Coming soon..

So over the last week I have been trying a number of operating systems and experiments with the BeagleBoard xM.  Like a number of open-source projects the amount of information on the intertube is vast and mostly useless.  I have sorted through a lot of it and will post results soon!

This has nothing to do with robotics, directly, but still cool.  This is what a weather balloon looks like as it bursts at 104,00 feet.  Taken with a GoPro camera from the payload under the balloon.  I wrote the tracking software to command and locate the payload as it came down.  Tons of fun!

So in the time I have been away I managed to rebuild the robot that started this whole mess -- Harve.  We are now on iteration three and some big changes have been made.

So gone are my homemade wheels and on go some snazzy anodized beadlock wheels from the world of off road RC racing.  Had to make my own axle adapters but that was pretty simple.  The side plates are now 3/8" thick 6061 aluminum cut on a waterjet (thanks to Albuquerque Waterjet! -- http://www.waterjetcuttinginc.com/home.html).  The top plate is now carbon fiber from RockWest Composites.  (They mostly do tubing but they have peel-ply plates and a 12x12 square was $20! -- http://www.rockwestcomposites.com/browse/carbon-fiber-plate)  Again cut thanks to waterjet technology.

These are the wheels.  Really well made and great for holding these off road tires in place.  Not free unfortunately... (http://www.vanquishproducts.com/slw-v1.html)

Also added a screw terminals to all of the connections not made with traditional Arduino Uno shields (which is now the motor control/half-bridge and the shield for an XBee radio -- http://www.sparkfun.com/)  If anyone is interested I will post something later about how I built it and the part numbers for the screw terminals.

Last but not least was the addition of carbon fiber angles to support the ultrasonic sensors.  Mounted with a single screw for small angular adjustments, if necessary.

And something to note when working with carbon fiber - its light, strong and conductive (very conductive!)  I had a rather nasty short that took a while to track down and finally found it with a ground touching the carbon fiber plate.  Now there are nylon standoffs between all electronics and the carbon.

Back to work...

So after a bit of a hiatus (Florida for six months) I am back home and getting started with my own work again.  The robot has been rebuilt (pics soon) and I have learned a ton about embedded programming so hopes are high.  In the meantime I have taken charge of a BeagleBoard xM.  Took a few minutes to make a "doghouse" for it via www.pololu.com and their outstanding laser cutting service.  Its up and running and now I have to figure out the development part of it and then make it start doing things.  

And if anyone wants a doghouse of their own it will cost you about 20 dollars (with shipping) for the acrylic, standoffs and screws.  I will post the Autocad file here soon so you can have your own made.