APM: The Robot Group - Maker SIG - Invitation & 2009 Schedule

[James Choate]

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.


Please feel free to spread this information around to other groups and individuals who may have an interest in hands-on technology exploration!

The Robot Group - Maker SIG - 2009 Calendar


July

9

7-8pm - Soldering: Basic Safety & Operations


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Build basic crawler & check build environment

23

7-8pm - Soldering: Basic types of joints and splices


8-8:30 - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Motor control and reading sensors


August

13

7-8pm - Soldering: Desoldering using vacuum and braid


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Basic autonomy and obstacle avoidance

27

7-8pm - Soldering: Review & skills focus/practice


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Review of available sensors and how to read them


September

10

7-8pm - Multimeter: Basic Safety & Operations


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Upgrade basic crawler sensor suite

24

7-8pm - Multimeter: Practice, practice, practice


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Upgrade basic crawler sensor suite


October

8


7-8pm - Oscilloscope: Basic Safety & Operations


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Enhanced Crawler obstacle avoidance testing

22

7-8pm - Oscilloscope: Practice, practice, practice


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Enhanced Crawler obstacle avoidance testing


November

12

7-8pm - Discussion of projects and goals for 2010


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Individual team projects

26 No meet - Thanksgiving


December

10

7-8pm - Open


8-8:30pm - TRG General Business


8:30-10pm - Lego Mindstorms: Individual team projects

24 No meet - Christmas



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Soldering - Basic Mechanics and Techniques



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.

http://www.physics.unc.edu/~fredb/techresource/docs/soldering.pdf

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!).


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Lego Mindstorms Resources

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.


NQC FAQ

bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/doc/faq.html

NQC Tutorial

cs.redeemer.ca/derek/tutorials/nqc.pdf

NQC User's Manual

www.cursolego.elo.utfsm.cl/.../NQC_User_Manual-Dave_Baum%5BEN%5D.pdf 

NQC Programmer's Guide

neuron.eng.wayne.edu/LEGO_ROBOTICS/nqc_guide.pdf 

Programming Lego Robots Using NQC

oz.plymouth.edu/~wjt/Foundations/Labs/markovManual.pdf 

NQC - Not Quite C Output Commands (Motors)

www.cs.binghamton.edu/~reckert/480/intro-to-NQC.pdf 

NQC - Not Quite C

http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/

RCX Command Center

http://people.cs.uu.nl/markov/lego/rcxcc/index.html

Bricx Command Center 3.3

http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/


References on the H8 processor

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Lego+RCX+Hitachi+H8&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=leBsIIJAIN0

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Hitachi+H8&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g7&fp=leBsIIJAIN0

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Hitachi+H8+microprocessor&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=leBsIIJAIN0



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James Choate
Solar Soyuz Zaibatsu

jameschoate at austin.rr.com
512-657-1279

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