Thing a Month September - NPC Mini Head

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Published: Thursday, 13 October 2016 00:38

Written by Kyle Granat

So it's more than half past October and I never got around to posting this. I don't know that this counts as a real thing, it was more of an experiment, but it was fun. Please forgive my ineptitude with stepper motors, I'm much better with them now. And sorry for the pictures, I was on the road.

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DRNK-BRD-8000

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Published: Thursday, 18 August 2016 00:38

Written by Kyle Granat

In July, Wade and I entered our second Robot Riot (Robot Riot: Mile High Voltage). We made a couple of improvements to Butter Buster and sent him off for training to a friend in the mile high city. However we decided that just sending in an old robot wasn't enough: we decided to build up a second robot.

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Check out RobotGeek 101!

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Published: Monday, 25 July 2016 16:59

Written by Kyle Granat

I always wanted to have a substantial set of lessons that I could point people to for getting started with RobotGeek and Arduino in General. RobotGeek 101 is my attempt at that set of lessons. The lessons go over the basic concepts of getting started with the Arduino ecosystem

• Serial Communication
• Digital Output
• Digital Input
• Analog Input
• Pulsed Width Modulation
• Servo Control

Each lesson has a web-page and a video version, so you can follow along with the exact directions in the video, or follow along with the text. Using Youtube's time-code links, each video is sectioned off based on each code example. Code can be downloaded as part of the RobotGeek tools/libraries, or copy/pasted from the lessons themselves.

I shot the videos using a LifeCam Cinema and a Logitech Clear Chat connected to ScreenFlow which made it a breeze to produce videos. Screen flow is great at syncing the audio/video to my computer screen as well as adding audio, intros, and example pictures.

To get the life cam to film from above I made a rig out of an old extending lamp and a Custom 3D printed part.. It was a big improvement to my tripod setup for the HR-OS1 videos.

Theses lessons are great, but they are designed more for individual learners and don't have assessment or projects. I'd really like to convert the lesson structure over to an actual curriculum that could be used in a class. Arduino curriculum, here I come!

Geekbot Fun at Maker Faire Video + Photos)

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Published: Thursday, 26 May 2016 00:38

Written by Kyle Granat

The Mini Maker Faires were a huge success! The arena held up beautifully and the robots faired far better than I expected. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped.

• Wade for all his help fabricating, testing, brainstorming and running the Northside booth.
• Kat for making us amazing flags and buildings, as well as brainstorming and support.
• Olga for help running multiple events.
• Renée for an amazing set of antennas.
• Patrick for filming and sharing video.

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