From: scorpion@cnwl.igs.net SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Mark Tilden's VBUG 1.5 "Walkman" ComposedDate: 01/01/97 04:13:40 PM PostedDate: 01/01/97 04:13:40 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Does anybody know where to get the design for Mark Tilden's VBUG 1.5 "Walkman"? Thanks in advance. Ewen From: Andrew Miller SendTo: scorpion@cnwl.igs.net,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Mark Tilden's VBUG 1.5 "Walkman" ComposedDate: 01/02/97 06:43:42 AM PostedDate: 01/02/97 06:43:42 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US woops make that.... http://www.golden.net/~amiller/beam.htm all4nw From: Andrew Miller SendTo: scorpion@cnwl.igs.net CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Mark Tilden's VBUG 1.5 "Walkman" ComposedDate: 01/02/97 06:51:43 AM PostedDate: 01/02/97 06:51:43 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Ewen MacKinnon wrote: > > Does anybody know where to get the design for Mark Tilden's VBUG 1.5 > "Walkman"? > The only real place to get them is outta Mark's head.... Wich could be messy even if you could hold him down long enough.... Walkman relies on some pretty specialized parts (out of date really expensive RARE walkmans)so you'd have a hard time replicating it anyway.... You can however get started with my MicroCore Site (wich I promiss I will Finish within the next week)..... Basic instructions on how to get your Nv Net walker walkin...... http://www.golden/net/~amiller You might also wanna read Marks Paper "Living Machines" available http://www.webconn.com/~mwd/beam/beam_bib.html Explains the wheres and whys of the Nv Net and walkman..... all4nw From: Bob@whitestn.demon.co.uk SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAM Arena ComposedDate: 01/05/97 07:35:47 AM PostedDate: 01/05/97 07:35:47 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US While dawdling aimlessly with my QuickCam, I thought of another good use for it. I'd like to set up an "arena" in which my solar-powered BEAM robots can fight for light. The trouble is, without spending hours observing the little fellas myself, it is difficult to tell what kinds of collective behavior are emerging. The solution is simple. Mount the QuickCam above the arena and monitor any movement that takes place. The movements can then be stored and plotted at a later date. Conceivably, the computer could be allowed to influence the proceedings. If it spotted certain types of movement taking place, then it could switch on or off addtional lights around the arena, causing the robots behavior to change. Both observer and observed then become coupled into one big system. I'm planning to get a new computer, probably in a few months time, so I will be able to dedicate my old computer entirely to monitoring and analysis functions such as this one. Unfortunately, my large "R2D2" robot needs all the floor space it can get, so this project might have to take place either in the spare room, or in our caravan! -- Bob Mottram "Time and accident cannot replace Bob@whitestn.demon.co.uk intelligence and purpose" http://www.whitestn.demon.co.uk From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: Bob@whitestn.demon.co.uk,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAM Arena ComposedDate: 01/05/97 11:59:47 AM PostedDate: 01/05/97 11:59:47 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 01:07 PM 1/5/97 GMT, Bob Mottram wrote: >The solution is simple. Mount the QuickCam above the arena >and monitor any movement that takes place. The movements >can then be stored and plotted at a later date. I discussed a similar idea with some of my cohorts, but it involved simply hooking 2/4 halogens to a timer that cycled every N hours (N set after observation) and having the RJP (robot jurassic park) monitored by a camcorder connected to a Snappy (quite similar to the Quickcam, but higher rez & longer "snap" time) connected to my computer. I'm not that familiar with PC programming, but I'd assume it would take quite a bit of software to monitor a RJP for behaviour, wouldn't it? (that's a question, not a statement). Hope to implement this in 6/12 months after we get the office redecorated (ie: new furniture, desks & benches). Later, Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: "Padraig M O'Cleirigh" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAM Arena/RJP ComposedDate: 01/05/97 03:57:03 PM PostedDate: 01/05/97 03:57:03 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hi, I think Dave (I won't even try the last name) might have hinted about the same thing when he was talking about "cycling" the lights, but this is an idea I got when I first heard about the RJP. If you set up the lights above the arena and mimicked the the path of the sun with them, you would get much different behavior than if the robots were fighting at a "light pool". Mabey you already thought of this, but if not I think it would be very interesting. At alight pool no doubt the robots would develope stratagies, collectives, orother ways to dominat the light source, but it would not be the same as in nature. The BEAM philosophy tells us to model after nature, and if the robots are built to function like nature, they should have a "natural" environment. Soooo, just as an example, think of what a BEAM robot would do in an average day. At dawn it would move towards the east, and continue east until noon, then as the sun moves to the west, the robot will follow until dark. It will end up _exactly_ where it started. So place all the robots in your arena's equivilent to west, and watch them migrate east, then back again. I have no idea what behavior could come out of this, but whatever it is will be very interesting. Also this means that a BEAM robot would not have to be caged in, because its motion will be restriced by the sun/light source. It will have a designated area that it can not leave, the size of that area is dependant upon how far it can travel before noon. Later, - Ciaran From: Richard Weait SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAM Arena / RJP ComposedDate: 01/05/97 09:30:46 PM PostedDate: 01/05/97 09:30:46 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hi gang; Depending on how you simulate your sun, tracking along the sky, and what latitude you set up, you may end up with a net motion towards the 'equator' and not just east/west/east/west. It won't be boring, in either case, you will still see the faster robots tripping over the slower ones every time the robots change direction to follow the 'sun'. Cheers, Richard. P.S. I visited Solarbotics recently, so I'm all inspired to build cool stuff. From: IVAN SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: micro Airbots ComposedDate: 01/06/97 04:37:37 AM PostedDate: 01/06/97 04:37:37 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Its 4am and my Airbot has left my desk for the first time. No brains or sensor's yet But it hit my 8ft ceilings Its not a ornithopter the thurst to weight ratio for micro Airbot's just isn't there. I design around the Bell Osprey The engines are fixed for now but this will change Im wating on some micro servo's from germany 2 grams the smallest I could find. This will make it VSTOL and the engines will pivot from lift to foward flight. Things Im having big problems with is the brain what to use? a stamp? The solar engine and sensors and the micro motors. I found the motors I was looking for but for a 100$ each WOW Any one have any ideas? Things buzzing in my head says make it walk there so much info on that but weight is the killer! any way this is just a X version until I get the new motors and design the rotors 99% carbon and kevlar composites fer sure like the air frame Any way I got the bug from all you guys and info on the beam pages As for where im coming from is from the r/c side I have built electric planes/heli's for years and never owned a gas one! If any thing fer sure my cats have a new toy : ) sorry for the spelling/english not one of my strong points IVAN From: s-burns@uiuc.edu (Scott Burns) SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAM at the Univ. of Illinois ComposedDate: 01/06/97 07:51:42 AM PostedDate: 01/06/97 07:51:42 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Greetings all-- I've been listening in for some time now and thought I'd make an introduction. I teach an introduction to engineering course for freshmen at the Univ of Illinois. I read about the BEAM ideas in the Wall St. J. article last year and convinced my department head to support a project of this type. Armed with 50 solaroller kits from Dave H. Solarbotics, I had about 150 students build them in groups of three. Most of the kids had never touched a soldering iron, yet most of them were able to fabricate something that at least _moved_ on the race track. Our best time was about 1.5 minutes over the 1 meter track, but I'm sure we can do much better since we had 2000W of halogen blazing down. Halfway through, we had a small intermission during a circuit breaker failure! Lego parts were popular in construction, but generally did not make for the faster vehicles. One clever team placed bits of dry ice under their vehicle so it floated on the mirror surface. The judges decided to allow this form of stored energy since it didn't produce a forward thrust. Unfortunately, the team didn't quite figure out how to make it move forward effectively, and it just hovered around the starting line. I hope to repeat the project with next year's batch of 150 freshmen and recruit the previous year's students as mentors. We will also be running another Class A Solaroller competition at our Engineering Open House (March 14-15, 1997). If you're in the neighborhood, drop by for the festivities. Bring your own vehicle if you'd like to participate. Happy new year! Scott A. Burns, Associate Professor Department of General Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 104 S. Mathews #117, Urbana, IL 61801 (217) 333-1618, s-burns@uiuc.edu From: ED Spike SendTo: Bob@whitestn.demon.co.uk CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAM Arena ComposedDate: 01/06/97 08:50:42 AM PostedDate: 01/06/97 08:50:42 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US On Sun, 5 Jan 