newb robotics

Look around on ebay for the sumo bot by Mike Predko et al..

Almost no construction required and uses an integrated Basic Stamp.

Allows you to reprogram as you wish. You can even put it on a block and forget the fact that it's mobile.

I got one a couple years back for about $35.00 plus shipping but haven't seen them quite that cheap recently.

DOC

This is Parrallax's latest offering

Cheers

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Dale

Check out the group's FAQ on my website:

Cheers

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Dale

I am also 13 and am into building building robots. about two years ago I set out to do the same thing. I have two servo motors controlled by an oopic microcontroller now and the bumpers work although they are broken at the moment. I made many mistakes along the way and it eventually ended up costing me about four hundred dollars I recomend that you read Gordon McComb's robot builder's bonanza. It helped a ton. ask for money for christmas since its comming up and you sound like you need it you may be enticed to use wire wrapping becasue it is cheaper and easier than soddering, but the high gauge of the wire is not heavy enough to carry the voltage to the wires. I suggest that you start your prodject woth two servos on a square wooden board with foam or plastic rc car or airplane wheels. for a prosesser i wish that I had used the brainstem becasue it has more interface examples, is more powerfull, and you can just plug the servos in without having an external power source. It is more expensive than the oopic and the basic stamp, but it is worth it. When you get to the poing where you want to start useing vision, the brain stem is the way to go

-- brainstem and excellent parts vendor robot builder's bonanza

your parts list should look something like this

1 soddering iron 2 sodder 3 two modified continuous rotational servos (buy these premodified it is a pain other wise) 4 a brainstem/oopic/basic stamp 5 a few battery packs 6 a one square foot board anywhere around half an inch thick (go to the local home depot they have this stuff as scrap) 7a great deal of patientness

and dont forget to use gorilla glue to attach the wheels

Here in South Australia, the local paper is in the middle of a 14 day rollout of parts to make a great little robot. Each part was only AU$2 with the presentation of a coupon from the paper, meaning the bot cost around AU$28 plus the cost of the paper. They are hoping to get around

30,000 of them into the hands of kids in an effort to kickstart an interest in electronics in the state.

Check out the website at

This may not be of much help to you but I posted to show the members of this group the efforts some people are going to to create an interest in robotics.

Regards, Paul

That's very interesting. I checked around the site but couldn't find a way to order the whole robot or a kit of pieces. The Viper (to be released December 1) looks to even more interesting.

thegoldbug

The i-bot is not available as a kit. It is only available during this current promotion. It was featured in last months Silicon Chip. I'm sure if the concept is successful enough it may be available as a kit, or some golddigger may flog one on ebay.

The Viper is shown on the DSE site at AU$199

Regards Paul

You could try one of the robotics kits from Altronics (Australia)

They use the PICAXE, which is much cheaper than the stamps but also includes a BASIC language. But in the US there must be hundreds of places selling starter robotics kits - aren't there?

Of course the Parallax stuff is very shiny and nice - I started off with a BS2 myself.

Then there's microbric - also Australian and WAY cool. Okay I haven't played but - hell I th>Hi all! I'm only 13 so I'm not interested in building a robot from