. Also on the bottom he has these connectors that allow his internal battery to charge. Would be nice to use that too.

@sfoy i dont think it w ill be that hard to hack him.plenty of help for you here main cpu is 200mhz 5 times faster then EZB cpu but then is is running a operating system check the page mostly only need the motor ,battery source and few other stuff so dont think it will be to hard to hack,EZB has some sensor can add to him just need a dremel tool and hot glue(boy i hate that stuff) like using hardware to mount sensor and stuff ,more professional i dont think i ever saw anyone except the members in this forum use in on thier robots but does make easy fast design

I feel my job as it relates to EZ-B is to foster ideas, teamwork and camaraderie in the EZ-B community. The audience here ranges from very young to very old. There is no need to say what I equipment I've worked on or how many years. If I can help someone I will but I will do so in a humble manner and not come off like I'm bragging about what I've done in the past.

this post i put up is for to tell about your self and jobs to help others on ezb forum,not about bragging

if you read other say in the post you will see same thing ,they tell about them self some started at 4 years of age and and what field they are in thats main reason of this post i made to tell about your self and field you are in,also to find out if anyone is a programmer,electronics designer or machinest, or others like i am not much into programming or documenting or art like SFOY,so buy finding each other talents to can better understand what others can do

my help is always free,and same in designing circuits for anyone is free

@sfoy thats a great Spykee Anatomy site thanks

Yeah, there's a few spykee sites but they are not active. It's too bad. Spykee has potential.