1997, Bob Mottram wrote: This is how the BEAM Robot Olympics and MicroMouse Competitions observe the long term behaviour for judging. > While dawdling aimlessly with my QuickCam, I thought of > another good use for it. > > I'd like to set up an "arena" in which my solar-powered > BEAM robots can fight for light. The trouble is, without > spending hours observing the little fellas myself, it is > difficult to tell what kinds of collective behavior are > emerging. > > The solution is simple. Mount the QuickCam above the arena > and monitor any movement that takes place. The movements > can then be stored and plotted at a later date. > > Conceivably, the computer could be allowed to influence > the proceedings. If it spotted certain types of movement > taking place, then it could switch on or off addtional > lights around the arena, causing the robots behavior > to change. Both observer and observed then become coupled > into one big system. > > I'm planning to get a new computer, probably in a few > months time, so I will be able to dedicate my old > computer entirely to monitoring and analysis functions > such as this one. > > Unfortunately, my large "R2D2" robot needs all the floor > space it can get, so this project might have to take place > either in the spare room, or in our caravan! > > -- > Bob Mottram "Time and accident cannot replace > Bob@whitestn.demon.co.uk intelligence and purpose" > http://www.whitestn.demon.co.uk > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Spike, E&CE Department, University of Waterloo. E2-3357 * Communication and Microwave Area Laboratory Instructor. * (519)888-4567, x3716, FAX: (519)746-3077 *____/ URL: http://www.ece.uwaterloo.ca/~spike * / CQ * IEEE Student Branch Computer Chapter Advisor, * Robot and MicroMouse Competition Co-ordinator, --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul Argo SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Los Alamos BEAM Workshop (/competition?) ComposedDate: 01/06/97 01:12:41 PM PostedDate: 01/06/97 01:12:41 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US I am happy to announce that the DOE Educational Fund has again provided $35K for a Los Alamos BEAM Workshop. I hope to have parts of it similar to last year, like using the Pueblo Complex Gymn, and supporting a two+ day format for building things. I would like to consider expanding out and trying to get some of you advanced guys to come and have a competition. Since I am hearing about Airbots and all these would be fantastic. Also any interaction with other places (read Illinois) that are doing similar. I am thinking about sometime in middle April to have the workshop, but will entertain other thoughts to avoid conflicts. Please address me directly, or perhaps we could start a dialogue in this medium? thanks paul ******************************************************************************** Paul E. Argo pargo@lanl.gov e-mail NIS 1 (505)667-8355 phone MS D466 (505)665-7395 FAX Los Alamos National Lab Los Alamos, NM 87545 *********** ********************************************************************* From: "Padraig M O'Cleirigh" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAMers near southern Ontario ComposedDate: 01/06/97 02:37:57 PM PostedDate: 01/06/97 02:37:57 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hearing about all these BEAM workshops and competitions in Los Alamos, Illinois, Scotland, Calgary, and a variety of other places is very interesting. BEAM seems to be fanning out around the world. But there seems to be nothing happening around the southern Ontario area. Are there any BEAMers around here?? Talk to me!! From: scorpion@cnwl.igs.net SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAMers in Eastern Ontario & Western Quebec ComposedDate: 01/06/97 05:24:41 PM PostedDate: 01/06/97 05:24:41 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US I would just like to know if there are any BEAMers in Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec and Northern New York that are willing to help organize a games in Ottawa or some other large city. -- Sincerely, Ewen MacKinnon a.k.a. Scorpion Webmaster Glengarry Highland Games' Homepage http://www.glengarry-games.on.ca Scorpion's Homepage http://www.cnwl.igs.net/~scorpion E-Mail Addresses scorpion@cnwl.igs.net admin@glengarry-games.on.ca From: Richard Weait SendTo: pocleiri@uoguelph.ca CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAMers near southern Ontario ComposedDate: 01/06/97 07:15:42 PM PostedDate: 01/06/97 07:15:42 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 04:54 PM 1/6/97 -0500, you wrote: > >Hearing about all these BEAM workshops and competitions in Los Alamos, >Illinois, Scotland, Calgary, and a variety of other places is very >interesting. BEAM seems to be fanning out around the world. But there >seems to be nothing happening around the southern Ontario area. Are there >any BEAMers around here?? Talk to me!! > Well . . . yup. There are a few of us. After all, the BEAM Olympics did originate here. Hopefully the games will make a return to this neighbourhood, in the near future. Speaking out can only encourage the games to return. Cheers, Richard. From: Richard Weait SendTo: s-burns@uiuc.edu CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAM at the Univ. of Illinois ComposedDate: 01/06/97 07:15:48 PM PostedDate: 01/06/97 07:15:48 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 09:59 AM 1/6/97 -0500, you wrote: >Greetings all-- [Fun sounding description of event deleted] > > We will also be running >another Class A Solaroller competition at our Engineering Open House (March >14-15, 1997). If you're in the neighborhood, drop by for the festivities. >Bring your own vehicle if you'd like to participate. > >Happy new year! > > >Scott A. Burns, Associate Professor >Department of General Engineering >University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign >104 S. Mathews #117, Urbana, IL 61801 >(217) 333-1618, s-burns@uiuc.edu > "Well, that sounds great!", he said as he looked up from his soldering iron, "Will there be prizes?" Cheers, Richard. From: "David Warner" SendTo: pocleiri@uoguelph.ca,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAMers near southern Ontario ComposedDate: 01/07/97 03:58:43 AM PostedDate: 01/07/97 03:58:43 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US ---------- Padraig M O'Cleirigh writes > > Hearing about all these BEAM workshops and competitions in Los Alamos, > Illinois, Scotland, Calgary, and a variety of other places is very > interesting. BEAM seems to be fanning out around the world. But there > seems to be nothing happening around the southern Ontario area. Are there > any BEAMers around here?? Talk to me!! > I'm a beginning BEAMer in the northwest Detroit metro area. Ontario is a rather large place, so I am not sure if I'm close or not. I too wish to see some groups, robots, or competitions closer to home! David Warner From: ED Spike SendTo: crs0274@inforamp.net CopyTo: pocleiri@uoguelph.ca,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAMers near southern Ontario ComposedDate: 01/07/97 08:40:07 AM PostedDate: 01/07/97 08:40:07 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, Richard Weait wrote: snip > >seems to be nothing happening around the southern Ontario area. Are there > >any BEAMers around here?? Talk to me!! > > > Well . . . yup. There are a few of us. > After all, the BEAM Olympics did originate here. > Hopefully the games will make a return to this > neighbourhood, in the near future. Speaking > out can only encourage the games to return. > Cheers, > Richard. > > > In storage at the University of Waterloo we have the platforms and the MicroMouse Maze ($3500. Cdn). Personal commitments with family and the staff changes at work have delayed my action to encourage a competition committee to life. We should start now for a Fall 1997 competition. I would prefer to give presentation during 1997 and the first part of 1998 in preparation for a Fall 1998 competition. I started the fire safety and security requirements to hold the competition at the University of Waterloo. The Dean of Engineering, the Dean of Mathematics, and IEEE (Canada) Region 7, have been supportive of the initial BEAM Robot Olympics and MicroMouse competition. (1990 Ontario Science Centre -- MicroMouse competition and BEAM demos in 1990, 1991 Humber College in Toronto, 1993 CNE Hobby Show in Tornoto, 1994 Ontario Science Centre.) The U. of Waterloo news bureau has helped with news releases. Previous judges have indicated that they could help judge. A registrar is available. But he is on line in London, Ontario. The facililties have to be booked and organized. An agenda for the competition will be needed. Transportation and accomodation have to be checked out. People of Ontario (Canada that is) --- speak and volunteer. Let the games begin! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Spike, E&CE Department, University of Waterloo. E2-3357 * Communication and Microwave Area Laboratory Instructor. * (519)888-4567, x3716, FAX: (519)746-3077 *____/ URL: http://www.ece.uwaterloo.ca/~spike * / CQ * IEEE Student Branch Computer Chapter Advisor, * Robot and MicroMouse Competition Co-ordinator, --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Neil_Browne@qm.kayenta.k12.az.us (Neil Browne) SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: new photopopper? ComposedDate: 01/07/97 09:21:25 AM PostedDate: 01/07/97 09:21:25 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Subject: Time: 8:57AM OFFICE MEMO new photopopper? Date: 1/7/97 Hey Dave! The new photopopper kit looks good, good job. I don't see any info on Tilden's new SYMET with legs; I'd like to try one of these next. Can you give me a few hints - like: What size/kind of wire for legs? Which type of engine pager or walkman? FLED solar engine? (I know, I know, I'm s'posed to experiment!) And a question regarding a walker w/microcore: what kind of caps are best choice for each Nv timing cycle?