"Coping with Humans:" A Support Group for Bots

IBM's latest commercial!

Simone Giertz Robot Designer and Humorist

Meet the queen of wacky robots! Check out Simone Giertz’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/simonegiertz
Posted by INSIDER design on Thursday, February 25, 2016

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover

Calling all space pirates: Check out this new interactive 360 view of the 1997 Pathfinder mission. It features Sojourner, the first Mars rover ever! http://bitly.com/360pathfinder

Pen Port Light and Spiro Scribbles

Okay, here is the second part of the "No Warranty Void Hack." Same idea for a Pen Port Light (LED). The LED is a bi-color (red/green). By reversing the polarity when plugging the LED into the programming port you can change from red to green. The frosted lens gives a more diffused light.

I shaped a wooden plug - make a hole to mount the LED and run the wires - resister again is in line (470 ohm in this case). wires are twisted and shrink tube wrapped. See attached photos and the photos. More "scribbles" below and over at the Nikos' Fibonacci Spiral Challenge thread. These spiro-scribbles use some of Ken Gracey's Educator Course software.

Scribbler Taillight

We've been having a lot of fun over on the Nikos Fibonacci Spiral Thread on the Parallax Forums, and as posted here, scribbling with LED light by using long exposure photos. 

Here is a project - "No Warranty Void" hack for the Scribbler and the S2. I call it the Scribbler Taillight. I was playing with the idea for following purposes. This could work great for LED scribbling too. I am developing a pen port mount also. 

Power (9 volts) and ground come right from the programming port - not case opening is required for this hack (and thus your Warranty remains! ;-) 

Photos show the following:

How an LED is fitted with pin connectors. Under the heat-shrink wrap around the Ground Leg (cathode - marked by the flat spot on the LED lense) is a resistor of the appropriate size for 9 volts and the color of the LED and its properties (Google it!) - two views. You can see the resistor under the black heat-shrink tubing.

Diagram for programming port pinout from Parallax (S2 and Scribbler are the same)

Diagram for a DB9 female pinout (show how the pins are numbered). This is marked to reflect the Scribbler and S2 power and ground. Pin 5 is ground and Pin 8 is 9 volts.

And photos of the Scribbler Taillight inserted - LED off and on.

Obviously the LED could be pointed straight up for LED scribbling, or mounted in the pen port and powered in the same way.

Give it try and have some hacking fun!

LED Doodling

One BUSY roboteering woman! This is some Parallax S2 LED doodling by my Parallax Forum and Facebook friend Carol Lynn Hazlett.

Carol Lynn Hazlett added 3 new photos.

The Next Atlas

Cool stuff! Science Fiction made real! Wow!

Atlas, The Next Generation

This version of Atlas was designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings. It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its bo...

YOUTUBE.COM

S2 Spirograph - Small Ring

Trial Four S2 Spirograph - Small "Ring" - Green, Green and Blue, Green and Blue More.

One More S2 Spiro-doodle

Slightly more complex third trial - Same "Ring" size and speed - "Wheel" travels one speed with the green LED (left) on for about two orbits, changes rotation speed and to red LED (right) for about 3 orbits - Shutter was open about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Looks like a I jiggled the camera a bit...

More S2 Spirographic Doodles

More experiments with the S2 Spirograph. This time we have one LED Green and one LED Red, a larger "Ring" - the "Wheel" travels clockwise and spins counter-clockwise. Different expose lengths give a different number of orbits around the "Ring."
Note: It is very difficult to end the expose exactly where the exposure began (making neat ends)! Also, the bumps in the previous photos were cause by the two S2 flopping a bit as the heavy side of the top "Wheel" S2 spun around the bottom "Ring" S2 making it tilt forward. I solved this by adding a weight to the bottom S2 to stabilize it.

Share Your Ears

#shareyourears and raise money for Make A Wish!

Parallax S2 Spirograph Time Lapse Photos

Okay - here are a few images - not perfect, but not bad. Exposure times are 1 minute and 1 minute and 12 seconds - Camera set to Bulb, f 20, and ISO 100.

More Spirograph

Here is the Wikipedia gif again (take a look to see the animation). In the post above the S2 on the bottom is the "Ring" and the top S2 (spinning on the platform) is the wheel.

The other photos show some other ideas and more... Super Spirograph shapes.

Think - spinning wheel traveling an oval ring or a spinning wheel traveling a triangle or star path in place of the ring.

Spirograph gif via Wikipedia

Parallax S2 Spirograph

Here is an idea to follow up on Carol's light scribbling with the S2 - you can see her work here on the Parallax Forums on the Nikos' Fibonacci Spiral Challenge thread.. The little S2 badge (which she used for the LED) on the S2 got me thinking...

We all played with Spirographs (See Wikipedia - Spirograph - youngsters and the great gif below) when we were little. Here is an S2 (the bottom is the ring - and travels in a simple circle - Wiki article has all this too.) and the S2 on the top, the one riding on a platform is the wheel - spinning around an axis axis that travels a circular path. 

A time lapse photo of this should be very interesting...via Carol and her husband photographer (bulb, f20, iso 100)

Ring size and speed and the spin of the wheel (the formula for the shape created) could be adjusted to create various effects. Nikos' work on the same Forum thread can apply for this purpose. 

More to come when time allows - but this is the concept. 

Note: The black tape is used to cover LED light bleed (and the power LED - can be controlled in Spin) and until I find a more elegant solution.

Spirograph gif via Wikipedia

Bottom - "Ring" S2 and Upper - "Wheel" S2
that turns circles while riding on the platform.

Side by Side (Platform and Post)

Platform Foam Core Disk (7" Dia.)

Side View of Platform and Post

Post - Sized to Pen Port (5" Long)

Lower Disks to Raise Platform above Wheels
(3" Dia.)

Happy Robotic Chinese New Year!

This is from China Central Television and is from a Chinese New Year's celebration. A friend over at the Parallax Forums, Keith, said he just like some of the left overs...

Gaga for Robots?

Here is a video from Intel about Gaga's tribute to Bowie at the Grammy's. The visual effects are much better than the robot arm manipulated keyboard IMHO.

Craftsman Robt

CRAM

NF7

Can't wait...

Do You Love Robots too?

A New Groundhog in Town?

This story is back from 2010 (when Phil did see his shadow). Amazing and funny all at the same time!

Phil did not see his shadow this February 2, 2016, thus predicting an early Spring. Nice robo-terminator-groundhog shot I found via Google...
   

FIRST Robotics Stronghold Competition

Here is the info on FIRST Robotics Stronghold competition. Looks neat and challenging!