<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.5803" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<P>With the support of The Robot Group board and general member support we are
glad to announce the beginning of a new SIG. It will be focused on a variety of
topics and skills, using hands-on techniques to build mastery. The group will
meet on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month from 7pm to 10pm. Location will
vary and should be checked either on the TRG mailing list or visit their
webpage, http://wiki.therobotgroup.org/wiki/Main_Page.<BR></P>
<P>Please feel free to spread this information around to other groups and
individuals who may have an interest in hands-on technology exploration!</P>
<P>The Robot Group - Maker SIG - 2009
Calendar<BR><BR><BR>July<BR><BR>9<BR><BR>7-8pm - Soldering: Basic Safety &
Operations<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Build basic crawler & check build
environment<BR><BR>23<BR><BR>7-8pm - Soldering: Basic types of joints and
splices<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30 - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Motor control and reading
sensors<BR><BR><BR>August<BR><BR>13<BR><BR>7-8pm - Soldering: Desoldering using
vacuum and braid<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Basic autonomy and obstacle
avoidance<BR><BR>27<BR><BR>7-8pm - Soldering: Review & skills
focus/practice<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Review of available sensors and how to read
them<BR><BR><BR>September<BR><BR>10<BR><BR>7-8pm - Multimeter: Basic Safety
& Operations<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Upgrade basic crawler sensor
suite<BR><BR>24<BR><BR>7-8pm - Multimeter: Practice, practice, practice<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Upgrade basic crawler sensor
suite<BR><BR><BR>October<BR><BR>8</P>
<P><BR>7-8pm - Oscilloscope: Basic Safety & Operations<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Enhanced Crawler obstacle avoidance
testing<BR><BR>22<BR><BR>7-8pm - Oscilloscope: Practice, practice,
practice<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Enhanced Crawler obstacle avoidance
testing<BR><BR><BR>November<BR><BR>12<BR><BR>7-8pm - Discussion of projects and
goals for 2010<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Individual team projects<BR><BR>26 No meet -
Thanksgiving<BR><BR><BR>December<BR><BR>10<BR><BR>7-8pm - Open<BR></P>
<P>8-8:30pm - TRG General Business</P>
<P><BR>8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Individual team projects<BR><BR>24 No meet -
Christmas<BR></P>
<P><BR>-- -- -- --</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Soldering - Basic Mechanics and Techniques</P>
<P> </P>
<P>We will focus on the basic mechanics of soldering. We will be using the
following document as the basis of this discussion. It does contain a small
toolset and if you're budget will allow we strongly suggest you get your own
tools. However, we will have sufficient supplies to provide everyone opportunity
to explore their new skills. It is expected that this series will last 4-6 weeks
in total depending on group progress. If you are going to participate it is
expected that you have read the following document before the first class. We
suggest you download it to your
laptop.<BR><BR>http://www.physics.unc.edu/~fredb/techresource/docs/soldering.pdf<BR><BR>You
can buy the basic soldering iron, solder, desolder braid, and a sponge at Fry's
for under $20. We'll have several soldering irons available for participants to
share if they don't have their own. If you have old electronics (radios and
audio equipment especially) that you don't mind sacrificing we'd very much
appreciate the gift/practice (they will be sacrificed, not fixed!).</P>
<P></P>
<P>-- -- -- --</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Lego Mindstorms Resources</P>
<P>If you're interested in participating in the Lego Mindstorm component of our
effort you should probably visit each of these sites and download to your local
laptop all the resources. We will be using 'Not Quite C' as our primary
development tool. It is suggested that you have a 3-ring binder, writing
instruments, and a laptop running Windows of some flavor. We have at least two
RCX bricks and that should be sufficient for the class. If you have your own
please bring it so we can break into smaller groups. We will be building a
standard tracked crawler as our hardware testbed.<BR></P>
<P>NQC FAQ<BR><BR>bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/doc/faq.html<BR><BR>NQC
Tutorial<BR><BR>cs.redeemer.ca/derek/tutorials/nqc.pdf<BR><BR>NQC User's
Manual<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.cursolego.elo.utfsm.cl/.../NQC_User_Manual-Dave_Baum[EN].pdf"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.cursolego.elo.utfsm.cl/.../NQC_User_Manual-Dave_Baum%5BEN%5D.pdf</U></FONT></A>
<BR><BR>NQC Programmer's
Guide<BR><BR>neuron.eng.wayne.edu/LEGO_ROBOTICS/nqc_guide.pdf
<BR><BR>Programming Lego Robots Using
NQC<BR><BR>oz.plymouth.edu/~wjt/Foundations/Labs/markovManual.pdf <BR><BR>NQC -
Not Quite C Output Commands (Motors)<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/~reckert/480/intro-to-NQC.pdf"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.cs.binghamton.edu/~reckert/480/intro-to-NQC.pdf</U></FONT></A>
<BR><BR>NQC - Not Quite C<BR><BR>http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/<BR><BR>RCX
Command
Center<BR><BR>http://people.cs.uu.nl/markov/lego/rcxcc/index.html<BR><BR>Bricx
Command Center 3.3<BR><BR>http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/<BR></P>
<P>References on the H8 processor</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.google.com//lhl=en&q=Lego+RCX+Hitachi+H8&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=leBsIIJAIN0"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Lego+RCX+Hitachi+H8&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=leBsIIJAIN0</U></FONT></A><BR><BR><A
href="http://www.google.com//lhl=en&q=Hitachi+H8&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g7&fp=leBsIIJAIN0"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Hitachi+H8&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g7&fp=leBsIIJAIN0</U></FONT></A><BR><BR><A
href="http://www.google.com//lhl=en&q=Hitachi+H8+microprocessor&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=leBsIIJAIN0"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Hitachi+H8+microprocessor&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=leBsIIJAIN0</U></FONT></A><BR></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> -- --</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>James Choate<BR>Solar Soyuz Zaibatsu</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="mailto:jameschoate@austin.rr.com">jameschoate@austin.rr.com</A><BR>512-657-1279</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> -- --</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>