(A.Miller has an outstanding webpage on this but I didn't see any specific type of caps listed.) Thanks, Neil. P.S. Glad to see Paul's note about funding for this years Los Alamos workshop! From: IVAN SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: micro Airbots ComposedDate: 01/07/97 01:50:07 PM PostedDate: 01/07/97 01:50:07 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hey all One of the reason I wanted to build a air bot Is to have lots of flying things like a swarm doing there own thing. The bot im working on Is a one of a kind thing cost to much and to dam hard to build. so building alot of them is out of the question. Some one wrote BEAM philosophy is to keep it simple. (PING) So I was thinking a low cost platform simply brain sensors everyone one can build and ya can find it at walmart/kmart - Helium and mylar Given that helium lifts around 1 ounce per one cubic feet "Don't quote me on this but a 6 inch cube lifts 1/2 ounce? 14 grams? The trick is can ya get A solar engine,motors,net-brain,sensors and the envelope around 14 grams? Any way if ya want to build a envelope the Robot Group has a page on how to. Or ya can go to Walmart and by one of them small 2$ I love you mylar ballons Like I did and a tank of helium. Hey And the micro copter on AM's Page is form Institut fur Mikrotechnik in Mainz, Germany Ya think if we bug them enough they will sell some of them motor's : ) From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: Neil_Browne@qm.kayenta.k12.az.us,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: new photopopper? ComposedDate: 01/07/97 03:43:23 PM PostedDate: 01/07/97 03:43:23 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 09:21 AM 1/7/97 MST, Neil Browne wrote: >I don't see any info on Tilden's new SYMET with legs; I'd like to try one of >these next. That'll be soon enough. I've just had a few more BEAM-related projects heaped on my "inbox" (notice I didn't say _in_ my inbox?), but I promise to have a construction page on our website shorly on how to construct your own Solarollerbug Symet ala Mark Tilden. >What size/kind of wire for legs? Mark used some verrry nice nickel wire ($$$), but I've seen some very nice variations using those chrome-looking fat paperclips. They solder quite nicely, and are cheap and available. >Which type of engine pager or walkman? FLED solar engine? The ones I've seen were built from our Type-1 Solarengine Kits, using the larger walkman-style motors. > And a question regarding a walker w/microcore: what kind of caps are best >choice for each Nv timing cycle?(A.Miller has an outstanding webpage on this but I didn't see any specific type of caps listed.) 0.22uF - no larger! You'll cause damage to the chips over that I'm told... -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: IVAN SendTo: Beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: micro Airbots ComposedDate: 01/07/97 06:41:07 PM PostedDate: 01/07/97 06:41:07 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US >Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 20:52:03 -0800 >To: Padraig M O'Cleirigh >From: IVAN >Subject: Re: micro Airbots > >At 07:26 PM 1/7/97 -0500, you wrote: >>Hey, >> >> Are you talking about the foil-type ballons that you can buy? They >>usually have a happy birthday on them or something like that, and usually >>have a plastic stick attached to the bottom. I always thought of these as >>"heavyer than air" balloons? Or do you just mean the regular rubber >>balloons, but filled with helium? >> >>al4nw >> >> - Ciaran >> >> > Hey I tried the one's on the stick and the maylar=foil is to Thick and adds to much weight > Its 4 inches by 3 I got it to lift but it would't even take 4 transistor up! > So I tried a rubber one its 8 inches by 11 inches and its carrying a solar engine > with a beeper motor and a fan I made of plastic and a rudder > Its flying around my room bumping into every thing. > > I think Mylar is far lighter then latex/rubber so im going to look for the > lightest mylar I can find Im still shoting for a 6/7 square inches > 2 motors and sensors/net and each mini blimp for under 20.00$ > > The easy thing is just have to think of blimp as a sub in the air ya just > have to vector the thrust for Direction > > > Hmm any one have a good design of a light weight solar engine doing > very short time burst? > > Ivan > > > > > > > > From: IVAN SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: micro Airbots ComposedDate: 01/07/97 09:15:07 PM PostedDate: 01/07/97 09:15:07 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US >Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 23:32:54 -0800 >To: Padraig M O'Cleirigh >From: IVAN >Subject: Re: micro Airbots > >At 10:37 PM 1/7/97 -0500, you wrote: >>Hi, >> >> Thanks for the info, just a few more question....how heavy our >>motors? What type are they? What kind of props do you have? Did you >>consider other locomotion options ( I heard someething about wings?) >>I checked out the Robot page, pretty interesting. >>Thanx again, >> >> happy build >> - Ciaran >> >> > Ya can find the 2 gram motors at www.Micromo.com > Just take the weight thingy off. The props I build my self there ducted fan's there not that hard to build. If I ever get my page up I will post how to do it > > > Hey and if ya want to hack a cheap rc thing or just fly a blimp around your house Cheap > ya can go to http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~ipiri/sgcorp.html > there lots of fun and ya can really freak some people out at night with > a couple of leds added Just ask my neighbor : ) hehe > But its not my fault if ya end up on the six oclock news ; ) > > (grin) just to think about It hmm I could really freak them out with 10 or 15 > mirco ballons swarming around the neighborhood I live in louisiana they all > think im a alein any way. > > From: Gadagada@aol.com SendTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: Stiquito ComposedDate: 01/08/97 05:41:35 PM PostedDate: 01/08/97 05:41:35 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US does ANYONE know where i can get my hands on a stiquito, stiquito II or tensipede kit or assembly instructions for these? I am desperate, now that Indiana university or Robotic systems Inc. doesn't carry it. Also, does anyone no of anyway of using solar power to power nitinol wires?? Thanks a TON!!! Gary From: Randy Sargent SendTo: gadagada@aol.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: nitinol wires ComposedDate: 01/08/97 07:17:36 PM PostedDate: 01/08/97 07:17:36 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > does ANYONE know where i can get my hands on a stiquito, stiquito II or > tensipede kit or assembly instructions for these? I am desperate, now that > Indiana university or Robotic systems Inc. doesn't carry it. Also, does > anyone no of anyway of using solar power to power nitinol wires?? > Thanks a TON!!! > > Gary Check out Mondo-tronics (http://www.robotstore.com/) for information on Nitinol wires. I don't know if they carry the Stiquito though. I think that Nitinol wires are difficult to run with electric solar power, because they have to heat up to "do their thing" (and heat takes lots of energy, compared to things like electric motors). Now converting sunlight to heat directly is much more efficient than to electricity first and then to heat. Hmm, I think I have an idea... -- Randy ---------------------------------------------------------------- Randy Sargent Newton Research Labs Senior Design Engineer Robotic Systems and Software rsargent@newtonlabs.com http://www.newtonlabs.com/ From: "Padraig M O'Cleirigh" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Electro-magnets ComposedDate: 01/08/97 07:41:53 PM PostedDate: 01/08/97 07:41:53 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hi, Can anyone tell me about their experiances with electro magnets? What kind of power do they need? Will water damage the magnet? Thanx alot, -Ciaran From: Richard Weait SendTo: pocleiri@uoguelph.ca CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Electro-magnets ComposedDate: 01/08/97 08:19:36 PM PostedDate: 01/08/97 08:19:36 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 10:16 PM 1/8/97 -0500, you wrote: >Hi, > > Can anyone tell me about their experiances with electro magnets? >What kind of power do they need? Will water damage the magnet? > Thanx alot, > > -Ciaran > Electro-magnets are usually an iron core wrapped with a coil of insulated wire. The water shouldn't be a problem for the wire; it's already insulated. The core should be coated with something, perhaps a silicone sealant? It might be easiest to build it, then dip the whole thing in something water proof. You are, of course, taking all of the precautions necessary when combining electronics with water?!?!?! Cheers, Richard. From: Richard Weait SendTo: Gadagada@aol.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Stiquito ComposedDate: 01/08/97 08:32:36 PM PostedDate: 01/08/97 08:32:36 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 08:01 PM 1/8/97 -0500, you wrote: [snip] >Also, does >anyone no of anyway of using solar power to power nitinol wires?? >Thanks a TON!!! > >Gary > Well, you could use solar power for a nitinol project, but it will be at a very low duty-cycle. Solar cells collect energy at a milli-watt rate and nitinol uses energy at a watt rate. So, you could end up waiting 1000 seconds, for one second of motion. Also, nitinol is fairly slow; about 5 cycles per minute, as I recall. So, waiting one thousand minutes for a charge that gives you one minute of motion is not out of the question. On the positive side (and every circuit should have a positive side (: ) the combination of nitinol actuators and a solar power- supply would make for a very light robot. This might be a good application for the new GREAT BIG CAPACITOR that we've been hearing about. (But can't get.) Cheers, Richard. From: Mark Lerman SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Great Big Capacitor ComposedDate: 01/09/97 04:28:03 AM PostedDate: 01/09/97 04:28:03 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Re the 50F caps: I checked into them. Unless you want 1000 pieces at $13 per, you can (in theory) get them from a distributor. The distributor hadn't heard of them, but checked for me. A 4 week wait, about $56 per cap, minimum 3 pieces. I decided to pass. :-) Mark From: Steven Bolt SendTo: Gadagada@aol.com CopyTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: Re: Stiquito ComposedDate: 01/09/97 04:53:46 AM PostedDate: 01/09/97 04:53:46 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > does ANYONE know where i can get my hands on a stiquito, stiquito II or > tensipede kit or assembly instructions for these? I have a file "191870 Jun 1 1996 stiquito.ps.gz" which is a guide in postscript written by Jonathan Mills, Indiana University. 