<<I dont know. I wish I had won the lottery so that I could focus only on these issues, but I havent (dont even play actually).

I'm with you d.cochran!

I've been tinkering with a couple of book ideas for EZ-Robot. I'm just curious if the EZ-Robot staff have any plans for books or curriculum?

Perhaps if a core of us had an interesting in helping create a curriculum we could collaborate and tackle different subjects? That's pretty much how Parallax built up their material base, the customers wrote the books.

Another thought, if author Gordon McComb, writer of the "Robot Builder's Bonanza" series had an EZ-Robot he just might have an interest in writing a book for it. I can reach out to Gordon if the EZ-Robot staff would like me too? Would you guys send him a kit to review and experiment with if he is interested?

I would send him a dev kit...

@Cochran we are working on the educational activities now that the product is shipping. If we could afford to hire a dozen more staff, it would allow us to get things done quicker. But with the $1.2 million it cost us to create EZ-Robot Revolution in design and manufacturing, it isn't possible to hire more staff just yet.

Our Learn section has been transforming into a achievement based tutorial section with dozens and dozens of tutorials. Chrissi has been working hard on the layout and functions. I have been working on the scripts for the videos. It will be another month or two before the new section is released...

As far as an ARC book is concerned, maybe we need to keep it in house first... Rich has expressed interest in writing a book on EZ Robot/Builder... I for one would buy his book before any other. Besides DJ, who knows more about ARC than Rich Pyke...

Concern with a book would be the number of changes that ARC has in a month

@DJ - That is AWESOME! I fully understand about the staff size issue and wasn't complaining at all. I hope that I didn't come across that way. The last I had heard, you were not going to do anything on this at this time, so I had started working on my own and trying to figure out how I would merge some other material into an EZ-Robot based class. I am very excited to see this happen and would love for my class that starts in three weeks to be able to test things out for you.

A month or 2 out is great. I will fill the class with activities until then.

hello i just wanted to know if you can use the EZ-Bv4 to control and use the RoboSapien?
@DJ Sures

I didn't know if I was allowed to talk about it but yes! My main project for a couple weeks now has been working on this new tutorial system. You'll be able to take a course and get some sort of achievement or recognition that you took the course and know the content. We're still ironing it out but it's going to be cool.

P.S. That bug where DJ's name breaks the forum post... I fixed it and it'll be out in the next website release. Sorry about that!

@DJ hit the nail on the head, that is the main reason I haven't done any type of book but have slowly been releasing detailed tutorials for specific things such as the H-Bridge and scripting examples amongst others.

Well that and the fact that so much is supported, more now with the UART/2 way serial. Writing a book to cover everything which would be out of date within weeks due to software updates would be a very difficult task. With the learn section plus the forum (including it's awesome search facilities!) the information is pretty much all there anyway.

@Richard, while I may know a lot about the EZ-B and ARC I haven't been given any additional information to the rest of you guys. In fact, what I know I have got from here anyway. I just give the illusion that I know a lot when the reality of it is I know how to search and have over 15 years of professional experience in explaining the most complex of operations to the layman.

On the same level as a book I had toyed with the idea of an interactive website which could be updated easily, quickly and possibly by more than one person however what I've described there is, in effect, the learn section of this site.

I guess some sort of curriculum could be written, to some degree (however it would be constantly evolving) and I would be more than happy to be involved in something like that. I did look at that too at one stage but between the lack of interest locally and the fact I have no clue how to teach progressively, in some type of order, it kind of died. If you tell me what you want to explain/teach I would be very happy to break it all down to bite sized chunks that can be put to good use.

@Terminator, no the robosapien will not be supported by the V4 I'm afraid. DJ has explained this recently. The V3 still supports the Robosapien or the better alternative would be to use a USB UIRT (or similar) device to fire the IR commands from a PC. Or strip it and replace the guts for items which can be controlled by the EZ-B.

@Terminator... Not relevant at all to this thread but the answer is no. The EZB4 won't work with Robosapien....

@Rich... Then a series of "how to" tutorials might be something better as you mentioned... That way as things change just the relevant tutorial need be updated.... Would you offer it on a website as a download or just have it posted here? I like the idea of a separate off site website...

