Nickel-O-Matic

March 24, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 19 Comments

coins

[Mike] sent in this project. It’s a robot, designed to print on wooden coins while people watch. It was built to be in the iHobby Expo 08 in Chicago. The main movement is controlled by a BASIC Stamp2, while the ink jet system is run off of a Propeller. The entire system has 4 servos, 3 stepper motors, a DC motor, a hacked breast pump, an ink jet head, and 5 IR sensors. in case you missed that, it has a breast pump. We’re assuming that’s the part that picks up the wooden nickels with suction. He states that the project was meant to be entertaining, so there are lots of superfluous and inefficient actions as you can see in the video after the break. Great job [Mike].

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PropIRC: Propeller Based IRC Client

February 25, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 18 Comments

propeller

Many people don’t want to miss anything in their IRC room, so they “idle” or just leave the client open to capture all the conversations. It can be annoying to have it going in the background on your computer though. To remedy this, [Harrison] built a simple computer from a propeller microcontroller that’s only purpose is to connect to IRC servers. It can take a regular PS2 keyboard and works with a standard monitor at 1024×768. It’s compact size and low power requirements make it quite a useful tool to have around if you are always on IRC. you can download the source code and schematics on the site.

[Thanks Scott]

The Ponginator

February 10, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 11 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYfybYkB2io]
All bow your heads in reverence to the Ponginator. This bad boy is a performance robot, mounted to the end of a 3 story tall crane. He makes all kinds of noises, flashes all kinds of lights, and shoots ping pong balls at 170 miles an hour. This thing looks like it would be so much fun to play with. listen to it as he’s talking and you’ll pick out all kinds of Sci Fi sound effects, from Portal sounds to Star Trek sounds. Check out the second video on the site to actually see the Ponginator shooting.

Choreographed Christmas Lights

January 23, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cj-morKHPQ]

We’ve covered a couple of different ways of doing choreographed Christmas lights. The most basic being sound activated ones made from speakers, then the parallax controlled ones. This one uses the parallax microcontroller as well, but [prabbit22m] seems to have put some more effort into the construction and enclosure. The lights are all LED this time around and there are 18 outlets that can be individually controlled in a nice, safe enclosure. The choreography was done well too. The capabilities video is pretty impressive, it looks like he has managed to do some fading in and out. You can see it after the break.

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N8VEM Single Board Z80 Computer

January 10, 2009 by Eliot 17 Comments

n8vem

The N8VEM is a homebrew computer project based on the classic Z80 microprocessor. It’s designed to be easy to build using large TTL DIP components instead of SMD devices. It runs the CP/M operating system and all drives are virtual in RAM/ROM. While the base hardware is interesting, we really like the potential for expansion using a backplane. Have a look at the project’s Hardware Overview to see extra boards like the bus monitor and the prototyping board. We found out about this project on [Oldbitcollector]’s blog; he’s using a Parallax Professional Development Board to create a VT100 terminal for the N8VEM.

Quick Robotic Base For Netbook

December 30, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 21 Comments

robot_base

This is a great example of how marketing should be done. TeleToyland and RoboRealm(currently down) have teamed up together to show you how to build a quick and easy robot base for your netbook. The build process is fairly in depth, including part numbers and links to various places to buy them. They are using RoboRealm software to control the robot, utilizing two web cams for sensory input. This should get you well on your way to having an autonomous netbook wandering around your house.

Simple Servo Bot Plans

November 22, 2008 by Eliot 6 Comments

had_arduino_servo

oomlout has posted some interesting plans for a simple robot. It’s based around an Arduino and is a platform similar to the Parallax Boe-Bot. The Arduino sends PWM signals to continuos rotation servos that drive the two main wheels. All of the structural components are laser cut from acrylic with slots to hold standard hex nuts. It’s an interesting technique, but the design has a lot of potential for improvement. Right now it uses two different power supplies and a breadboard for simple connections. From the video below, you can see that the balance could be improved as well. Continue reading “Simple Servo Bot Plans” →