48 pages cover in great detail how to build the original Stiquito, with lots of clear illustrations. If you wish, I can make it available in a temporary directory on the Web. Best, Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------ # sbolt@xs4all.nl # Steven Bolt # popular science monthly KIJK # ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: "Paul'SHADOW'Clarke" SendTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: Stiquito ComposedDate: 01/09/97 05:54:45 AM PostedDate: 01/09/97 05:54:45 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Can someone tell me what a Stiquito is, how much they cost and where they can be obtained? Thanks Paul From: "Ingo Hohmann" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Stiquito ComposedDate: 01/09/97 08:16:45 AM PostedDate: 01/09/97 08:16:45 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hi, IEEE Computer Society has got two books about Stiquito (at least they _will_ have, shall be out this spring, I guess). There's a Stiquito-Kit included in them. Check it out at: http://www.computer.org/cstext.htm (goto catalog, search for Stiquito) regards, Ingo --------------------------------------------------------- Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com --------------------------------------------------------- From: IVAN SendTo: Beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: small r/c blimp address ComposedDate: 01/09/97 09:26:52 AM PostedDate: 01/09/97 09:26:52 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US >I've flown one of these........ >Mett a guy a a trade show that had one with his copany logo on it and >was lettin potential customers fly it around.... > >Kinda fun.... >If I remenber corectly they have some pretty decent little motors on >em... >Might be worth the bucks just to fool around with em.... > >all4nw Yea I have been doing some test On them They are L15mm,W11mm,H10mm Using the same props from the mini fan at 1.5 volts Its lighter and puts out more thurst then my namiki beeper motor. At 3 volts they scream I dont have the specs on them but the motor has N20bj on the side of it Figureing that the r/c turbo fan and radio is 15.95 for one and 29.95 for two Seems like we could find the motors for a buck some Where. Any way about lift and helium some one emailed me and said they could not get there blimp up. Like in nature its your habitat since im working on suck small amounts of helium. Im a little above sea level and We have jungle like humidity and the air seem's heavy. A 6 inch ballon loaded with stuff might drop like a rock were ya live. On the other hand ya build one up there and bring it down here SAY BYE BYE TO YOUR STUFF. Ivan From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: pargo@hptrack.lanl.gov,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Los Alamos BEAM Workshop (/competition?) ComposedDate: 01/09/97 09:36:52 AM PostedDate: 01/09/97 09:36:52 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 08:30 AM 1/6/97 -0700, Paul Argo wrote: >I am thinking about >sometime in middle April to have the workshop, but will entertain other thoughts to avoid conflicts. DEFINITELY like middle April. Sounds like this spring will be busy for us, including the Western Canadian Robot Games (May 18), and numerous smaller engagements. Let us know when you've got the date hammered down. Later, Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: Richard Weait SendTo: ivandahack@linknet.net CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: coils,solenoid,ele magnets ComposedDate: 01/09/97 10:40:46 PM PostedDate: 01/09/97 10:40:46 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 08:45 PM 1/9/97 -0800, you wrote: > > Has any one had any experience building there own coils,solenoids,ele magnets > Im trying to figure out how to do it with very little progress and >looking > for somthing really light. > > Ivan > What type of problems are you having? Try this as a starting point: Get a 6-inch nail, or something similar, to use as the core. You should use something "ferrous", that is, containing iron. If a magnet sticks to it, it's "ferrous". In fact, get two nails. Wrap the nail with, oh, two hundred turns of single strand insulated hook-up wire. Use 22 ga. or so. Leave some wire free when you start wrapping. You'll connect to it later. Start at one end and wrap each turn neatly beside the other. When you get near the other end put one turn on top of the two turns before it. Keep wrapping in the same rotation (clockwise or counter-clockwise) but with the turns going back toward the start. Repeat as needed. Leave a little bit free at this end too. Take two fresh flashlight cells to power this with, but make sure you have a way to **disconnect** things quickly, it may get hot fast. When the power is applied you shold be able to move the spare nail with the nail the is now your electro-magnet. Magnet wire works better than hookup wire; the insulation is thinner, so you get more turns closer to the core. You can make electro-magnets (coils) without a core. Good luck, and cheers, Richard. From: Michael Gantt SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Light to Motion ComposedDate: 01/10/97 10:21:46 AM PostedDate: 01/10/97 10:21:46 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Mark W. Dalton wrote: > > For these mechanical solar-engines you may want to look into > pneumatic cylinders, but using something like Freon. One > of the Cray hardware engineers said they provide a lot of > torque, for just a few drops in a small cylinder, when it > warms freon expands, there are probably some other substances > that would work as well. > > However, these devices, must also cool so that it contracts, > which is where a lot of the limitation comes in. Which is > why I prefer to use solar cells. I'm here trying to learn something from y'all, and a lot of times the conversation is challenging. This is one case however, where I am compelled to point out a couple things. I might even be able to finally contribute something! Some of these "light-to-motion" ideas are actually light-to-heat-to-motion mechanisms. The device described in this post sounds like a Stirling engine. These are direct heat-to-kinetic energy machines. A Stirling engine doesn't even require freon. It works fine on air, and some excellent hi-tech applications use helium! They are not all that exotic. Stirling engines were invented before internal combustion, and were used to run cotton gins and various pre-and- early industrial age machines. They are wonderful critters which are still being studied extensively and used for many aerospace applications where waste heat can be utilized to perform useful work, thereby providing heat sinks where needed and conserving fuel and electricity. One amazing Stirling application I have seen firsthand reverses the principle... Stirling engines normally convert heat to kinetic energy: you apply heat and get movement. If you apply movement, you can USE UP heat, creating a refrigeration effect! (Actually, I am pretty sure you are not "using up" all the heat, you are also very efficiently MOVING some of the heat from one place to another.) The thing I saw was a tiny freezer developed for the transportation of sensitive vaccines in remote areas of the world. It could run on very little energy, but cooled to -10 or -30 F very quickly. It used a simple vibrating actuator to pump the piston at high speed. The refrigerant was helium... totally inert and harmless to the environment. (We are talking about a refrigeration unit maybe 2" x 2" x 7", weighing about 1.5 to 2 pounds, that cools a 6" x 6" x 8" internal volume container.) The one I saw was a one-off prototype made by the company I worked for at a cost of about $20,000 in machinist's and engineer's work. If there were mass applications you could probably get it for ten bucks! All it was, was steel and plastic... mechanically similar in principal to a small compressor, reversed into an "expander.") The above comment "these devices, must also cool so that it contracts, which is where a lot of the limitation comes in" misses something: today's Stirling engineers are typically experts in heat transfer since that is the most important aspect of Stirling design. There is no problem cooling something when you are using a Stirling engine because you are converting heat directly to kinetic energy. There was even talk of putting a Stirling driven heat sink fan on the early Pentium chips. By doing so, you could not only dissipate heat, but actually USE UP some of it in the transfer from thermal to kinetic energy. Granted, you cannot produce a net negative energy, and there is a limit to the efficiency of such devices... you can never use exactly 100% of the input, and will therefore have some excess heat, but you should be able to dissipate it well. From: Dean W Hall SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: [ electric pistons ] ComposedDate: 01/10/97 10:52:46 AM PostedDate: 01/10/97 10:52:46 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > I was thinking of using one to expel the water from a syringe > to power an "aquabot", is this possible? If you have any other ideas on > emptying the syringe I''d be glad to hear them. > Thanx, > - Ciaran solar engine --> motor --> screw drive. might not screw fast enough, though, depends on thread pitch. The Good Idea about the syringe is the following property: when it expels, the water jet will be directed, but when in intakes, it pulls water in a diffused pattern. (thus it will have nice thrust when expelling, and not while intaking) reference: Richard Feynman and the underwater water-sprinkler problem. kinda like blowing air out your mouth: you can make paper move from afar by blowing, but you're never gonna suck a piece of paper from 1meter away. (unless you're **really** talented ) !!Dean From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: