robotmaker
Looking to make a poost for this for a long time and you dont have to tell if you dont want too
ROBOTMAKER i started at age 5 makig a cardboard box robot.then i fix my very first radio at age 7
now on robots building ,i guess i started after i got out of college using a 6800 processor from a kit i bought,i still have the box with board and DOS software,i forgot the name i think machine basic ,super slow and only had a speaker and round based robot with 5 decks i still use it for my sensor testing
Then i started working at a big A/C company first in RD dept then latter on my own in-house tester design lab ,where i learned about sensor tesing.
Then i bought another robot look great using another processor,forgot the type and with help of the one of the guys in the programming dept he help me made the software.
then a made one using a Z80 and next years i was using boe-bot by parallax and then join a AI robot building forum
(sorry DJ said i cant poost info on it) i think some ideas came from it like the joke script witch is a great add -on to EZB
I also made many many different designs of a home base finder and autocharge
i think i made over 20 robots (cant also post photos unless using ezb)
then my favorate board EZBN with i have about 77 robots and counting and more then half to hack well thats my story
Hi Robotmaker,
Impressive ! A true roboteer !
I started around 8 or 9 with a cardbox and Meccano robot head. Together with a wind screen motor and lots of duck tape I made a candy dispenser robot head. My dad still has a few pictures, I hope to find them again.
Later on it was all about Meccano and aluminium experiments. I started with an Apple II+, my home build PIA interface card for stepper motor and a Tandy(Radio Shack) Speech processor (SP0256-AL2). I still have them somewhere in my shed.
Here are the pictures of my 1st "real" robot. Lot's of recycled parts of course (small budget...). I started with a real motherboard with a 286 processor. Later came a 386 and finally as you can see in the pic's a 486. It's still in my shed, waiting for a new hart ! Guess ! I ordered a second EZ-B to bring it back to life (also have Arduino's, Propellor, CuBloc...) but the EZ-B is simply BETTER ! Originally the frame was in a plastic housing (dust bin upside down, with pieces cut out), but I can't find any pic's of that. Back in 1995 I guess, I won an award for the best design.... (playful !)
DJ mifght get mad at the photos ,since i tried to post them andd he said no unless using a ezb
but it look real good ,nice work
yes i have 3 propellor boards ,besides many many other processor boards
i have so far 20 EZB last ones i got was from robotshop at 10 of them at about $700 and free shipping still need may be 30 more,since most of my robots are not to use EZB only a collectors item and to be fully restored
Well I'll try to make DJ happy with mounting an EZ-B into it ! The pic's are ment to show the evolution. Since this was my 1st tall robot, I might get too emotional to tear it down. Together with an EZ-B it'll give a large 'fun' factor and ready for a second youth. I'm working on a joystick control (VB) to run it around.
As a kid, I made a couple of robot costumes for halloween out of cardboard, flexible dryer hose, and electronic bits and pieces.
In high school, our physics teacher had an after school robot building class. This was 30 years ago, so they were all radio controlled or wired. No computer control or micro-controllers then. (although I did own an early personal computer - TRS-80, but no easy way at the time to interface it to a robot).
No robot activity since then until I saw the article in MAKE about the EZ-B and decided I had to build my own robot companion/guard dog.
Alan
i am doing the same with my older robot projects,so olds one i think i scrap it looks good so would go great with EZB
AS i finish some of my projects will be adding more robots using EZB with photos
I made something like a roomba . no microcontrollers really available back when I was ten years old. Basic stamp I think was top of the line then. It just used a couple motors a 12v battery a couple vacuum belts and switches . the "vacuum" was a 12v power head from a rainbow brand vacuum cleaner. It never had a real vacuum and my knowledge was basic then. Without a controller all it could do at the most was turn when it hit something.
Boy you love your vacuums alot,i guess you are a few years younger then me at age 10 basic stamp didnt come out,
I am 47 now going to retire early for about 15 years then get a job to get my SS AT AFTER 60
I love building robots as you can see and my girlfriend starting to like it to at age 23
NOT going to be like my dad and work all my life at 86 he just retired and he is 90 now and still doing good,only a back problem,me doing very good
My year of manufacture is 1961. Retirement... ? I just wanna grow very old in my shed builing robots.