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Introduce Yourself
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Topic starter
2023-02-04 12:52 pm
The Drone bot workshop has a valuable tool for several years. I am a retired Technology teacher and Robotics coach. Currently I'm coaching a middle school robotics team.
My beginning were the Basic Stamp and Microchip... Yes, I'm OLD
I'm introducing Arduino as the primary controller for all the Bots. Most of these students have been in robotics for a few years and have used the VEX IQ robotics system exclusively. We are using a simple plastic $20 robot chassis, mounted with an Arduino Mega, Adafruit I2C motor controller shield and a small circuit board I designed that allows for a bluetooth HC-05 and a small OLED screen to be plugged in.
Once they master this small robot (simple programming and control) they use hardware from VEX EDR systems to build a robot. Then they simply transfer their "brain" onto the bigger robot to do competition.
Since Covid we are working to resurrect a regional competition that will have line following, maze solving, mini Sumo and a Driver controlled Robot Hockey. These are roughly modeled after the NRC robotics competitions.
We used to do the sanctioned VEX competitions for several years, but the equipment and entry fees were just too much. I personally believe the open source concept offers much more for learning. However, when students (and many educators) get used to a canned system such as VEX, things become a little daunting. They have to Solder for example.🙄
For me personally, I've been using the ESP8266 and ESP32 to do some basic wifi control using Alexa. I did 1 project using Blynk IoT. It's really been fun.
I look forward to learning from this space.
Thanks
Bill Heacock
aka ChaosBuster
If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.” Guy Finley
2023-02-04 3:22 pm
Welcome to the forum Bill.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
My personal scorecard is now 1 PC hardware fix (circa 1982), 1 open source fix (at age 82), and 2 zero day bugs in a major OS.
2023-02-04 5:12 pm
My beginning were the Basic Stamp and Microchip... Yes, I'm OLD
That is not old. Old is beginning with relays or maybe discrete IC's 🙂
Welcome to the forum.
I look forward to learning from this space.
Seems you would be able to do more teaching than learning here?
2023-02-04 7:14 pm
The Drone bot workshop has a valuable tool for several years. I am a retired Technology teacher and Robotics coach. Currently I'm coaching a middle school robotics team.
My beginning were the Basic Stamp and Microchip... Yes, I'm OLD
I'm introducing Arduino as the primary controller for all the Bots. Most of these students have been in robotics for a few years and have used the VEX IQ robotics system exclusively. We are using a simple plastic $20 robot chassis, mounted with an Arduino Mega, Adafruit I2C motor controller shield and a small circuit board I designed that allows for a bluetooth HC-05 and a small OLED screen to be plugged in.
Once they master this small robot (simple programming and control) they use hardware from VEX EDR systems to build a robot. Then they simply transfer their "brain" onto the bigger robot to do competition.
Since Covid we are working to resurrect a regional competition that will have line following, maze solving, mini Sumo and a Driver controlled Robot Hockey. These are roughly modeled after the NRC robotics competitions.
We used to do the sanctioned VEX competitions for several years, but the equipment and entry fees were just too much. I personally believe the open source concept offers much more for learning. However, when students (and many educators) get used to a canned system such as VEX, things become a little daunting. They have to Solder for example.🙄
For me personally, I've been using the ESP8266 and ESP32 to do some basic wifi control using Alexa. I did 1 project using Blynk IoT. It's really been fun.
I look forward to learning from this space.
Thanks
Bill Heacock
aka ChaosBuster
Welcome to forum Bill (@chaosbuster)! Looking forward to seeing some of your projects, and learning more about iot..
Regards,
LouisR
LouisR
Topic starter
2023-02-04 8:30 pm
That is not old. Old is beginning with relays or maybe discrete IC's
Thanks for the welcome!
You're right! I was thinking in digital. My first electronics class used terms like grid, plate, heater and cathode...
My first transition was from voltage to current discrete devices, my second was analog to digital 😉
Seems you would be able to do more teaching than learning here?
I always try to be in the learning mode as a mindset. It never fails to deliver. I will certainly help where I can. I've read many posts in this forum, and there are a lot of very smart people.
If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.” Guy Finley
2023-02-04 11:57 pm
@chaosbuster Keep reading.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
My personal scorecard is now 1 PC hardware fix (circa 1982), 1 open source fix (at age 82), and 2 zero day bugs in a major OS.
Topic starter
2023-02-05 11:54 am
If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.” Guy Finley