dkanders@uniserve.com,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Random Notes ComposedDate: 01/10/97 10:54:46 AM PostedDate: 01/10/97 10:54:46 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 04:20 PM 12/28/96 -0800, David K Anderson wrote: >Is there any info on the Type II solarengine (time interval based), and the >Type III solarengine (charge-curve differentiated). Not too much. The original Type II (time) was based around the "Happy Birthday Singer" chip that was pulled from greeting cards. These particular models that were modifiable are no longer available, but I can send you some artwork for it later if desired. I tried to replace it with a 555-based timer circuit, but it drew over 10X the power (3-6uA for the HBS, 30-65uA for the 555). I'm sure I can reproduce it for the list, but it's nothing that you can't already figure out from a Radio Shack "Forrest Mimms" book on the 555 (whole series excellent, by the way). As for the Type-III, this was a theoretical solarengine that (I, at least) have to build. It is based on the idea that the SE should trigger as soon as the charge-curve slope falls below a certain slope (thusly the "differentiating" is required). That is, when the power cap starts to "top off" because the solarcell has nearly done all the charging it can, the circuit would fire. In bright light that may mean near 3.5V, or 1.2V in dim light. In any case, it would be the optimum in triggering. The circuit would simply monitor when the power coming from the solarcell starts to taper off, then trigger the SE. To design this, you would know how to use a high-efficiency op-amp and an oscilloscope to tune (which I don't own), and I don't know if the power draw of the circuit would offset the increase in efficiency. There. Take that and digest it, and come back with a 20 page report (single-spaced) with illustrations and working schematics no later than the first week of January. I'll expect a copy on my desk the night prior to check for coffee-stains and spelling errors.... ;-> Regards, Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: IVAN SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: small r/c blimp address ComposedDate: 01/10/97 11:16:45 AM PostedDate: 01/10/97 11:16:45 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US This one works http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~jpiri/links.htm Its a link page then go to sgcorp. Ivan From: "Huggett, Mervyn" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Micro Blimps ComposedDate: 01/10/97 11:48:46 AM PostedDate: 01/10/97 11:48:46 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US First a thank you to all contributors of this mailing list - keep up the good work! I have been interested in BEAM activities through the mailing list for some time and have made a solar engine out of some scrap bits in my junk box (more like a junk shed or rather garage actually). I have been excited about the micro airbot ideas from IVAN especially the thought of having Blimps slowly ingesting light then leaping into life and trundle around the ceiling. This appeals to my sense of humour! A couple of questions for IVAN 1) I cannot locate this URL. Is it a typo? > Hey and if ya want to hack a cheap rc thing or just fly a blimp around your house Cheap > ya can go to http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~ipiri/sgcorp.html 2) What is the URL of the robot group that has a page on envelope building? Happy Solar Blimping..... Mervyn From: IVAN SendTo: Beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: micro Airbots ComposedDate: 01/10/97 02:07:00 PM PostedDate: 01/10/97 02:07:00 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 07:08 PM 1/9/97 -0500, you wrote: >Hi, > > I checked out the ridgecrest site, pretty nice stuff. Now blimps >are great....but how about a wing powered BEAM bird? I know, I know, the >power one would get out of a winged BEAM would not be sufficient to >maintain flight, but I think you could find a way around that. If you made >the airframe of your 'bot like a bird (a skeleton of ribs), you could fill >the chest cavity in with a helium balloon (envolope?), that would make the >'bot light enough to fly with wing power. It would still be "heavyer than >air", and depend on its wings to fly, the helium would counterbalance the >weight just enough so it could take flight. Tell me if I'm off my rocker >(most likely I am :), since I have absolutly NO experience with helium > >Later, > > - Ciaran > (grin) Your not off your rocker If ya go to the Robots group page They have a big one with legs to its real funky. I almost fell out my chair with laughter Its cool. I have sevral design's I want to do one with Wings and make it like a small water mosquitoe put a real needle on it that works and sucks up water. Then it could fly around looking for heat "small fires" and try to put it out. Or I could put some venom/acid in it then I would be off my rocker : ) Ivan From: "Mark W. Tilden" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: beam innovations ComposedDate: 01/10/97 04:46:56 PM PostedDate: 01/10/97 04:46:56 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > So have you BEAM gurus thought much about the control aspects of >insect flight? My understanding of BEAM (very minimal) is that the >control is closely linked to the physical structure, so how would this >type of interaction be achieved with a flying robot? If - thin-film >=7% efficient solar cells could be fitted into wings. - multi-farad capacitors could be made sufficiently lightweight. - Microsensors were fashioned into a horizon-reference balance device. - microactuator selenoids could approach 95% efficiency. - Nv controllers could be put on a chip the size of a pinhead. - aerogel could be machined with all above components mounted right into it. Then you could make a pretty effective dragonfly-style flying machine, until it rains and the aerogel disolves. Otherwise you'll be forever dependant on tethers to power sources or motors, which are just too heavy to lift for small devices. We've had heavier than air prototypes flapping a storm for over a year now in both butterfly and dragonfly styles. If we ever get subsequent generations to lift themselves, then the mounting of the sensors described can be studied. The technique we used is one of taking the flat motor coils from floppy-disk drives and mounting them on flexible PCBs (Capton Flexboard from the same disk drives) around a bug-chest plate which is a super-strong neodinuim boron magnet (hard drives). The coils are then driven from a standard solarengine, the pulse of which causes the coils to either repel from the magnet or get drawn to it (based upon the right-hand rule relation). Wings mounted on the coils gives a very believable flapping motion or, if you are so inclined, a good fin motion under full sunlight. The solar-goldfish uses this design to pulse fin-ladden coils underwater. The magnet is good ballast, and a hollow tube from the front of the fish to the surface allows for a constant-depth control so the fins get the best push. The best thing is that the coil motor is completely waterproof so the fish can pulse itself along without fear of getting waterlogged. The only problems are that superglue starts to seperate under clorine laden waters, and the coils eventually break away, and that because of the magnet, the fish always swim either east or west as they align themselves to the earths field. But it is cool. If anybody can suggest a better adhesive for underwater electronics, I'm open. I've found the best way to protect the circuitly is 5 min epoxy, but you'd better be very sure of your wiring as there's no going back. Interestingly enough, I though of making some BEAM style underwater ornithopters a-la Abyss aliens to study potential flying designs, but winter came and the idea is shelved until signs of warmer weather, or a sponsor, whichever comes first. There you go. A BEAM idea for those of you without motor resources. Let the group know how you do. Merry xmas. markt. From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: 72134.2444@compuserve.com,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Good Source For Miscellaneous Gizmos ComposedDate: 01/10/97 10:13:24 PM PostedDate: 01/10/97 10:13:24 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 11:18 PM 1/10/97 -0500, Don Ruehrwein wrote: >I just received a free catalog from: > American Science & Surplus DEFINITELY was on my top 3 list at one point in time...until they stopped shipping to Canada. Dunno why - I paid my bills and ordered lots! >Set of gears - 20 gears, with at least 3 different types, but all of the >same pitch so they will all mesh. $3.50 per set. I've used them - not bad. Later, Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: "David Warner" SendTo: dkanders@uniserve.com,beam@webconn.com,skip@cadvision.com Subject: Re: Random Notes ComposedDate: 01/11/97 04:06:59 AM PostedDate: 01/11/97 04:06:59 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US ---------- Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics) wrote > Not too much. The original Type II (time) was based around the "Happy > Birthday Singer" chip that was pulled from greeting cards. These particular > models that were modifiable are no longer available, but I can send you some > artwork for it later if desired. I tried to replace it with a 555-based > timer circuit, but it drew over 10X the power (3-6uA for the HBS, 30-65uA > for the 555). I'm sure I can reproduce it for the list, but it's nothing > that you can't already figure out from a Radio Shack "Forrest Mimms" book on > the 555 (whole series excellent, by the way). Dave could you please elaborate with a diagram of the "Birthday singer" and "555" circuits. I've seen references to this time circuit (bday) but as I just got started 2 months ago I'm playing catch-up. thanks in advance. David Warner From: Richard Weait SendTo: ivandahack@linknet.net CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: coils,solenoid,ele magnets ComposedDate: 01/11/97 08:03:54 AM PostedDate: 01/11/97 08:03:54 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US [. . . snip] ["IVAN" and "Richard" have been talking about coils as they apply to IVAN's flying robot prototype.] I've been winding the coils with an old hand driven drill. You know, the crank-type. I did three of them yesterday, just to test the theory; they are really quick to make: 1) Put two small pin holes through a cotton swab shaft, about 5 mm apart, near one end of the swab. 2) Put the other end of the swab in the hand- drill chuck. 