Recent blog entries for phillysteak527

Well i finally got my butt in gear and finished that variable power supply i've been working on. It's done, i ran into a problem when i connected the fan to the output binding posts. the fan would start to draw current around 5 volts (the voltage i need). because it is a 12 volt fan it would draw current until the output voltage reached 4.3, then when the voltage rose again, it would bring it back down. 4.3 isn't enough power to run a pic. The fan caused this oscilation until about 6.2 volts. So i had to install a switch as a manual override for when i work with microcontrollers. I should be able to post some pics up either today or tomorrow. They'll be on the blog.

Finished soldering the power supply together, it's a kit from cheney electronics that i got from www.goldmine-elec.com . It works extremely well for a 10 dollar kit, and provies ample power to run a PIC microcontroller for development purposes. The 5 dollar soldering iron is great for the price, i would have gotten a soldering station but ti's too expensive right now. I should be bale to poist some pics on the blog tomorrow.

The power supply and soldering iron came in the mail today and i already started soldering the power supply together. Ran into a snag with the mini-sumo design, but hopefully some sleep will solve that problem, usually does.

Well it's been a while. I'm on summer break from school, which isn't much of a break because i'm either at work, or at home working on some stuff for the FIRST robotics competition next year. I sorta finished the robo-one legs. The only problem is that i could only afford cheap 10 dollar analog servos, which dont have enough torque to hold up the entire body, much less do acrobatic meanuvers. So for now i've put the project on hold. Right now i've been working on a robotic prothesis, and some stuff for FIRST like i said, both must be kept in secret. Sorry to anyone who wants to know more, but the prothesis is the basis of my new company, and the project for the FIRST competition could potentially put us far ahead of the other teams. At the moment I'm looking at a disassembled power supply and admireing the capacitors; which i hope to use in a coil gun, but thats for another forum :). I'm going to attempt to make a mini-sumo to settle a little bet made by the co-founder of our company, so i'll try to keep everyone posted. I'll most likely be custom machining everything, being the CNC mill in my basement is screaming "USE ME!!". I think i'll also make a custom PCB to house the PIC microcontroller, some people might say a 40 Pin PIC is overkill for a mini sumo. luckily i don't listen to those people :p. The pictures will eventually make it to the new blog, due to excessive spam i've had to make the blog private, sorry :(.

I AM STILL ALIVE!!!!! yes i know i havent posted in a long long time, but hey i've been busy. If you want to know whats going on with my robo-one check out my website.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pictures.php?action=single&picid=11696

finally finsihed the legs, the link above is for a pic. I hope to have a video soon.

We'll it all stated when i was building a robotic tank today becuase i'm waiting for the parts for my robo-one robot to get delivered. Imade the tank capable of shooting 6 mm plastic bb's. It's still having some trouble shooting at far distances so i think i have to make a capacitor array, it will eventually burn out the motors but hey, it'll work, and probably hurtif you get hit. But I was thinking, if 40 roboticists got together and each built a simple robot to perform a task,and mass produced them. Then you'd have an army of robots,then the group of people could take over a small country.then after that they could increase their army of robots and then take over another country. Rinse lather and reapeatlol. But eventually the army would be big enough to mount an assault on bigger countries. And then eventually that goup of 40-50 people could take over the world. just a thought but i'd be the first volunteer for this expedition.

we'll i ordered more screws from lynxmotion and i think i'm going to order some ebarings from them but not until i make the competition robot. This on that i'm making now is strictly for prototyping. But now i have to wait for my parts in order to continue working. I desoldered a 3 segment LED display so i'm going to figure out the wiring pattern so it'll display the numbers 527. But it's trickeyer than it sounds

The pic of team 527's competition robot are up, pics of my robo one robot will be up soon

We'l the torso housing is complete and i'm starting on the legs, it's a little bit wobbley so i've decided to work out all the kinks on this model and use it as a prototype, i'll build a final competition model later. And then if i have 2 i can test tactics before i go to the competition. Sorry but it's taking me a while to get pics on my site, it'll be a few days because i have to find the drivers for my camera, Maybee it's time to clean my room,lol. U'know what this site is missing, a discussion forum, that way we can ask questions, help otehr people, and just talk about robots in gerneral. Thats my 2 cents.