Trossen Robotics Community

BRAT Based Mech?

ScuD — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:31:22 GMT

I know zilch about video / video encoding, let alone compression, but I would definetely be interested in the "inner workings" if you'd ever find the time to come up with that!

[Discussion] Python Project Sharing and help Thread

ROBOTMAN — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:44:20 GMT

OK I'm working my way through a book on python that is really helpful if anyone else is looking for a good beginners guid to python 2.5.1 check this one out "http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596002817/".

"ALMower" [was: Robotic Lawn Mower]

revoltage — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:30:52 GMT

Any improvement I can add to the mower?

2009 Scoring System Setup

lnxfergy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:48:23 GMT

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScuD (Post 32404)

Guess that's what year one was all about- figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I'm guessing years 2-3-4 will mostly fall along that line as well ;)

I think that's pretty typical of any competition though. As a competitor, it takes you 2-3 tries before you've got a solid handle on what is necessary to be competitive. As competition organizers, it's even harder, since nobody knows what's necessary.

I think we've learned enough that we'll have an excellent scoring system for 2010, mainly I just didn't have time/equipment to thoroughly develop and test the system.

-Fergs

Surge protector grounding

Adrenalynn — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:55:28 GMT

Yup - or another example - lathe-and-plaster. The pipes penetrate the chicken wire of the lath. The insulation on the old wires gets corrupted and cracked, comes in light contact with the chicken wire and now the whole house is a "little electrified". Reach out to turn the sink on when you're standing barefoot and zit! Ouch! Not enough to kill anyone but sure as heck annoying day-in-and-day-out.

[Question(s)] In Wheel Motor for 1/5 Car

ScuD — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:26:26 GMT

Couldn't you just use bevel gears through the axis of rotation of the wheels, thus enabling you to use any motor?

But I guess that makes everything a lot more complicated...

[Contest Entry] Beetlejuice

ooops — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:17:38 GMT

Very impressive craftsmanship!
Keep up the good work, and keep sharing!
One more +rep cause this is awesome stuff.

SSC-32 communication

Alex — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:15:10 GMT

I'll second (or is it third:)) what Adrenalynn and MikeG are saying, go with .NET if you're going to use Visual Basic. I'd stay FAR away from Visual Basic 6 or VBScript ( BTW, (VBScript | VBA) != Visual Basic 6 although all the syntax is nearly identical). I'm with Adrenalynn, you can't pay me enough to program in Visual Basic 6. It's a very clunky language.

Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition can be downloaded for free and has a ton of excellent tutorials:

http://www.microsoft.com/express/vb/Default.aspx

Dream Servo

sam — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:04:34 GMT

At least 1500 oz.in of torque in a Hitec 5990 case made of Adamantium.

Seirously thought, I guess it would be the EX-106 in smaller format.

Sam

Best biped for RoboCup?

SK. — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:30:34 GMT

Hi,

the top RoboCup teams all use custom built robots of 45-60 cm size with Robotis DX-117/RX-28/RX-64 servos. There were/are teams using modified RoboNovas, RoboBuilder and Bioloids, but the weight of onboard processing really hurts these small robots.
Even the Nao is too slow and fragile to compete against the best Humanoid KidSize teams, at least in it�s current state. You might want to contrast videos of the recent final games from Graz:

YouTube - RoboCup 2009 Humanoid League KidSize Semi Final: Dribblers vs Nimbro 1/2

YouTube - Robocup 2009 FINALS - Standard Platform League (part5)

Robert the Robot!

xx2747 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:00:52 GMT

Ooh! Ooh!
It's time to unveil Robert 1.2!
This new version of Robert has a new arm design. It's very simple and good-looking. I think it's much better than the older version. This arm orientation makes the arm longer too.
Here's a video. Oh, and in the video, at the end, there's a supercharge section. It wasn't really intended but I thought it was cool how a move could make others following it faster. I called it supercharged.:happy: Anyway, I figured out that it was caused by an unclosed highspeed seton. Also, the move itself was coincidental too: It was supposed to be a clap.

Hope you guys like it. I still have that "I build Robots" sticker fro RoboGames on Robert. I don't think i'll come off easily. oh well.