3) Run some magnet wire through one hole and tape the free end to the swab. 4) Turn hand-drill crank to wind coils; guide wire on to coil with free hand. 5) Wrap until you have enough turns on coil. ( I haven't been counting turns, I measure a length of wire and wrap until it is all on the coil. ) 6) Run finished end through other hole. 7) Remove from chuck. Remove insulation from ends. Clip off unused swab-shaft. Connect to circuit. Fly! Be Free! And the results. . . Well, only the first one was a complete disaster. Numbers two and three are happily twitching away on the workbench. From: Richard Weait SendTo: dtwarner@wwnet.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAM: Random Notes ComposedDate: 01/11/97 04:10:54 PM PostedDate: 01/11/97 04:10:54 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 06:02 AM 1/11/97 -0500, "David Warner" and Dave Hrynkiw were discussing the "Happy Birthday Singer" variation of a BEAM-engine. Hi David, and welcome. As Dave mentioned the HBS boards we were using aren't available any more. We got them through a surplus dealer, and they are now out of stock. A few times, we tried the latest singing cards, from retail outlets, with the same modifications; No dice. And at five dollars a shot, we just stopped trying. The current BEAM engine (Flashing LED) is much easier to build, and will let you experiment with many aspects of BEAM-'botics. If you really *REALLY* need to use a time based trigger, instead of voltage based, build up a 555 circuit. Low current versions are pretty good (TLC555, 7555, etc.) but, alas, not quite as good as the venerable, quirky, fragile HBS. Oh yeah. The flashing LED circuit uses half as many components as the HBS circuit. That means seventy-five percent fewer wiring errors. Weait's Formula: Ooops = # of components squared Cheers, Richard. From: JNNREaton@aol.com SendTo: 72134.2444@compuserve.com,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Good Source For Miscellaneous Gizmos ComposedDate: 01/11/97 06:48:54 PM PostedDate: 01/11/97 06:48:54 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US In a message dated 97-01-10 23:37:15 EST, 72134.2444@compuserve.com (Don Ruehrwein) writes: << I just received a free catalog from: American Science & Surplus 3605 Howard Street Skokie, IL 60076 Phone 847-982-0870 Fax 847-934-0722 >> They also have a store in Milwaukee. It is a great place. That is all for now. Jim From: Gadagada@aol.com SendTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: Boris ComposedDate: 01/12/97 05:46:40 AM PostedDate: 01/12/97 05:46:40 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US I just finished a tethered version of stiquito, and now my new venture is an autonomous version of Boris. What is the lightest battery that i can use? I need 6 volts and 500 mA. I've tried to find some really little batteries like this in Digikey with no luck. I think i am going to put a Botboard on it, so the batteries have to be pretty light. Thanks alot! Gary From: "Mike O'Connor" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: BEAM singers, flashers, URLs and a favor ComposedDate: 01/12/97 09:04:49 AM PostedDate: 01/12/97 09:04:49 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US -- [ From: Mike O'Connor * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- Can you use Holtek melody generators in Happy Birthday Singer Solar engines? Digi-Key (1-800-344-4539) http://www.digikey.com sells them on page 146 of the Jan-Feb catalog. They're in a TO-92 package and cost $0.81 USD in individual quantities. Digi-key also sells the Holtek LED flasher. It's also in a TO-92 at $0.81 a pop. You can get it in 1Hz and 2Hz versions. Has anyone tried these in place of blinking LEDs solar engines? They might be more efficient and you wouldn't need to shield them from light. I haven't seen any posts with these URLs. Hope I'm not wasting bandwidth. This week my mail server started delivering messages from over a month ago. A couple people requested the blimp bag page: http://www.robotgroup.org/projects/roboblmp/envelope.htm It's part of The Robot Group's excellent site at: http://www.robotgroup.org/ There are a couple of robo butterfly pages in english at: http://www.leopard.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index.html I don't think anything is flying yet. But while you're there take a look at the roboroach movie. My favorite oxymoronic product is 3M's Synthetic Steel Wool. It's almost a double oxymoron and it's great for wet sanding plastic. Finally, I have a favor to ask the mailing list. Could we agree to put BEAM on the subject line of the posts or have the list put a signature line at the end of each message? This would make it much easier for my mail package to automatically file posts. I assume other newbies are in a similar situation. Please don't flame me for choosing the wrong (E-Mail Connection) mail program. Thanks Mike -- Mike O'Connor mikeo1@lex.infi.net From: Richard Weait SendTo: mikeo1@lex.infi.net CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAM singers, flashers, URLs and a favor ComposedDate: 01/12/97 01:16:41 PM PostedDate: 01/12/97 01:16:41 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 09:04 AM 1/12/97 -0500, you wrote: >-- [ From: Mike O'Connor * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- > >Can you use Holtek melody generators in Happy Birthday Singer Solar engines? >Digi-Key (1-800-344-4539) http://www.digikey.com sells them on page 146 of >the Jan-Feb catalog. They're in a TO-92 package and cost $0.81 USD in >individual quantities. Digi-key also sells the Holtek LED flasher. It's also >in a TO-92 at $0.81 a pop. You can get it in 1Hz and 2Hz versions. Has >anyone tried these in place of blinking LEDs solar engines? They might be >more efficient and you wouldn't need to shield them from light. [snip] Hi Mike; Thanks for the page number, etc. on the DigiKey reference. From the looks of the Holtek stuff, I would say don't bother. The original HBS, as pioneered by Mark Tilden, was only useful because it could be modified to run at an extremely slow clock speed. Both the flasher and singer in the catalog are three-terminal devices; Vcc, Gnd, and OUT. With no room for the type of changes we used to make on the HBS. The catalog also says that these are low current devices, but does not quote, how low. The best solar- engines are in the sub-ten micro-amp range. Many in the world of conventional electronics, where 20 milli- amps could be a bias current, would consider a one milli- amp device low current. Clearly, we hope to do better than that. Having said all of this, try it anyways. You might find a use for the product that Holtek never imagined! If the flasher were set up for 0.1 or 0.05 Hz, I would give them a try, but 1Hz and 2Hz is just too racey for me (: Cheers, Richard. From: zozzles@lanl.gov (John A. deVries II) SendTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: Memories of a Nervous Net ComposedDate: 01/14/97 10:22:13 PM PostedDate: 01/14/97 10:22:13 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Someone this last fall was just learning about nervous nets and commented that there didn't seem any nice way to implement memory with one. I'm sure that there are a lot of different ways, but it occurred to me that the only conceptual problem is making such a memory forget in some interesting way, because it is easy enough to represent the occurence of an "event" (say, a flash of infrared detected and channeled through an integrative nervous neuron) as a process. One would have to be aware of the limitation that saturation brings, but still it is a fairly intuitive way of "remembering" things. So, here's a possible architecture: one loop with some to-be-determined number of neurons that acts as the memory "element". One of those neurons is a process generator (the IR detector noted above, for example) and some other neuron is used as the pick-off. Just for jollies, let's say the pick-off feeds a motor driver. There would be another loop, probably with a fair number MORE neurons than in the memory element. Either it would be "primed" at start-up with a process, or some other method would put at least one (possibly more) process into this loop which acts as the decay mechanism which implements forgetting. What connects the two loops, of course, would be a variation on the Pulse Neutralizing Circuit (PNC), right out of Tilden's patent. The decay loop would be the controller and the memory loop the controlled. The process of "forgetting" would be largely a statistical or chaotically characterized thing, depending on the real-time coincidence of process arrivals at the PNC. Of course, this isn't patentable, being derivative of H. Grey Walter's work from the 50's as well as the DES (Data Encryption Standard) to mention just two sources. I still think it is an eminently suitable notion for rewarding experimentation, however. Zoz From: Andrew Miller SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Miller's walker site... ComposedDate: 01/15/97 06:37:28 AM PostedDate: 01/15/97 06:37:28 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Someone just informed me that My Latest page in the MicroCore Saga wasn't up.... Well I'm sure I put it there last week, spent HOURS workin on the grafiks but it seems to have fallin into some sort of FTP temperal anomilie capt'n... My apologies to all... I put an older unfinished version up (lost all the grafiks) for now... I'll redo as soon as the wife lets me outa the garage... all4nw From: "John Anderson" SendTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: 4 motor walker questions ComposedDate: 01/15/97 10:38:53 AM PostedDate: 01/15/97 10:38:53 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US I'm farely new to BEAM things, and have an embaressing simple question. I've been working on a 4 motor walker. I put together a 4 element Nv loop, and I've got the motor/gearbox problem licked. The walker adapts very quickly to *walking stance* when started with the legs all twisted up, but once it's there it doesn't go anywhere!! I've been experimenting with different legs with little success, so I'm wondering if I've got the actuation pattern right. The walker is roughly square, with the motors tipped 30 degrees in both the longitudinal and lateral axis. The motors sweep through about 45 degrees under load. If the motors are numbered like so... 1------2 | | | | 3------4 The pattern I've got now ( which seem to be the best with the current setup ) is... process 1: 1 ccw and 4 cw process 2: 2 cw and 3 ccw process 3: 1 cw and 4 ccw process 4: 2 ccw and 3 cw ...and so on. