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Asked — Edited

System Requirments? Will A Netbook, Or 2Gb DDR Ram Laptop Work Well?

I'm going to buy a new laptop to mount on my bot.

Would a laptop that is 2gb DDR ram work well?
How about netbook like acer?


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Synthiam
#1  
You bet! I have a netbook with 2gb and one of those mobile C50 AMD processors. Don't expect awesome performance, but it will sure work! ARC is VERY light on memory. In fact, when it's running with my Wall-E configuration it only uses around 40 megs or something. I forget the exact stats, but it's tiny
#2  
cool, well best buy has a new laptop, on sale for $280 but its only 2gb ram.
its about the price of a netbook, so i was thinking about getting it. right now my "robots" are on electric wheelchair bases so i have plenty of room and power to put a larger laptop if needed.

also i'm looking online to buy sonic sensor or ir sensors. can i use both at once?

also, lets say i'm just using sonic distance sensors (or ir )
... how many do i use, or how many max can i use? should i put them on all corners of my bot?

i'm waiting for my ARC controller to come in the mail, but until then i'm day dreaming of things to do with it:)

ps: how can i get emailed when i receive replies to this post? i just happened to check my post but never got a notification.


TheGoodRobot.com online store
#3  
I've got a elec. wheelchair sitting out in the garage, waiting it's turn to become a robot. What motor controller are ( or will ) you be using????? I'm sure other builders would be interested as well.
Thanks
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Synthiam
#4  
You can use as many I/O ports as you have. You can link 5 EZ-B's together with a total of 100 I/O ports. You can either use ultrasonnic or IR or both. It's up to your own configuration.

Post some diagrams on here first so we can help you and make sure you're not putting too many sensors on. There's such a thing as too many:)

It's best to connect a sensor to a servo. Use the Tutorial page and look at the controls. Watch the videos.
USA
#5  
(Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but it's "System Requirements?" so I thought the question fit)

How about the minimum specs for an old laptop? I'd like to repurpose one of my older laptops for my bot's brain if I can.

The laptop in question has an Intel Pentium M 1.6GHz processor and 512MB of RAM (but I could upgrade it to 2GB RAM). It's running Windows XP SP2 (yeah, I'm stuck in the past :P).

Will ARC run well/at all on hardware like that?
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Synthiam
#6  
You will have limited functionality, for example probably no speech recognition. 512M? We're talking about computers from this decade you know:) Definetly upgrade the memory, without question haha

As for 1.6ghz... You'd have to try and see. It'll work. But how fast? That's up to your tolerance:D
USA
#7  
Ha-ha, thanks for the quick reply on that DJ! I had a feeling that might be the answer.;)

My ultimate goal will be to do an embedded PC since I'm comfortable building PCs. I just don't own a newer OS than WinXP. Most of my PCs are hand-me-downs from work. I have a pretty high tolerance for slow things... used a phone modem (not DSL/Cable) for internet access for a loooooong time. *blush*

So still no love with the speech recognition on Windows XP, huh? I was afraid of that... My main laptop, also WinXP, has speech recognition already installed on it. It'll be interesting to see if it'll work with ARC. Does speech recognition work for Windows Vista or only on Windows 7?
#8  
Check out Tiger Direct. I saw a dual core laptop for sale there today for $279.00 I have an old Dell 5100 laptop and a Dell optiplex - I was thinking of using one of these.
Netherlands
#9  
I think every laptop you can by NEW, will work... I'm using an old Asus eee pc 900HD, it only has 900mhz and 1gb memory!!!! And it works!! I believe it's like 4 years old... The only thing I changed to it is the HDD to a SSD, because regular drives don't like vibrations. When I still used the old drive the laptop once slipped of the robot and fell about 1 inch to the ground and it stopped working(until I revolted). The ssd can handle 1500G so to conclude my story, stick a ssd in your laptop if the robot it is mounted in ever will be submitted to heavy vibrations like a rocky slope or something like that, else no ssd is needed.
#10  
Thanks for the SSD tip. I also think you are right on the memory, 2gb minimum. I think the key is Windows 7. So will upgrade my OS. My processor is just a pentium 4, but I will try it and see how it goes. Any one else?
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Synthiam
#11  
I recently got an Acer tablet. It was $349 .. You can get them now for about the same price. On eBay there are no-name windows 7 tablets that are priced well too!

I really like the idea of a tablet for the touch functionality. Makes it a lot easier when demoing the product.

I also use the EZ-B with an Acer netbook.

Both of these have the C-50 (i think?) processor. With 2gb of ram. So they're not crazy machines at all. They run ARC just fine.

Keep in mind, the interface gets a little sluggish with SO many controls interacting. That doesn't bother me, and is expected.
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