Lumpy
Hey All,
I scooted (1 1/2hour drive) to the EZ-Robot open house tonight.
The new digs look awesome! DJ has done well!
So the Revolution has begun!
As DJ stated in the presentation the new ARC Revolution will be out June 1st or so.
It's main new feature is the integration of 3D printing and using "EZ-Bits" as a way to create your own robots. Bits can be printed on your own 3D printer and/or some will be available to purchase. This open source offering of 3D printable files allows anyone the opportunity to create a robot. Step by step assembly instructions built in, and a new Mobile SDK (Ver. 2) coming out shortly. I see this being a great feature for educational settings. More and more schools are purchasing 3D printers.
Down the road, as 3D printer prices continue to drop, I see this opening a door for us EZ Robot builders here on the forum. The open sharing of designs, maybe group printings of parts (To create our drone armies). The possibilities are endless, it may not happen overnight but I can see this growing. Someday we will all have 3D printers on our desks.
The EZ-B mini, although briefly mentioned, is what I'm excited about. It's roughly 2"x2". If you look at DJ's suitcase pictures on Facebook you'll see the new EZ-B Mini (Not sure if anyone else caught that?). I like the new compact size. DJ says they are still a few weeks off but he's trying to keep the pricing in the current range ($70). I'd definitely be in for a few more at that price range. Cross our fingers.
Anyways, not a whole lot more than what you probably saw on the webcast.
A big thanks to DJ. It was a pleasure to see you again. Thanks for taking care of that issue!
Lori saw nothing!
Oh, I forgot to mention the laugh of the night. I went to use the washroom. Big sign on the entrance door says "Keep Door Closed", so I closed it behind me. Did my business in the bathroom, then realized I was now locked out in the small closet like space! After a brief moment of panic, I knocked on the door and someone let me out. I felt like an idiot! Nothing new there. ;-)
Kris
Pic of suitcase (EZ-B Mini)
An EZ-Bit creation.
Another EZ-Bit creation
An EZ-Bit creation with the EZ-B Mini
Keep an eye on my posts (click on User Details under my avatar), I cover a lot of script tasks and try to explain in such a way that anyone who reads through it can follow it and hopefully take something away from it and learn from it. (You may already know this, but newcomers may not have seen them so I like to throw it out there from time to time).
Although, that said, if anyone needs a script or needs help on a script just ask and I'll jump right in and help. I'm always looking for new features to tackle and the way I see it is if I can help people learn how to write scripts then the community will end up with a while load of new scripts and awesome functions.
From what I know and have seen since being part of this awesome community is that these forums are the best way for tech support. The information becomes part of the forum and can be found by others with similar problems. Why change that? I know some people will want or need to speak with someone and have them guide them through things too so I can see a reason for a tech support line but I can see more benefit from the current method. Pretty much the same reasons why I generally ask for people to ask questions in the forum rather than on email to me, or when the chat was running, on the forums not in the chat.
Nice pics, cool bots but everyone seems to build small robots around here. Doesn't anyone like to to build large scale bots? Ya know what they say.. go Big or go Home !
I'm working up to something larger... much larger. I'm just cutting my teeth on the building side of things and refining the controls side of things first.
There are a few big bots, Dave's B9 (and a few other B9s too I think), Rex is building something big too if memory serves me correctly. And a few others are large scale robots.
@ Robohappy, There are a few big bots but I found out that even with the smaller ones the costs can grow higher than you originally plan for. In my case, it's simply because the more I learn, the more you want to do with it.
@ Rich. Much larger?! Very cool! What will be the power source?
@Troy yes much larger, a huge project but one that should be very cool. Power source is unknown at the moment, much like most of it. But it'll be around 6' tall when standing upright... It'll be months before I am even ready to start on it let alone post proper details about it. It will be my biggest challenge.
I browsed through the new ARC revolution (Big guy purple shirt in vid). Didn't really see any other new features for us, but I'm sure there is some stuff hiding in there for us.
There was a button for "3D Scanning" that DJ didn't go over in the presentation.
We should see the new software shortly and be able to get a more in-depth look.
@RoboHappy - My little robots are just test beds for bigger robots.
I'm working on a robot for my buddies gun range. It will be an armored autonomous target stand, and manually controlled for some good ol fun. Going to put a camera on it for a different point of view of things. eek
@lumpy Hey I picked up this autonomous gun turret for tree rats and deer around my garden. Works great and I have not had issues with ether anymore, check it out.
Autonomous Gun Turret
@RoboHappy I am working on a large bot named Magnus. He is roughly 6 feet tall and already weighs in at 280 lbs so far. I am about 5 years into the build. Building most items from scratch takes so much time and $ that I have put him on hold for now. I am presently working on a smaller (with a much simpler chassis) robot named Questor that I can tinker with inside the house. Like Rich says I wanted to do this so I could experiment with all the controls. That way I can make better decisions about how to incorporate them into Magnus later.
Rex