Scott's Bots News

Robots - CRaB

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:21:11 -0500

This is a robot I created for the CRB (Columbus Ruby Brigade). It demonstraits some of the basic robotic principles: movement and visual recognition.

Guides - Ubuntu Text-To-Speech TTS

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:56:18 -0600

I was also able to install Text To Speech via Festival and Festvox (voices).

Guides - Finally an Ubuntu Webcam

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:17:33 -0600

It's taken me a few years, but I finally got a webcam working in Ubuntu. Click for the steps I took to get it working. Next, text-to-speech.

Bot Bits - Robot News

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:17:32 -0600

I am going to be retiring a robot and upgrading one. The software has stalled pending robot updates.

Bot Bits - Feynman Jr. and Carnot at CodeMash

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:31:18 -0600

I was able to take Feynman Jr. and Carnot to CodeMash 2.0.0.8. The conference was awesome and I learned a little about my robots during the event.

Robots - Feynman Jr

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:56:15 -0500

A smaller faster lighter version of Feynman6. Same great software, same cool functionality, just in a smaller package and much, much faster...

Bot Bits - Been working on new robot and API

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:32:46 -0500

I have been working on a smaller version of a robot than Feynman 6, called Feynman Jr. I have also begun to refactor my Java API so that it will work with my new robots.

Bot Bits - Added Blog

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:21:57 -0500

I have started a blog at ScottsBots.Com. Well, it use to be my "Bot Bits" column but since I rarely used that and wanted to start talking more about robots, I decided to shift that to a blog. Enjoy my robot rambles.

Bot Bits - Voltage Measurement for your Robot

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:07:46 -0500

For those Basic Stamp 2 users out there. Just use RCTIME with a simple circuit. Depending on the values of your capacitor and resistors you can equate your RCTIME value to your voltage.

Reviews - Intermediate Robot Building by David Cook

Tue, 08 May 2007 14:39:17 -0500

If you are looking for a good book that takes you beyond the basics, David Cooks's Intermediate takes you to the next level.

Guides - Installing UBUNTU on a Compact Flash

Tue, 08 May 2007 14:00:54 -0500

Instructions for installing UBUNTU 6.10 on a VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX. This is a simple 5 step process and you will need the alternate i386 ISO.

Guides - Serial Web Server

Tue, 08 May 2007 07:29:14 -0500

To work on Carnot, I decided to go into .Net and create a web server that responds to my serial commands. It's a simple .exe that takes a serial input on the command line and it works great for the SSC (Scott Edwards Servo Controller).

Robots - Feynman 6

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:28:43 -0500

I have decided to create Feynman6 and retire Feynman5. This robot will be taller, have more 80/20 and less wires via a new distribution board with onboard carrier for a BS2.

Robots - Carnot

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:01:08 -0500

This will a test platform for Feynman. The main reason for his creation is power supply issues and transportation issues with the current version of Feynman.

There are also several problems with the supported Java APIs, mainly sun has abandon them: Java Communications and Java Media Framework.

Bot Bits - Feynman6 at COJUG

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:55:09 -0500

I talked about my robot Feynman6 at the Central Ohio Java Users group on Tuesday March 13, 2007.

Guides - Latest Code in CVS

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:11:32 -0600

Hi all. I have uploaded the latest code to the sourceforge CVS repository. host: javarobots

Bot Bits - Added Store

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 17:14:09 -0600

Go to my new online store.

Bot Bits - Started New Club

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 10:23:28 -0600

I have started the Columbus Robotics Society. It's the first Robotics Club in Columbus, Ohio.

Bot Bits - JavaRobots Project

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 22:56:32 -0600

I have added the JavaRobots project at SourceForge.

Bot Bits - New Web Site

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 22:55:31 -0600

This is my new robot site, moved from www.scottpreston.com. I have not moved everything yet, but I will get there by this week-end.

Bot Bits - Reviews & Stuff

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 11:49:44 -0500

Now that the book is done I am finally going to start reviewing products and creating guides.

If you would like me to review your products or write about something contact me.

Reviews - Lynxmotion SSC-32 Servo Controller

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 11:31:31 -0500

This is a 32 channel serial servo controller with two modes of operation: Group Move & Mini-SSC II emulation.

Robots - Feynman 5

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 07:47:58 -0500

This is the robot I used for my book. It has pretty much the same components as Feynman3, but is smaller and is more stable.

Robots - FollowBot

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:08:24 -0500

This is my first robot. It cost less than $10 and took me a week-end to get it working.

Robots - Feynman 3

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 15:13:52 -0500

This is a real upgrade from Feynman 2. It's also my first robot written in Java.

Robots - Rovey

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 15:08:15 -0500

This is a robot that I did for a COSI training session. I had students login to my website and then control the robot from the internet. It consist of a pan & tilt camera, and an SSC Servo Controller tethered to a power supply and a serial port since it was on 24/7.

This robot is also featured at Robots.Net.

Robots - Baby Joe 1

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 15:07:20 -0500

For this robot I wanted it to be controlled via a MicroController. I choose the Parallax Basic Stamp 2. I used much of the same parts from the previous robot (TetherBot) but purchased some additional hardware for this chassis.

This robot is also featured at Robots.Net.

Robots - Feynman 1

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 15:02:38 -0500

This was my first PC Robot. Here I had real sonars, real motors, real processing power!

This robot is also featured at Robots.Net.

Robots - TetherBot

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 15:02:14 -0500

This robot was the begining of my love and facination with robotics. Here I learned the power of hacking a servo, building my own sensors, and programming and controlling it via PC.

This robot is also featured at Robots.Net.

Robots - Baby Joe 2

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:38:03 -0500

This robot is just a chassis upgrade of the previous robot (Baby Joe).

Robots - Fours

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 21:09:21 -0500

I built this with some extra parts from CubeBot. He is powered by 4 AA batteries and an 9V battery for the CubeBot controller board. I put an SRF-04 Sonar on him so he could avoid things as he moved around. But that's all he really did.

Robots - Stan

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:39:47 -0500

Some guys at work were running around the parking lot with these little plastic cars. So one week-end I decided to modify Feynman into and Battle Bot minus the weapon.

This bot actually moved about as fast in the short term as the cars. I did run over one but because of the STAR design of the robot I found it quite limited and poor to maneuver. Something I would correct in later robots.

Robots - Feynman 2

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:11:12 -0500

This is the same robot as Feynman 1, but I have modified the chassis. The chassis gave me a little more control over the sonar and provided better proximity detection with the bumpers and Sharp IR sensors.