Kevin Hines

Chris, I had to spend about an hour one day, searching through the help topics, and I don't recall much of what was required... I do recall it varies depending upon who you use as your domain registrar... I'd search the meetup help area for "DNS" and "CNAME" and "domain"... here are a few help posts to get you started: http://www.meetup.com... Good Luck!

0 · March 5

Kevin Hines

PS - If you need to register a domain name, I recommend www.GoDaddy.com ... it's my favorite domain registrar.

0 · March 5

Christine Gries

thanks I own about 23 domains and they are all under go daddy :-) Thanks for the direction there are a couple of things I have been putting off that I need to catch up on this week and weekend and this will be one of them.

0 · March 5

Christine Gries

I should be able to figure this out with all the websites I have built but then again, maybe not ;-)

0 · March 5

Gary Yohe

Dont stop with still photography ! It would be so awesome to use the sculptures to make a stop action video. http://content.photoj...

2 · March 3

Norman Liew

Good idea Gary. I will consult with Mitch about making a stop action video

1 · March 3

Marjorie W. Gann

I love these photos, Norman! Great to meet you.

2 · March 4

Norman Liew

Great meeting you too Marjorie. Glad you enjoyed the pictures.

0 · March 4

Kevin Hines

Wow, Norman, your sculptures are very cool in person... and now, seeing your flickr close-up photos, I can see there is a whole 'nother level of detail in your work... it's amazingly cool! I think my favorites are the "Swamp Patrol" photos, as I can "see" in my mind, the robot walking through and emerging from the thick woods... so cool... and I also especially like your "Flower Power" sculptures, very cool... Please bring more of your work to share at future meetings!! Thanks!!

2 · March 4

Norman Liew

I am really glad you like them Kevin. I would love to animate the Swamp Patrol bot and put that in a video to Jimi Hendrix's "All along the watchtower". I will bring the 'flower power' wire sculpture to the next meeting.

2 · March 5

Kevin Hines

Hi Marjie, thanks for mentioning this... Everyone is encouraged to uploaded photos for all of our events ...

0 · March 4

Kevin Hines

Mitch, Thanks for uploading and sharing your awesome photos!! Keep up the great work, my friend!!

0 · March 4

Tim Brandsberg

I have read a little bit about them. The operating system that they use is LINUX. They are not micro-controllers in that they do not have analog or digital i/o ports for sensor connects or motor driving. all of that would need to be implemented with a separate I/O card that would use the USB port for communication. The I/O card would have to be something like an ARDUINO. I don't think of the Raspberry Pi as an alternative to a microcontroller. However this processor is much more powerful that the ARDUINOs, but useful for a differant task. I could possibly see it as a PC to run the programming interface for the ARDUINO that would be far less expensive than a laptop.

0 · February 10

Micah Boswell

I have a lot of experience with using this class of devices in robotics. They are way overkill for most robots unless you're doing computer vision like I was. The raspberry pi is particularly ill-suited for use in robots. It gets press because it's cheap, but you have to add about $100 in components before it's useful, and by that point you should have bought a beagle bone.

0 · February 19

Micah Boswell

You can find more info about the beaglebone at http://beagleboard.or... and its capes (like arduino shields) at http://circuitco.com/...

0 · February 19

Gary Yohe

SWEET, thanks for the advice. BTW, I want to build a laser guidance system for a SumoBot. I DIDNT SEE THAT THAT WAS ILLEGAL IN AUTONOMOUS CONTROL ! My first thoughts are way over the top with a higher end CPU and a webcam. You ever run across anybody trying a laser guidance system ? How about a low end laser guiding system ?

1 · February 19

Micah Boswell

What kind of laser guidance system? The ones used in autonomous robotics don't tend to be cheap. The cheapest laser rangefinder system I have worked with is about $6000. Which SumoBot rules are you following? I have done computer vision with a webcam and embedded PC (SBC), and it can be surprisingly simple to do. OpenCV gives you the software tools you need for all the basics.

0 · February 20

Kevin Hines

Hi Gary, Laser guidance might be legal, if it's controlled autonomously, i.e., by a non-human-brain... maybe strap a laser onto a 2nd robot, and have that robot point the laser for the other robot. http://www.engadget.c...

0 · February 20

Micah Boswell

Are second robots allowed?

0 · February 20

Micah Boswell

I see what you're talking about. Sure, you can do that with a webcam and raspberry pi. You may want to look at a project called CMUcam. It's basically a camera/processor combo board designed to do exactly this kind of thing.

0 · February 20

Gary Yohe

Kevin is incorrect on that one. "Any method of control may be used, as long as it is fully contained within the robot and recieves no external signals or directions (human, machine, or otherwise)." If the opposing Sumo emits or reflects signatures, don't see how this can apply. :-) Still would be cool.

1 · February 20

Micah Boswell

Ok now I'm more confused about which type of lasers you're talking about. I though you meant this: http://www.robotshop....

0 · February 20

Kevin Hines

Gary: I'm sorry but the statement "Kevin is wrong" does not compute!

Your laser-guidance work is bringing the Skynet singularity closer to fruition...

I, for one, welcome our new robot Overlords!

PS - I just spent 4 hours building an audio amp circuit with an LM386, on perf board, and while it does actually work, it would have taken a "real" robot about five seconds to build it ... now I'm tired and need to recharge my batteries.

:^D

0 · February 20

Gary Yohe

I was thinking to use a laser pointer to spot the opposing sumo, and have my sumobot charge for the spot. Thanks for the Robot link, my wife wants a robot that cleans toilets (alot of guys live in my house).

0 · February 21

Micah Boswell

If you want to go high end with a larger robot, one easy way to do it is with an old netbook. Most of them even have webcams built in.

0 · February 24

Micah Boswell

And you don't need a separate programmer...

0 · February 24