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Monday, November 13, 2006

 

Lego Mindstorms NXT Coupon

What's a gift for the holidays that's sure to please your friends and family? Since this is a blog for the Roboraptor I'm sure it's no surprise I'd recommend that as a gift, especially since Amazon is currently selling them for only $69 (USD).

But that's a fully assembled ready to play robot, and sometimes it's just more fun to build your own and learn a lot about robotics in the process. The Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kit is the successor to the best selling Mindstorms 1.0 and 2.0 kits. The CPU (brain) has been upgraded to a full 32-bit processor. There are new sensors to make the robots you build smarter and more versatile, and the LABView interface is a joy for young and old to use while they create a variety of fun and interesting new robots. If you have a budding robot engineer on your hands that wants to build robots without having to own a machine shop, then buy them the Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kit.

SAVINGS TIP: The Discovery Channel, the award winning educational TV broadcasting company, has created a that will knock off $20 off your Lego Mindstorms NXT purchase. Make sure you write down the coupon code 99Robo and visit the Discovery Store now. This is one of their top selling items and you don't want to be left out if it becomes hard to find like the Tickle Me Elmo TMX doll is now.

Keywords: , ,

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

 

Roboraptor and Rechargeable Batteries

Because the Roboraptor chews through batteries pretty readily, many people have asked about using rechargeables. Here's the party line: WowWee doesn't want you to use them and if you fry your robot, it's on you, use at your own risk! I have not heard about any fryers yet on the Roboraptor forum, but buyer beware.

I decided to take the plunge and get some myself. Most reports say to get either 2300 mah or 2500 mah (Milliamps) high quality batteries. Choose the manufacturer who is considered the one of the best in your part of the world. I picked Duracell.

With my freshly bought Duracell 2300 mah batteries I ran home anticipating wild new robot dinosaur antics in the making. In an instant I loaded them into Fluffy, my green Roboraptor. Then I nearly cried. He shuffled mildly like a Zombie from Shaun Of The Dead, unable to make any progress on my carpet at all. After a few pathetic roars, I shut poor Fluffy off.

Then I remembered, you have to charge new rechargeable batteries first before using them! After ten hours of charging I tried again. Fluffy nearly danced! At the second walking speed (forward button twice), he really did well on the carpet. The same applied for the fast backward walking speed (backward button twice), which he never managed well at all!

Until next time...

Monday, February 20, 2006

 

Roboraptor Rides The Roomba! - Video

Just a short post on a funny video one of my Roboraptor forum members asked me to post. It shows his Roboraptor riding a Roomba vacuum cleaner. I guess technically it makes the Roboraptor a scaly digital maid in this case, if you believe it's telling the what to clean!

Resources

Roboraptor Technical Information
Consumer reports on Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

 

Roboraptor Lego Monster!

EvoSapien Team member Sprocket2Cog has merged the Lego RCX computer into his Roboraptor robot; creating a weird hybrid that Frankenstein would admire! You can watch his Roboraptor Lego Monster video and see his mad creation walking. This hack definitely voids the warranty and is instantly classified as taking a Roboraptor where no Roboraptor as gone before!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

 

Roboraptor Hacks - Internal Diagrams

This is for the hard core hacker out there. Elite Roboraptor hacker, Sprocket2Cog, has posted several solid pages showing the internals of the Roboraptor. Visit Sprocket2Cog's Roboraptor Hacks section on Evosapien.com to see the latest information. Be sure to check out the other projects he is working on; especially his latest work on marrying the Lego RCX computer to his Roboraptor.

Friday, January 13, 2006

 

Roboraptor Dino Happy Dance

I guess it's heresy to say that a robot dinosaur can be cute, but definitely is at times. If you put your Roboraptor in free roam mode while he is in Playful Mode, he'll roam around for a few minutes, and then he'll stop and do what is becoming known as the Happy Dino Dance. He stands in place for a bit, obviously contented with himself, and makes pupply like chuffing noises while he dances and wiggles in place. Read more about the Happy Dino Dance on the Roboraptor forum.

Monday, January 09, 2006

 

Robosapien Dance Machine - Teaser Video

Work on the next version of Robosapien Dance Machine, version 3, is going extremely well. The current publicly available version only works with the original . Version 3 will work with the , , and robots.

Robosapien Dance Machine is my free open source program that lets you use a Windows PC to control you WowWee robot. The user friendly graphical drag and drop interface makes it easy to create fun powerful scripts that make your robot dance and act in funny perfomances that you design. Robosapien Dance Machine's two other most notable features are the ability to command your robot using just your voice, instead of using the complex remote control, and to instantly share scripts with other users via a script bank; either scripts you created or scripts created by others.

This 1 minute (3 MB) preview video shows my Robosapien V2, original Robosapien, and my chrome Robopet interacting and generally causing a ruckus. Enjoy!

If you have questions, visit the Evosapien forum and look for the Robosapien Dance Machine section.


P.S. - I don't have the Roboraptor in the video because his great big scaly green butt wouldn't fit in the shot (or on the table)! (Sorry Fluffy!)

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