Hiya

[Paul]

Nice little site. Nice concept, Amatuer Robotics. Wish we had something like that here in SA.

I've been working on a little "rover" type bot using, the Dontronics Simmsticks for the boards and the Tamiya Twin motor jobbie for propulsion. I'm programming using BascomAVR because it meets all the requirements for me, cheap (in some cases free), easy to use and has some good libraries built in.

I'll keep my eye on the site.
Regards,
Paul

[Dingo]

Hey, thanks for the positive feedback.

I assume SA is South Africa? Is that right?

[Paul H]

No, SA would be South Australia (or East Australia if you live in Perth.

Paul

[Dingo]

ahhhhh, I thought when you said "Wish we had something like that here in SA." I thought you must have meant ourside the country as the website is for the whole of Australia

It seems like everywhere I turn these days I'm meeting South Australians in the flesh or online

Got any pictures of the rover bot in action? What sort of intelligence have you given it/ planned for the future? I've got a mental list of cheap surpliers or sensors etc for when I next build something using the tamiya tracks.

Yeah, the simmstick modules from dontronics look pretty good, never seen one "in the flesh" though

I agree, bascom is the perfect tool for giving rovers etc "life". Which AVR are you using?

[Paul H]

"Meeting South Australians in the flesh". oooerr!

I merely meant that I haven't been able to find any sort of amatuer robotics gathering here in South Oz. This site may be the place to meet people though. I'm not an EE or anything. I'm just a sparky with an interest in measurement and control and robots seemed like a lot of fun.

I don't have any footage of it in action.
Behaviour at this stage is bump - stop - turn - go sort of stuff. Next step will be to add IR obstacle detection.

Current uC is 2313 so I am using the bot that Dennis Clark used on his summer camp for inspiration. He uses the 2313 for both servo control and IR control whereas I am using a simple dual H bridge for motion control. The chip is the TI one (SN754410 from memory).

Because I am using SimmSticks, I have 2 boards, one with a 2313 onboard and one with a 8535 on board. Both can be used standalone, but I am using a SimmBus type motherboard so that I can swap them over without having to rewire it.

The SimmSticks don't really offer much that you couldn't do with some stripboard, but they are cheap enough, and look impressive. I just wanted to use them because they do look good.

Cheers for now,
Paul

[Dingo]

cool.

I email www.futurlec.oom.au yesterday and asked them if they were intending stockign the Sharp brand range of Distance sensors. They said, yes indeed they were going to be stocking them soon. This is great news!

www.sharpsma.com/sma/products/opto/optical_systems.htm

[wannabe70]

I've now registered as 'wannabe70'.

I'll try and get some pics of the bot, and put them up somewhere.

Dingo, I've somehow made the assumption you are in WA. Is that correct?

Paul

[Dingo]

Bones (creator of the Terminator project) is in WA.

I'm in Brisbane. Of all the members I think only NT is not represented, can't remember if we have a tasmainian or not?