And everyday I love this site more. I have learned a lot from the community and have always had very positive experiences when asking questions. Now, a more formal teaching tool from EZ-Robot! I am really pumped about this. Thanks so much for filling this need. It just took a huge load off of my shoulders.

Thanks again EZ-Robot and the community. I am always impressed.

thank you all

@Richard, I'm torn between off site and on forum to be honest. But with the introduction of the learn section (or the introduction of a better learn system to be precise - not that anything was wrong with the old one) I guess we should wait to see how that goes first.

There was mention some time ago about a wiki for the EZ-B/ARC, everything cross referenced and linked, you know the thing. Josh was originally setting something up but I don't know how far that went. I also played with a few wiki backends but didn't spend too long on it to be honest.

I would like to put my 2 cents in.

Arduino is a Micro controller not a robot control they are just hacking it to control robots.
same with Pi and other platforms.

EZ-B is a Robotics Controller to start with. Its basically what you would build from the other if you have a (hardware and software team to help you). At EZ-B you have just that. A board with one purposes , and that is to build robots.

as you look through the feature list of the EZ-B It would have you building hardware , add shields , and custom software to implement each feature you want to add. Then after all that you end up with a Robot controller (and one not as good as the ez-b) and yo still have to build a robot and program it, and your tools will come from all over the web with mixed levels of support.

With the EZ-B its a one stop shop , you start at the point you have stable controller , full feature software to get it to do what you want.

So if you class is robotics then the EZ-B is for you. If you class is Electronics then you may want a micro possessor.

but i bet you want to build robots


My name is HippieGeek and I approve of this message.

I am only a few hours new to ez-robot, and have had no previous experience with any kind of micro-controller type system. I appreciate @Rich wondering if a dedicated tutorial section had much to offer over the wealth of forum information and youtube clips available, but as someone who just spent their first few hands-on hours I am very much in favor of a curated and ordered set of tutorials.

I received an inscrutable "Developer Kit" V4 bundle, my first thought was "what is this stuff?" - I wanted one of those picture cards that come with boxes of chocolates, the online ordering portion of the site was close but I still have no idea what most of the plastic/metal bits in the bags are for. Curiously I only stumbled on the "Hardware" information page through a buried link in the ARC docs, it was the page I really needed to have read before reading the ARC docs and watching the videos on the Getting Started tab.

I found difficulty in using the forums directly because:
- There was an overload of information
- I didn't yet have the vocabulary to search for what I needed to know
- I was learning out of order
- information was often about the v3 and not applicable to the V4 (stale)

I took a sneaky preview at what I guess @Chrissi has been working on with the new tutorials (oh The Epic Funny Cats). I'm a gamer and career game developer so I naturally embrace another opportunity to achievement hunt. I find this keeps learners focussed and stops them from skipping over fundamentals; subsequently saturating the forums with nooby questions.

Regards,
Daniel (CodedByATool)

thank you

That's very informative and candid feedback @CodedByATool, thank you. I think as I become more failure with all the ins and outs the tutorials, videos, the forum and the product its easy to lose site that for a new member it can be hard to jump in.

One thing @CodedByATool wrote really stuck out for me:

"I didn't yet have the vocabulary to search for what I needed to know"

This was one and still is one of the biggest frustrations I've had learning about the world of robotics, animation and building a custom robot. I'd often read a term, word or name of an electronic part or motor and think, "what the heck is that?". I often wished for a Glossily of terms either here on EZ Robot's site or somewhere else on the internet I could refer too. *confused*

Yes i was starting a Wiki , but shortly after we found that the V4 was going to be a different board instead of the v3 mini , there would be a new ARC version and tutorials revamped. So instead of spending days putting together the wiki that wouldn°t be up to date soon as the new boards came out I opted to wait until many of us have our developer kits and start discussing the " important and common" topics associated with the new board.

It is still something i very much believe could benefit everyone especially now that some members are having trouble finding posts that were important to them. Its just natural attrition as the community gets bigger a "guide" or hotlinks page is useful.

I promise to put one together once i have product in hand.