Birthday Bots and Gizmos?

Today is my birthday! The big 5 - 0. I am hoping to be a successful late bloomer in the world of amateur robotics or a least have fun trying.

I will probably not have my official party until this weekend, but everything on my list was a robot part, gizmo, book or electronics' tool. I will post a complete list later (I hope...). In the mean time, enjoy this cool card.

The Great Internet

My son's designs and posts were coming so quickly that we decided to make him his own blog. He named it The Great Internet, Notes of a boy and his Dad who both love the Internet. You can visit it here.

It should be fun to read and contain lots of Lego designs, robot sketches and interesting insights on many, many things.

Stay tuned, I'm sure a blog is coming from my daughter too! (Editor's Note - looks like this blog may be delayed - It is too difficult to think of a really cool name!)

Parallax Digiencabulator

According to this thread on the Parallax Forums the new Parallax Digiencabulator is almost completed. No pictures were posted, but there was this exciting picture of the mounting bracket. Looks pretty interesting!

Mattracks

I got this Hummer H2 with Mattracks on sale after Christmas. It was only $60. I wanted the Mattracks, which I have now found out that I can order by themselves from Radio Shack (two sets are about $60). I now have three pair.

Lots of folks are using these for
tracks on their robots and they are what my friend StampNut2 is using on his WALL-E robot which you can read about here. It takes a little work to hack them to fit, but they work really well once you do. You can see good picture of them mounted on a BOE-Bot here.

Here is a litte video too that shows the Mattracks in action. This was made by another person who attached them to their BOE-Bot.

Mini Lego WALL-E

I had to post this mini Lego Wall-E that I found while I was surfing the web. I don't know if we have all the parts to make it, but my son would obviously love it. See it here on flickr.

New Robot Designs

Now my son is designing robots like crazy with his Lego parts. Here are his two latest. The first is the Four-legged Walker (the name is self-explanatory).

The second is the Security Sweeper. I like this one the best. The body is a barrel chair from the Krusty Krab Restaurant set. The top (a security camera with dish transmitter) is from one of the Mars Mission sets. Best of all the locomotion (at bottom) is the broom used to sweep up the Krusty Krab. Obviously another pair of ingenious designs.

My son has also taken to commenting on posts here. Look for some of his comments!

Additions to My Library

I picked up a couple of new books this weekend while on a trip. They're intended to be funny, but educational. Daniel H. Wilson, Ph.D. wrote How to Survive a Robot Uprising while working on his doctorate, and How to Build a Robot Army after earning his Ph.D. from at the Robitic's Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. Wilson says on his website, "I wear a tie and glasses to look very smart and intimidate people who visit my website."

Both books are illustrated in a campy graphic novel style by Richard Horne. The website for Robot Uprising (linked here) will give you an idea of the book's style, content and how they mix current robotic reasearch with the sci-fi fears about the rapid developing technology. Be sure to check out the e-cards. The books are a lot of fun and filled with great information about the current state of robotics. You can find them here at Amazon.