Hi,
I have been tinkering with electronics and robotics since high school, where I took every electronics and computer course that was offered. I actually knew I wanted to build robots when I was in seventh grade. I got more interested in DroneBot Workshop when I stumbled upon the Build a Real Robot staring DB1. Finally, I got great explanations of how to do stuff I have been wanting to do, like using I2C to make my own smart sensors. I got a few samples of the Atiny85 microcontroller, but have not made anything with them yet. I have made my own Arduino compatible on a breadboard and Linux is my main OS. In fact, I am using a Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspian Buster as my main computer now.
My first real robot was W.A.L.T.E.R., a two-wheeled octagonal-shaped robot. I saw a small robot kit with that basic shape, but I wanted something in true octagonal shape. I taught myself 3D CAD with Autodesk Fusion 360 and designed three custom decks for the real robot. I sent design files to a friend I met on another form and he made them on his large CNC machine. I did a test fit of some real Actobotics parts I would be using and everything fit perfectly! Of course, I found several places where I wanted to tweak the design or do things differently. Unfortunately, I never got to finish this third version of W.A.L.T.E.R.
Now, I am working on two smaller robots, but I have realized the chassis of one is just too small for all the stuff I want to put on it. It currently has an Adafruit Feather M4 Express as the main brain, an Adafruit Adalogger Featherwing, a DC Motor Controller Featherwing, and a four-character alphanumeric display in a stack. In addition, it has a 9DOF IMU, SHT31-D temperature and humidity sensor, a TSL2591 light sensor, and two VL53L0X TOF distance sensors. I have a #Circuitpython script that runs all the electronics and prints readings from everything. All of these parts are from Adafruit.
8-Dale
I can handle complexity. It is those simple things that confound me!
Welcome AdaDale !
Eric