News » {U}sable {D}evices

SwarmRobot Competition winning entries
The two winners of of the SwarmRobot competition group prizes are: DooMMasteR on behalf of stratum0 Jon on behalf of his group. Both entries scored well against most of the judging criteria and were evaluated as well deserved winners! Emails have been sent to the prize winners. There were no winners in the individual category. A big thanks to those who entered and also to all those who visited and especially the sites that provided links!
SwarmRobot competition closing soon!
Reminder: Only a few days until entries close November 30, 2012, 6AM GMT Your entry only has to be idea – you do not have to make anything to enter! Don’t be tricked by lack of visible updates about the competition, the web site traffic show that is is reasonable interest in the competition All you need to do is write a submission on what you would do with the SwarmRobot PCBs. The winners will be those displaying the best spirit of open sharing and learning in what they intend to do with the PCBs and how they intend to do this. Prizes 15 PCB [...]
SwarmRobot Competition details
Below are all the necessary details for the competition. Please discuss via this forum. Update: Please indicate which category you are entering in your submission – Individual or Group. One final hint in addition to all the criteria below and the hints in the original post: this competition is about ideas for what you hope to do with the SwarmRobot PCBs when you win! Judging criteria for entries: What you would do with the SwarmRobot PCBs. What you intend to do with the PCBs Swarm behaviour/capability of robots Swarm of people creating….. Swarm – of robots and people creating….. Individuals – can work with others [...]
SwarmRobot competition – free PCB prizes
Been thinking of running a competition to give away some free PCBs and now that I have your attention thanks to Slashdot, here goes: Prizes 15 PCB pairs (main controller and IR shield). Individuals – 5 prizes of 1 PCB pair Maker/Hacker spaces or other like minded groups – 2 prizes, each of 5 pairs of PCBs To enter: Write a submission on what you would do with the SwarmRobot PCBs. The winners will be those displaying the best spirit of open sharing and learning in what they intend to do with the PCBs and how they intend to do this. Hints: Look at this [...]
First Shanghai Maker Carnival – Day 2

A friend in XinCheJian hackerspace Shanghai asked me today what I have been up to. I was thinking not too much, as I have watched quite a few movies (Sleep Dealer is pretty good, Avatar was way better than I expected) and re/read several books & magazines, but then I started to list some of the things I have been doing…….

PartTester – built 2nd board with 1% R – did not work, and now 1st one not working – same issue, eventually worked out LCD had partially died on trip home from China.
- Looking into ways to do improved or auto-calibration
- As part of above, part of X-bot work discovered that Gerbers used for PCB production have an electrical issue where 328 processor digital ground is not connected. This is only in the Gerbers – the schematic is correct!
- Red circle in photo highlights difference between “good” gerber (blue) and my gerber with missing ground connection.
Gerber issue ground not connected to Atmega328 ground!
- X-Bot – learning SMD soldering (old, unrefrigerated solder paste = , new = )
  - Made a pogo pin ISP connector to easily test if processor was working
- Playing with el-cheapo Taobao STK500 programmer (good in HV mode, but can’t get it working in ISP mode)
- Fighting several nasty computer issues
  - XP system freezes for 1/2 to 3-5 minutes yet CPU is at 1% and no other symptoms or errors!
  - XP ongoing anti-virus software instability issues
  - battling security update issues on XP and Lububtu
  - Lubuntu intermittent keyboard & mouse issues – only some keys/buttons work!
  - Lubuntu SMB file copy issues
  - Lubuntu “system problems”
  - Lubuntu restoring backups – path too long
  - Unsuccessfully trying to install Windows 7 to SSD and user directories to different disk
  - Unsuccessfully trying fix injet printer ($$ cartridges, cleaned, factory resets, extra cleaning…..)
  - …..
- Replacing swimming pool pump (now pool is leaking – think it is drain system)
- Car window electric winder replacement
- Fixed front door lock
- Home Theatre – fixed bad solder joint that stopped right channel working
- Toshiba SD-K310P DVD player won’t play disks – seems like region free hack has stopped working
- Dish washer – bottom arm won’t spin .. ongoing effort to fix
- Backyard jungle:-
  - Getting rid of dangerous European wasp nest
  - Digging ditch for irrigation system repair
  - Hacking away at six months growth (two trailer loads so far), have not even started on the 80+ meters of hedges yet!
  - Watching Cockatoos, King Parrots and Roselas
  - Saw a falling star
  - Cleaning up flood in garage last night due to major storm – we were lucky – could hear clean up with chainsaws nearby.
  Backyard Cockatoos
  
  Backyard King Parrot

: ALF simple Analog Line Follower

: Defuse the bomb

: First Shanghai Maker Carnival

: Interactive Light show

: Is she real – moving

: Is she real?

