Quite a bit has happened since the last entry.

First, the robotics project finally has a name. Thanks to my wife, the robot has been christened Sophie 1.0.

I have also received the last few items on my parts list including the SMP20-2008- A stepper motors and a small Dell Pentium II laptop that will be used in some much later phase of the project.

The detailed design of the mechanical portion of the project as been completed. Now I just need to do some CAD work to be able to call the mechanical design finished and to have some pretty pictures to post online. (I think I'll scan and post my paper drawings too, just for the hell of it--whenever I get my webserver configured and give the Sophie 1.0 project a home page.)

The design of the electrical/motor portions of the system is just beginning.

Research and design continues on the electronic portions of the project. The circuitry to support the PIC18F8720 microcontroller is currently being designed as are the stepper motor drive circuits and the power supply circuits. My confusion over the Accelerometers has been cleared up thanks to the guys in the Kansas City Area Robotics Society.

I attended my first KCARS meeting on Saturday. It was great to hang out and talk with people who have the same obsessions that I have.

I have started psuedocoding the software that will run in the PIC18F8720 microcontroller. I'll post the psuedocode when its more or less done. (Oh yeah, I guess I really need to finish setting up my webserver!) Also, I haven't yet decided whether to code in C or assembler.

Here's the latest project status:

The mechanical portion of the design has been roughed out. I'll be posting some drawings when I finally get my webserver up and running.

The electronic portion of the design is still early in the research phase.

Looks like I'm going to be using Broccoli18 (or trying to) to do ICSP for the two PIC18F8720 microcontrollers.

I'm a little confused about the Accelerometers. Not to sound totally clueless, but, where are the leads? I guess I have some research to do!

It also seems like I'll need to brush up on my PCB fabrication techniques. Hopefully there's been some new and exciting innovations to the process (i.e. "less painful methods") since I last made a PCB. If anyone has any insight or recent experience that would be helpful, I would appreciate hearing from you.

I currently have the following parts:

• Two PIC Microcontrollers: PIC18F8720
• Three Futaba servos: FP - S148
• Two ±1.5g, High Precision, Dual Axis Accelerometers: ADXL203CE
• Two ±2g Dual Axis Accelerometers: ADXL311JE

STILL waiting on the damn stepper motors:
      (Tray of 50 FDK Stepper Motors: SMP20-2008- A.) Sometime this year would be nice!

Well let's see. Since I'm beginning a new robotics project, now seems like as good a time as any to start documenting the process.

I have finally received the first of the components on my parts list.

• Two shiny new microcontrollers: PIC18F8720
• Three Futaba servos: FP - S148

Still waiting on the following parts:

• Tray of 50 FDK Stepper Motors: SMP20-2008-A
• Two ±2g Dual Axis Accelerometers: ADXL311JE
• Two ±1.5g, High Precision, Dual Axis Accelerometers: ADXL203CE
• The GE EasyCam PC Camera H098063 that will document the construction of this robot!

Hmmm... I guess I should start formalizing the design!
Good thing Mandrake Linux comes with free CAD software.