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, John *Newbie* Anderson -- John voice: 313-323-7226 fax: 313-390-4565 profs: janders3 email: janders3@pms850.pms.ford.com loc: ECC, MD-10, cube 212-1A From: Andrew Miller SendTo: janders3@ford.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: 4 motor walker questions ComposedDate: 01/15/97 03:37:33 PM PostedDate: 01/15/97 03:37:33 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US You forgot One crucial part my friend.... Lift... Four motor walkers are posible (two halves of a two motor) but they have some small problems with non-equalised load... From the sounds of it though you've tried to build a five motor walker with only four... You've probably taken a look at Mark's Walman and My BROT bot and failed to notice the waist motor... The waist motor provides lift by pivoting the body in the center horizontaly to provide the lift on either side.... Like so.....(animation) http://www.golden.net/~amiller/waist.gif > 1------2 > | | > | | > 3------4 > >The pattern I've got now ( which seem to be the best with the >current setup ) is... > >process 1: 1 ccw and 4 cw >process 2: 2 cw and 3 ccw >process 3: 1 cw and 4 ccw >process 4: 2 ccw and 3 cw If you add a waist the patern should be more like this prs 1: 1ccw and 4cw and waist to the left prs 2: 2ccw and 3cw prs 3: 1cw and 4ccw and waist to the right prs 4: 2cw and 3ccw You might also wanna tweek you front to back lean of the motors back a bit BROTbot only uses about 5 deg front to back and 22 degress out to the sides... Walkman uses about 15 and 30... 30 and 30 will work but your time biases will be quite diferent and the device will waste a lot of energy lifting itself off the ground.... hope this helps.... all4nw From: Andrew Miller SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: [Fwd: Re: 4 motor walker questions] ComposedDate: 01/15/97 03:42:34 PM PostedDate: 01/15/97 03:42:34 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Received: from default (cisco1-34.golden.net [207.6.168.34]) by golden.net (8.8.2/8.6.12) with SMTP id RAA14733 for ; Wed, 15 Jan 1997 17:37:01 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <32DD5D1A.2C90@golden.net> Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 17:41:30 -0500 From: Andrew Miller Organization: AM Innovations X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrew Miller Subject: Re: 4 motor walker questions References: <199701151652.AC06152@internet-mail.ford.com> <32DD5B58.6EBF@golden.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit lemme correct that movement chart.... 1------2 | | \wast/ / \ | | 3------4 prs 1: 1ccw and 4cw and waist to the left prs 2: 2ccw and 3cw prs 3: 2cw and 3ccw and waist to the right prs 4: 1cw and 4ccw From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: janders3@ford.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: 4 motor walker questions ComposedDate: 01/15/97 04:41:38 PM PostedDate: 01/15/97 04:41:38 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 05:34 PM 1/15/97 -0500, Andrew Miller wrote: >You forgot One crucial part my friend.... >Lift... >Four motor walkers are posible (two halves of a two motor) but they have >some small problems with non-equalised load... Actually, Mark's student Matt Moses built one using only 4 servos in much the same configuration. It's part of the YUMA videotape Mark showed me once. Comments/conclusions Matt? (I think he's part of this group) -Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: dtwarner@wwnet.com,dkanders@uniserve.com,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: Random Notes ComposedDate: 01/19/97 01:55:27 PM PostedDate: 01/19/97 01:55:27 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 06:02 AM 1/11/97 -0500, David Warner wrote: >Dave could you please elaborate with a diagram of the "Birthday singer" and >"555" circuits. I've seen references to this time circuit (bday) but as I >just got started 2 months ago I'm playing catch-up. Hmmm. Just dug out the old notebook. Now, I'm NOT guarenteeing that I wrote this down correctly, but as of Dec 28 1994, I made this little sketch at: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/images/hirez/555.pcx It shows my topographic schematic, and a rough PCB layout that we prototyped a few times for internal use. Keep in mind that it is just a sketch, so no comments about scan/handwriting quality, or NO MORE! ;-> Feel free to borrow for _personal_ usage only. Later, Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: Don Ruehrwein <72134.2444@compuserve.com> SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Good Source For Miscellaneous Gizmos ComposedDate: 01/20/97 07:23:40 PM PostedDate: 01/20/97 07:23:40 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US I just received a free catalog from: American Science & Surplus 3605 Howard Street Skokie, IL 60076 Phone 847-982-0870 Fax 847-934-0722 Having just read my BEAM e-mail, I found a lot of interesting stuff. For instance: Holiday Balls - Transparent plastic hemispheres that snap together to form hollow balls. 5.5 inch diameter. $2.50 for two. These would make some huge Miniballs. Set of gears - 20 gears, with at least 3 different types, but all of the same pitch so they will all mesh. $3.50 per set. 16 foot diameter weather balloon. $19.50 each. 6 foot weather balloon. $12.95 each. 3 foot weather balloon. $5.00 each. 33" diameter mylar balloon with two mounted motors, radio receiver, radio transmitter with joystick control. $19.50 each. Or, just the mylar balloons for $5.00 each. Radiometers - I had a hard time figuring out how to describe what a radiometer is, for those who may not know, so I cut and pasted this description from my CD encyclopedia: The radiometer is a device invented by Sir William CROOKES to demonstrate the mechanical effect of light radiation. It consists of four equally spaced vanes, silvered on one side, black on the other, attached to a vertical-axis rotor. The rotor is mounted in an evacuated glass enclosure. When a beam of sunlight is directed at the assembly, the vanes rotate about the axis. The effect is caused by the greater absorption of radiation by the blackened side of the vanes. Residual air molecules in the enclosure strike both the black and the silver sides equally, but they absorb more heat from the black sides and rebound with greater energy. The differential force causes the vanes to spin, the black faces moving away from the sunlight. This is not photovoltaics, but it is still solar powered. I can't imagine how to power a solar roller from it, since it is inside of a sealed glass sphere, but it will look nice in the middle of your solar powered BEAM robot park. And maybe it will give some of you clever guys some "new" ideas for light-to-motion gizmos. They also carry motors but they don't generally indicate the current draw so it's hard to order by mail something suitable for solar power use. If you're in the Chicago area, the store is definately worth going through. Don From: zozzles@lanl.gov (John A. deVries II) SendTo: BEAM@webconn.com Subject: Always remember to never forget... ComposedDate: 01/20/97 07:57:40 PM PostedDate: 01/20/97 07:57:40 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US A quick note about the previous message and then something different... If you were wondering what the DES had to do with anything, it is the lengths (by neuron count) of the two loops -- in a synchronous digital circuit, if those lengths are relatively prime to each other, the cycle length of the combination tends to be maximized (that is, it might take a Long Time for the entire cycle.) This, of course, is a Good Thing for encryption. Using nervous neurons is basically like using asynchronous logic in some ways, so what applies to synchronous circuits is at least analogous but Wait! With Two you get the Free Ginsu Knives -- that is, unless the delays of each and every neuron was -exactly- the same, then those delays can make a huge difference on the cycle length. One might hope for self-consistency in the delays so that even if things were exactly predictable, then at least they'd be amenable to some kind of qualitative analysis. And Now for something Completely Different: I think that the design of the memory loop (input, the loop itself, output, process neutralizer) is reasonably complete in itself. On the other hand, there might be some controversy about the decay loop, for which I only supposed one process cycling around forever, occasionally killing processes in the other loop. One might want more control over that -- for example, kill the process in the decay loop or create a new one or do things more algorithmically (use other digital logic, f'r'instance.) I mean, if the decay loop is saturated (again, for example) then nothing much is likely to survive in the memory loop for very long. But then you get in a recursion problem that is alluded to by the title of this message... if you are going to "decay" stuff in the decay loop, then who runs THAT ("who guards those selfsame guards" goes the Latin quote, more or less.) That is why I proposed the simplest structure that would still work: a single, recirculating process. Still... what if the memory loop excited the decay loop which inhibits the memory loop which... (you get what I mean, I reckon.) Zoz From: Andrew Miller SendTo: skip@cadvision.com CopyTo: janders3@ford.com,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: 4 motor walker questions ComposedDate: 01/20/97 08:09:34 PM