Where Are The Best Amateur Robotic Discussion Groups?

Search all you want, but this is the only real newsgroup focusing on
robotics and minimizing spam.

I've never seen any decent ones. The robotics community is very spread
out, unfortunately. It'd be nice if everybody could get more
centralized.

Some of robot club mailing lists can be pretty lively.

We have a lot of people on the Home Brew Robotics club
mailing list who live too far away to make it to our monthly
meetings, but contribute to the list.  (One of our members
moved to Finnland, but still contributes.)  The HBRC home
page is at:

   <http://www.hbrobotics.org/>

The HBRC mail archive is open an can be found at:

   <http://www.wildrice.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?forum=6>

You can browse through the archive to decide whether or not
you want to join.

To subscribe to the HBRC mail list, please visit:

   <http://www.wildrice.com/HBRobotics/Subscribe.html>

I have heard that both the Dallas and Seattle clubs have
lively lists (although I do not yet subscribe):

   Dallas -- DPRG <http://www.dprg.org/>
   Seattle -- SRS <http://www.seattlerobotics.org/>

I'm sure that there are other club lists that are
interesting as well.

My $.02,

-Wayne

Another good robotic discussion can be found on the Robomo website
(robomo.com).  This is the Missouri Area Robotics Society (used to be
called MARS).  They have a lot of basic information and resources.

AJ
Zagros Robotics
http://www.zagrosrobotics.com


Wayne C. Gramlich wrote:

Thanks for the responses so far but I would expect that there are more
discussion groups out there....but where?

TMT

Why don't you try a specific question and see what kind of
a response you get from the people here?

There are other groups that focus more on the sub topics.

For example there's rec.crafts.metalworking  But as the name
suggests, they focus more on the "make it from metal" part.

sci.engr.control is more for automation. Similar groups for
electronics etc.

DOC

Any sufficiently complicated machine can be called a robot.

"Why don't you try a specific question and see what kind of
a response you get from the people here? "

Good idea but I tend to be a lurker and only come out when I need some
specific information.

One learns more listening than talking. ;<)

I do monitor the groups you mention but considering my long time
interest in amateur robotics I (and I assume others) would like to know
where more active discussions occur.

TMT

Okay, after asking the original question of "Where are the BEST amateur
robotic discussion groups?" and getting only one answer with leads I
guess it is time to ask the next question....

"Where are ANY amateur robotic discussion groups that you would
recommend?"

Thanks

TMT

    --FWIW I know of several; some are good, some are so-so.
        -parallax.com has a big board with lotsa postings, but
you've gotta be into the Stamp architecture to appreciate it. Also it's
divided into interesting categories and sometimes I get the impression that
whoever's in charge of reading postings at the company doesn't do it daily
so a question can go unanswered for a very long time (weeks).
        -Yahoo has a Stamp group and a robotics group and there are
quite a few members but again I get the idea folks don't log in daily and
questions can linger a long time waiting for a response. Not sure who
started the group and not sure how expert the answers are either.
        -Tribe has a couple of groups relating to electronics and
robotics. I started the Basic Stamp Tribe, but there's little activity at
the moment. I like Tribe because you can upload photos, schematics, etc and
because it's divided into regional zones so you tend to be talking to folks
who live within driving distance of you.
        -Still and all I think that our usenet group is the best,
because its "legacy" status means that the folks who've been there,
done that hang out here more than anywhere else.



  

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  Whatever happened      
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  to Porgy Tirebiter?
                          www.nmpproducts.com
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Stop singing and finish your homework.

I've been done with it  for a few years.  Last I heard, Porgy was
caught in Parallel Hell.  Personally, I prefer Nick Danger, but how did
this thread go so off topic?  3M and the holograms are about a close as
Firesign ever got to robots.

Recent addition was my own minisumo.org.uk but that is more specialist (and
slow as still establishing itself - blocked more spam bots than total
number of real users!)

I do have listings & links to other forums relating to various
microcontrollers and general robotics. My favourite remains to be :-

   robotbuilder.co.uk

Traffic goes up and down but there's a good bunch there, mostly UK but
several regulars from around the globe.

best regards,
colin

--
www.minisumo.org.uk