This is a slightly off topic post about one of my other loves in life, gaming.  I play primarily on my Xbox 360 because my Mac Mini isn’t what you would call a high power gaming machine.  So this month we see the release of a LOT of great games.  Too much for my poor pocketbook to handle, and for most of my friends.  More after the bump.

Dead Space (Release: 10/14/08)

If you have ever seen Event Horizon then you might understand the appeal of this game.  It is your typical survival/horror game, although it is similar to Doom 3 in some aspects.  Basically it’s you on a ship in space trying to survive/find out what happened.  Expectation rating:

Fable 2 (Release: 10/21/08)

I don’t know that I need to say anything on this that hasn’t been said before. ER:

Fallout 3 (Release: 10/28/08)

The Fallout Legacy combined with the Elder Scrolls Legacy?  Am I the only one drooling over this? I am stoked to emerge from Vault 101 with my trusty Pip-Boy 3000.  ER:

While you’re waiting for the awesome, head over to JGGH and check out the awesomeness that is the site.

I like to equate projects (be they robotics, lawn work, or woodworking) to cooking.  You take a bunch of things that are pretty interesting, and combine them into a cohesive unit to do things that the constituent parts cannot accomplish.  In cooking this is done by combining flavors and spices and such to create a dish truly your own (Mom’s Tuna Casserole for one, I still can’t recreate it right).  In woodworking it’s done by knowing the properties of the wood(s) you are using, and having a bunch of liquid nails and screws to make it into something cool (Grandpa’s Boxes of Days Past).  In robotics, it is just as true.  A servo is cool, so is an LED, and sure you can apply power to an LED and sure as the sun’s rising, it lights up.  But what if you want it to do cool things? Like blink in a pattern? Then you add in an Intelligence Circuit, and if you are truly cool then you would use something like a Programmable Intelligence Circuit.

The Base (or in Cooking: Main Ingredient)

I had a hard time deciding between the PICAXE and Arduino platforms to start with.  Both have major pro’s and con’s which have been rehashed over and over on countless sites, so I won’t do that here.  I chose the Arduino Diecimila (Italian for 10,000th) over the PICAXE 28X1 starter kit for a number of reasons.

1. The Arduino Programming Editor runs native on OS X, where as the PICAXE Editor only runs on Windows with Linux in the works, and as I am on a Mac, that makes it quite simple.
2. The Programming Language for the PICAXE is a variant of Basic, whereas the Arduino Language is simple C/C++ so I can move on to software applications after awhile and not have much discomfort.
3. Cheaper, in the end.  My Arduino board cost me $32 where as the PICAXE board would be ~$38 PLUS another $26 (depending on where I went) for the USB cable.  The Arduino board just has a USB port on it, which I can attach a standard USB cable to, much simpler in the end.

See? All in all it was a pretty easy choice for me.  But if you want to do it too, then do what I did, research your options and make an informed decision.  As I said their are pro’s and con’s for each system.  One view can be seen here and another, here.

The Source (or in Cooking: The Sauce)

The Arduino Programming Editor is simple, clean and shiny!

Arduino Programming Editor

As you can see here, I have loaded the code for GuiBot’s Easy Arduino Robot from LMR. I don’t have a bot, so it’s useless to do anything, however I can study it and figure out what does what (within my hopes) and then when I get to actually program a bot I will have my feet wet already.

The Parts (or in Cooking: The Seasoning)

We all know that seasoning can make or break a dish, so getting the right parts for your bot is essential, or so it would seem.  If your motors are don’t put out enough torque, your cool looking little robot probably isn’t going anywhere.  So there are all sorts of things to understand (which I barely do even for a beginner) and know how to implement.  So for now, I am following the time honored tradition of KiSS (Keep it Simple Stupid).  When I get my board I am not going to start attaching motors and polymorph and sensors.  I am going to first use some simple, good old LED’s.  If I can get them to light up, hot damn.  If I can’t, then why not? What am I doing wrong.  Luckily, LED’s can be picked up pretty darn cheap (right around a buck fifty at Radio Shack) so if I screw up and burn one out, that’s life.  After I feel comfortable with that, then I will be moving onto a Servo.  I picked one up today at Hobby Town USA which suits my purposes just fine.  It is a HiTec HS-311 Standard Servo.  Cost me ten big ones.  So if I blow it up, then no big deal, I can replace it fairly easily.  This little bad boy (weighing in at a whopping 1.5 oz) has a torque output of 3.0kg-cm (42oz-in). Yeah, it can move 28 times its own weight, with ~5V of power being all it takes.  Amazing.  Operating speed? 0.19sec/60° AT 4.8Volt.  Do I have any clue as to what this means? Hell no.  But if I were to make a guess then what it means is that when the servo is being powered with 4.8Volts (based on this assumption I am going to further assume that that is the optimal operating voltage) it will make a 60° rotation in 0.19 seconds.  I should find out.

The Chassis (or in Cooking: The Garnish)

Keep in mind that my correlations between robotics and cooking is based on my view of things.  I feel that while the Chassis is instrumental in holding a robot together and allowing it to function, it serves the larger purpose of Physical Appearance, like the Garnish on a dish at a resteraunt.  You want your Chassis (and by Chassis I extend beyond the typical definition and include the body into it) to reflect the nature of the robot.  If it’s built for doing rough stuff, don’t build it out of toothpicks, but maybe you could use aluminum or another metal, and if it is a show bot (read: used primarily indoors to show your abilities) then I feel you should use a nice light weight hardwood (possibly stained to look purdy) or plexiglass/lexan to show it’s innards.  If your soldering is horribly, I reccomend something a little more opaque, as it will still look good.  When I get around to building my first few robots, I am not going to extend myself much further than simple, cheap materials.

