When the angry robots defeat us they will wear our heads like pairs of shoes. We will have deserved it. But they don’t have to gloat, really. It’s rude.
Archive for the 'robot' Category
My friend, the incredible Gareth Branwyn mentioned that he had a doctor’s visit to a few of us who write for Make: Online. We got to wondering what exactly he was up to. This video cleared things up:
I made it by doing some motion tracking in After Effects and then linking a couple of photos to that tracking data.
The Railographic Apparatus uses a train to deliver messages between terminal stations. My first tests were with HO scale trains. These were very helpful in testing the Arduino + Adafruit MotorShield, but proved to be a bit to small and unstable to lug around all the gear we wanted to use.
Usman Muzaffar and I are working on a telecommunications project called The Rail-O-Graph. It’s a re-imagined Pony Express that passes messages between nodes using a microcontroller on a train. (Initial tests conducted with snakes on a plane did NOT go well.) I’m posting progress videos here as we race the clock to finish by Maker Faire. I previously posted a video of the simple switch > relay > solenoid > switch system here.
Here’s my exploration of solenoids and switches tapping at a constant rate:
The rate wasn’t so constant, until I put a protection diode across the solenoid leads. This was Tod Kurt’s suggestion. Once again, Tod as saved me from putting the project into a little pile and setting it on fire.
I so covet this hoodie we just got for my son at Gymboree!
I’m working on a project with my friend Usman Muzaffar that involves solenoids. Here’s my first test of a little relay board I built sending 12V to the solenoid based on a 5V signal coming from the Arduino.
John-Mike of BleepLabs sent me a couple of Thingamagoops. I decided they ought to browse the web together, since they respond so nicely to light, and are social by nature. I think they sound best toward the end of the video when they are, as you might expect, looking at a collection of circuit-bent noisemakers.
I would love it if somebody would make a very long website that plays a song when you scroll it past a gang of these guys!
I think this t-shirt rocks. Nothing like a one-to-one giant robot control.
I’m absolutely crazy about this junk robot from Bennett Robot Works. That red eye/face/head is pure awesome.