: Kangaroo leg extensions

: Litar

: MaKeyMaKey components

: MaKeyMaKey in action

: MaKeyMaKey PCBs

: mbot 3D printer

: More hardware

: Paper circuit – Chebaca the kitten

: Pretty lights

: Spider robot reaction!

: Useless machine reaction

2012-11-02 SwarmRobots at Shanghai maker Carnival

First day of the Shanghai Maker Carnival was today with exhibitors also attending from Beijing and Shenzhen.

It is part of the very large Creation Exhibition, an arts and crafts expo with about 200 exhibitors – #12, in Century Park Shanghai and runs from today Friday to Sunday 4 November 2012.

Today was a slow start as it was a work day and the weather windy and cool, especially by the lake, but I am sure tomorrow will bring lots more interesting items!

I prepared a small swarm of SwarmRobots running the new remote control code I just released. Some people surprised to see the SwarmRobots move, most were surprised to see group movement where each group does the same movements. A few people really “got” the demo mode.

Nearly everyone wanted to know why the remotes did not control just ONE SwarmRobot, or did not control ALL, but most struggled with the explanation of deliberate separation into different groups – until this was explained in Chinese! Maybe I should have stuck with my idea to use coloured flags and letters/numbers to indicate the groups, rather than just use the wheel colour! Main reasons I did not was it would transport harder and more effort to set up the flags at events.

Using standard TV/DVD remote to control robots – I thought people would instantly understand how to control the robots! Well as usual I was wrong, at least until you get people to think like controlling your DVD, then some get it, others takes some demonstration first!

The one lone SwarmRobot that was configured as an object follow SwarmRobot also raised questions – why not the same! It is good everyone understands that these are the same, but the idea that some behaved differently really raised some questions.

Several XinChejian members helped repairing battery connector wires and making more SwarmRobots. Some non-members also had fun finishing and making SwarmRobots – thanks guys!

This gallery contains 7 photos

The fantastic capability of the XinCheJian SwarmRobots has been recognised with 2nd placing in the AFRON $10 robot competition Traditional (Roaming) category. The announcement made at World Maker Faire today (via Wired) awarded first place to Harvard’s research group and third place by to MIT University. XinCheJian’s high placing against such prestigious competition highlights just how good XinCheJian’s SwarmRobots are!

The SwarmRobots are still under rapid development with work progressing on coding object detection and inter-robot communications using the already developed InfraRed shield. Work is also underway on wireless charging and a Atmel 32u4 version. It has been a lot of fun to be part of this team as can be seen in these videos!

Three Xinchejian SwarmRobots

Had fun at Shanghai Barcamp Fall helping to show off Xinchejian’s SwarmRobots. It was great seeing how all the children (young and old) explored the robots ability and asked heaps of questions!

Also helped with a presentation about Xinchejian’s SwarmRobots and the AFRON $10 robot competition and I gave one presentation on one of my favourite topics “Instantly turn your project into a kit” available in Libre Office odt and as a power point. It has a LOT of pictures and includes three video picture shows, so it is around 10MB!

Xinchejian Swarm Robots and the new motor driver PCB, IR shield and the Afron competition entry.

Helped run the Xinchejian Advanced Arduino course and getting PartKeepr setup for Xinchejian.

Plus of course Lophilo- see post before this one!

Enjoying lots of extremely good presentations at Xinchejian – here is a link to this weeks sound and video processing, Nixies and LED cube and Haxl8r!

Nixies on display at Xinchejian

And there are several other major projects actively being worked on, but none are yet into any state to talk about!

{U}sable {D}evices

First Shanghai Maker Carnival – Day 2

First Shanghai Maker Carnival

Swarm Robot competition winners announced at World Maker Faire

Barcamp Shangahi Fall 2012

Been busy @Xinchejian!