The Tools (or in Cooking: The Tools)

So, now that we have most of the constituent parts (I probably forgot a few and mentioned only what I really truly have experience with) how do you put it all together? A cook/chef will use spatula’s, spoons, ladles, knives, pots, pans, and countless other cool things to do this.  So what are the typical tools of the Robotics Hobbyist?  Well that depends, everyone uses different things.  If I had to make a list of what I consider to be the vital tools, it would be way different than everyone else’s.  Sure some things like a Soldering Iron and “Measurey -Thingy” (Danish for Multimeter)  would be on every ones list, but I feel some other things are necessary.  So without further ado, here is my personal “must have tool list”.

• Multimeter
• Screwdriver Set (I like my stuff to have a multitude of functions for the space it takes up)
• Dremel Tool
• Hot Glue
• Epoxy
• Soldering Iron
• Computer (Be it running OS X, Windows, or Linux you might want one)
• Screws, Nuts, and Bolts (Depending on the permanancy of your project)
• Wrenches (Gotta tighten those bolts somehow)
• Creativity
• Beverage of Choice (some prefer Cape Cod, some prefer Stella, some Coors, me? I like Mountain Dew)
• Patience

Note that this list is subject to change as I actually start to figure out what the hell I am talking about.  Since I haven’t built a bot yet, this is entirely specultation on my part based on observations of others work.

So I guess that’s it for today, I know I said I was going to inventory my tools, but this is incredibly more exciting for me, besides I spent all day scrubbing my grandfathers motor home, so I was in no mood for more monotonous work.  Check back soon, since I will have my Diecimila around Saturday, so I will actually be having something worthwile to post.  Tomorrow I think I will post my plans for an airsoft turret I will be making my mom eventually.  That’s it for now, good bye.

Ok then, to give the background on me and robotics, here is a convenient flashback!

Imagine, if you will, the heady days of 1998 (or so).  I was a scrawny runt of kid, just entering my first year of Junior High Shool (7th Grade).  Having had a long love of all things fantasy/sci-fi, my first choice at electives were no surprise, and of course Robotics was in there.  Now, a quick note on the school I went to.  West Junior High was a fairly old school (opened in 1953, they closed the old building down last year and moved to a new location), and as such was limited in space, funds and so on (what school isn’t these days).  My Robotics teacher was Mr. Vogt, a bear of a man if I ever knew one.  He was a great guy, with an honest love of all things mechanical.  Now, of course robotics back then, and especially for the school format, were quite simplistic.  I would liken them to the precursor of the Lego Mindstorms sets.  It was one of the greatest years of my life, when I learned of my true love of mechanical things, robotics, and video games.

Needless to say, time went on and I wasn’t in 7th grade much longer.  So here we will fast forward through the uncomfortable mid-teen years and my excessive nerdliness.  Now we are in 2002, quite a different time from the late 90’s, especially after the tragic events of the prior year.  A quick backtrack here, my family and I moved to a suburb of Rochester, NY in January of 2001.  Now then, 2001-2002 school year, my Junior Year in High School, attending the lovely institute known as Webster Schroeder High School.  I once again enrolled in some classic nerd style electives, Principles of Engineering, Electronics, and Robotics, yet again.  Now, the robotics field has changed a lot between ‘98 and ‘02, and on top of that we are older and get to play with cooler things.  Now we have, what are basically, erector sets.  No micro-controller or anything, they remained attached to the school computers via serial cables, and we programmed them in Basic.  All was fun and awesome, again a great year for me, what with the greatest Chemistry Teacher ever, Mr. Schug.

But, as things go, time again went on its plodding way, leading to many things.  Shortly before my graduation from High School I returned to Boise, ID and proceeded to do other things.  Working and Gaming took over my life (somewhat to my chagrin).  Now another fast forward through time (aren’t flashbacks convenient).  Here we are in September, 2008 (gasp that’s this month!) and I am again browsing the web as I am wont to do.  I stumble across a chain of sites that quickly lead me from simple USB Mods on to a gem of a site called Let’s Make Robots!.  And my have I lost my nerve to do anything else ever again.  I start reading and learning.

Much to my surprise, hobby robotics is relatively affordable (even for a guy on minimum wage) and I start setting my plans into motion.  So in two days, I will be cashing my paycheck and ordering my first micro-controller.  So stay tuned, as tomorrow I will inventory my tools (just for reference) and then I will periodically update with sketches, ideas, and plans I have until I get my parts.  And then my blogging will begin in earnest as I share my journey with everyone who randomly stumbles upon this site.

Of course I will also document everything over at Let’s Make Robots.com.

My name is Bryce.  I have many hobby’s, but Robotics is my newest (and oldest, but more on that later) one.  I will be documenting all of my robotical related adventures here, because I can.  Also, if you are interested in robotics as a home hobbyist (especially if you have a limited cash flow, but even if you are Bill Gates Rich) then be sure to check out Let’s Make Robots! which is a great resource for all robotic hobbyists.

I will be putting details up later, as it is time for me to go to work.