YouTube - Robert Version 1.2 (new arms)

on encouraging autonomous mechs

Adrenalynn — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:08:39 GMT

We brought over a thousand feet of extension cords. The issue there is traffic safety. We also had several 500' rolls of Gaffer's Tape to tape 'em down with, but even so - you have to consider the crowd safety (and potential damage to equipment) when you start trying to run cordage. The environment in there just can't be controlled well enough. Another issue is running cords along fire doors. Little things like that can get the event yellow or even red tagged. With the number of people in there, fire marshals watch those things like a hawk, especially with all the noxious chemicals (various battery chemistries, welding gasses, and fuels)

As it was, I was cringing at the clear violations of power-strips-into-power-strips. Any time I found an opportunity, I pulled those and ran another cord. But eventually the two two-gang boxes we could safely reach with cords were over-flowing. And I was holding my breath for load on a couple of those power strips popping their integrated breakers in the middle of a match. I had the clamp ammeter on 'em several times, moving stuff around trying to balance the power.

My small softboxes are 500-750watts x 2. My large soft boxes are 1500 watts x 2. My large reflectors are 1000 watts x 4. THAT doesn't get run off of a power strip...

Announcing MechDAR

lnxfergy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:32:39 GMT

Quote:

Originally Posted by nagmier (Post 32354)

Has there been anytime to make more progress on MechDAR yet?

Not yet. I also don't have a working setup here (the board got stripped out for scoring testing, the IRs sorta dissappeared. hmm) I will eventually get back to this project, but probably not until the fall. I will post updates here in this thread though as soon as anything happens. Thanks for the interest!

-Fergs

First Quad Mech, yay!

ScuD — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:32:06 GMT

I've decided to make the design public.
A tutorial is in the works (draft in progress).

Mech Warfare Rules and Guidelines

societyofrobots — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:29:18 GMT

Understood. Walking target plate for me it is =P

Still, something to keep in mind for when we are ready to place targets around a bot!

Target/Scoring System

societyofrobots — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:20:44 GMT

Thanks!

http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/sh...t=2009+scoring

I'm definitely not going to buy anything until things are finalized, I just need some information to help budget weight/space on my bot in the CAD design.

[Project] Autonomous Helicopter

elios — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:45:21 GMT

my picaxe 28x2 arrived today. and the program i was using with the 28a to get serial comms working doesnt work.. think that i am going to be spending the next few days getting it working again

Initial updates from Robogames...

societyofrobots — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:47:58 GMT

I guess being a mechanical engineer helps me keep costs really low =)
(but makes debugging code a huge pain, at least code is free! hehe)

Anyway, I'm expecting the same bipeds enter next year, but work this time and do impressive stuff =)

but I'm also expecting no more than ~6 working bots, tops . . .

Servo Quesion

brickbob — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:40:55 GMT

Ok I understand.
The protocol is to send servo position for the leg from hip to ankle. there are five servo so to change the position I just change the value of each servo.
I know I have to start from the begining to make isobot walk. I know its hard and will be a long way to go but I think it must be fun too. And to make him walk by doing the program myself is big leap in my robotic hobby.

I know I look stupid to ask the question in previous post but that's how we learn. We ask question if we don't understand or not sure on certain issue.

For next I will hook another leg with my BS2 and try to make simple move.

Thanks.

Wifi to Control AX12 Mech??

Rbotguy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:54:14 GMT

I have the older version of the Wifly, and it seems to work as described, but the documentation is horrible so it took me the better part of a day to get it running. I still haven't managed to get the "update over ftp" feature working. That being said, as long as 3.3v isn't a problem, I don't think you can beat it for $69.

-Rbotguy

[News/Announcement] FireFox 3.5

srobot — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:14:58 GMT

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrenalynn (Post 32301)

Did you try the firefox forum?

Of course not ;)

I just wanted to let everyone here know about the update.

New MechWarrior Trailer

ScuD — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:31:11 GMT

If there's gonna be an Xbox 360 version I'll have to drug my brother..

mech airsoft gun dimensions + weight

Tyberius — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:55:05 GMT

Reasons for not allowing CO2 in the Airsoft arena are also summed up nicely in this picture:

That said, I fear we've gone a bit far off topic from the original intent of this thread.

mech projecct sigma x

Sigma X — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:46:13 GMT

UPDATE: sorry guys even though I already re configured my mech these we're the pics I promised

sorry for the large poor quality pics but it's better than nothing right?

Chat Room Down, IRC temp setup.

Connor — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:27:19 GMT

Okay, moving away from the public IRC to a privately maintained one. Goto chat.trossenrobotics.com:6667 main chat room is channel #trc.

We're working on a web-based IRC client, however, you can use your fav IRC client. I strongly recommend you register your nickname and identify when you connect.

Thanks, Connor