This page is a compilation of all the meetings for December 2004.  The photos and comments are arranged in order of meeting appearances.  Click on a picture to see a larger version.

Dave Hygh demonstrated a digital compass on this bread board.  On his laptop you could see the output from the device.  The compass is very sensitive to such things as metal in the table and the tilt of the board.

Dave also showed his progress with his BEMF motor control code.  Dave would type a command into his laptop and the robot, via serial would move a very precise amount, ether in direction, speed or angle.  Very remarkable considering this is all done simply with the back voltage created by the motors when they move!

Galen Raben showed the cool Spartan FPGA board and Cybiko toy.  The board and software was had at a great discount due to being a student.  In school Galen made a replica Pac Man game with the system, it can be made to do just about anything!  Then Galen got the last Cybiko at a local toy store after seeing a article on it in the December Servo magazine.  Check out the article and specs on the thing.  Its incredible what you get for only $15!  Download a simple terminal program for it and use it as a robot interface.

Hardware the the Robo-Magellan was shown.  By this meeting Ed Rupp had gotten as far as machining the bearing support / motor mounts.  The plan is to have a simple suspension system for the robot.

Paul has made progress on his first robot.  The robot is now able to avoid objects with its sonar and keep from falling off a table thanks the the downward looking IR sensors.  Being Paul works at a local industrial robotics company he has access to some nice scrap parts such as the industrial IR sensors and the carbon fiber sheets that the bot is made out of.  When Paul gets to making a mini-sumo he's going to have some good stuff to work with!

Greg Brandes showed his recently deceased digital camera.  The autopsy revealed some really interesting stuff, some of which could find its way into a robot.  The most interesting aspect was just how stuffed a technological origami example a modern device like a camera can be!

Greg also showed his relentless efforts to keep his mini-sumo a ruthless competitor with the addition of side looking IR proximity sensors.  Note the two small holes on the side of the robot.  One is for the IR LED and the other a little Sharp IR sensor.  He plans also to use the little IR remote for remotely starting and stopping the robot.

Being the Christmas season Greg and Dennis Clark are building 'Busy Boxes' for their kids.  Left is Gregs, about 1/4 complete and able to do some light show.  The right photo is the unit Dennis is building, complete with a fancy box.  When done these units should allow a kid to imagine their operating all sorts of futuristic science fiction devices!

Greg has also been working a bit on his Critter Crunch robot.  The converted toy has a PIC processor that now can see its opponent using the temporary tape mounted Sharp IR range sensor.  The robot successfully attacked several cups of coffee but didn't seem to like cups of cola!

For the last meeting of the month the Robo-Magellan group project had more to show with the mostly complete but still empty chassis of the yet unnamed robot.  On top for size comparisons is a mini-sumo.  This is the second biggest robot the club has seen, only Herky-Jerk is a bigger robot!  Naturally the observations were that the robot looked like a big coffee urn on wheels!  It should be a very busy looking robot when all the sensors and various deployable bits are added.