PostedDate: 01/20/97 08:09:34 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > >Four motor walkers are posible (two halves of a two motor) but they have > >some small problems with non-equalised load... > > Actually, Mark's student Matt Moses built one using only 4 servos in much > the same configuration. It's part of the YUMA videotape Mark showed me once. > Comments/conclusions Matt? (I think he's part of this group) > Yup he built a couple as did I.... Probs with the motors wanting to swing all the way around to the front ... I had to put restriction stops on the front legs and some hefty return springs... And I belive that Matt did the same.... Was a Kool Idea that had some flaws.... all4nw From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: mikeo1@lex.infi.net,beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: BEAM singers, flashers, URLs and a favor ComposedDate: 01/20/97 08:41:34 PM PostedDate: 01/20/97 08:41:34 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 09:04 AM 1/12/97 -0500, Mike O'Connor wrote: >-- [ From: Mike O'Connor * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- > >Can you use Holtek melody generators in Happy Birthday Singer Solar engines? >Digi-Key (1-800-344-4539) http://www.digikey.com sells them on page 146 of >the Jan-Feb catalog. They're in a TO-92 package and cost $0.81 USD in >individual quantities. Digi-key also sells the Holtek LED flasher. It's also >in a TO-92 at $0.81 a pop. You can get it in 1Hz and 2Hz versions. Has >anyone tried these in place of blinking LEDs solar engines? They might be >more efficient and you wouldn't need to shield them from light. Yup, I picked them up, but haven't played with them yet. Maybe in the next week or two... Later, Dave -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: laurence@dl.com SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 08:42:53 AM PostedDate: 01/21/97 08:42:53 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US I have some questions, and some ideas: When a microcore gets feedback from a motor's load, from what I understand, if the motor experiences increased load, this draws more current from the available power supply and lowers its voltage. This causes a change in the microcore's time constants. My questions are: does an increased load cause the time constant to shorten (the Nv loop speeds up) or lengthen? Does this affect all Nv's in the loop or just the one driving the motor with the increased load (Multi-process situation)? And some ideas: Has anyone tried constructing several simple 1-Nv robot 'cells'? The idea I have would be to make each cell identical, but so it could be connected to another cell. Each cell could have a motor that would bend a joint that connected to the next cell. But: not only are they mechanically connected but also with electrical contacts: Each Nv could connect to another to make a loop or chain. This way it would be easy to experiment with different Nv architectures and the Nv structure would be reflected in the physical layout of the 'bot. Taking this one step further [warning! Massive speculation ahead] You could use coils instead of motors, and float them on the surface of a tank of water. The coils would attract/repel other cells' coils. If the cells had loose (fixed magnets?) mechanical connections, they would be free to form their own Nv chains and loops, kinda like a mechanical cellular automata. (The Nv process signals could be transferred either with contacts (hard to do in water) or with magnetic reed switches, or just the coil impulse itself. call me crazy, L Mayer From: Bill Dyer SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Hello ComposedDate: 01/21/97 09:07:52 AM PostedDate: 01/21/97 09:07:52 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US Hello everyone, I just recently joined th list and I thought I would send off a quick note of introduction. My name is Bill Dyer and I am a software engineer at Motorola. Over the years I have been interested in computer simulation/modelling of biological system, articficial life and robotics. My Masters thesis in Biomed Engineering was a computer model of retinal visual processing. Seeing as there is not much of this kind of work going on here in the Cellular division at Motorola, I have to play around with this stuff in my spare time (which is limited with two small children around the house). Anyway, after reading a lot about conventional program controlled robotics, I stumbled across BEAM on the web. It sounded cool and after reading Mark Tildens papers and some other stuff I decided to try to build some BEAM robots. To make a long story short, I finally got around to wiring up my first MicroCore last night. It worked on the second try, I don't know what happened on the first try, but I must have had a crossed wire shorting something out because the batteries got REAL hot. Anyway, I removed all the wires, rewired the thing and it worked. Pretty cool, now I have to sit down and try to understand the thing a little more. I also wired up the motor driver circuit and have it connected to one old cassette motor that I have, so far so good. Next on the list is to find some better motors and some gears and give the thing some legs! I will keep you posted as to my progress and I am sure I will have many questions before I get this thing walking. Thanks a bunch to Andrew Miller for his web page, I couldn't have put this thing togther without his help. Later, -Bill Dyer From: "Mark W. Tilden" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 11:54:11 AM PostedDate: 01/21/97 11:54:11 AM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US >When a microcore gets feedback from a motor's load, from what I >understand, if the motor experiences increased load, this draws more >current from the available power supply and lowers its voltage. This >causes a change in the microcore's time constants. >My questions are: does an increased load cause the time constant to >shorten (the Nv loop speeds up) or lengthen? Does this affect all Nv's in >the loop or just the one driving the motor with the increased load >(Multi-process situation)? In the standard miller configuration, yes. If you want individual attenuation (as in the walkman design), then a 4.7k resistor placed across the buffers will give you the second order effects of individual temporal adaption. the idea is to load the output driver of a Nv cell so that the signal passed on to the next cell is shortened. This traveling effect results in the more exotic adaptive behaviors associated with advanced Nv designs. >And some ideas: Has anyone tried constructing several simple 1-Nv robot >'cells'? The idea I have would be to make each cell identical, but so it >could be connected to another cell. Triangular Nv "Tilebots" have been under study for several years. Using magnets on their edges, they are the most capable of all the creatures in the robot park. Only recently however, have we acquired the funding necessary to study them further. Watch this space for details. Like the idea of using a water surface as an assembly medium, but murcury would be better, as well as looking cool and providing a universal ground plane. Markt. From: IVAN SendTo: laurence@dl.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 02:13:35 PM PostedDate: 01/21/97 02:13:35 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > >And some ideas: Has anyone tried constructing several simple 1-Nv robot >'cells'? The idea I have would be to make each cell identical, but so it >could be connected to another cell. Each cell could have a motor that >would bend a joint that connected to the next cell. But: not only are >they mechanically connected but also with electrical contacts: Each Nv >could connect to another to make a loop or chain. This way it would be >easy to experiment with different Nv architectures and the Nv structure > would be reflected in the physical layout of the 'bot. > As for the mechanical side of it I ran across a page That really Changed my idea's on the mechanic's of a robot its called fractal shape changing robots. I have been trying to build some bricks as they call it and toy with this idea. What really is cool is the fact they can self Repair and shape shift. Here the page http://www.stellar.demon.co.uk/crawl.htm From: "Mark W. Tilden" SendTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 02:45:13 PM PostedDate: 01/21/97 02:45:13 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US >The only problem might be that the magnets might fix the robots to >other metallic objects and become trapped, or other types of robot and >become solar parasites! A 1992 paper on a sybject called "Homeochaos" shows how an ecology is not stable unless there are parasites common to both predetor and prey. With this in mind, the park does feature various forms of parasites which inhibit other machines, and, in one instance, aids in the joining of tilebots nto more competent wholes. markt. From: IVAN SendTo: laurence@dl.com CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 03:42:38 PM PostedDate: 01/21/97 03:42:38 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US > >And some ideas: Has anyone tried constructing several simple 1-Nv robot >'cells'? The idea I have would be to make each cell identical, but so it >could be connected to another cell. Each cell could have a motor that >would bend a joint that connected to the next cell. But: not only are >they mechanically connected but also with electrical contacts: Each Nv >could connect to another to make a loop or chain. This way it would be >easy to experiment with different Nv architectures and the Nv structure > would be reflected in the physical layout of the 'bot. > As for the mechanical side of it I ran across a page That really Changed my idea's on the mechanic's of a robot its called fractal shape changing robots. I have been trying to build some bricks as they call it and toy with this idea. What really is cool is the fact they can self Repair and shape shift. Here the page http://www.stellar.demon.co.uk/crawl.htm From: "Dave Hrynkiw (Solarbotics)" SendTo: Bob@fuzzgun.demon.co.uk,mwtilden@aerie.lanl.gov CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 04:37:12 PM PostedDate: 01/21/97 04:37:12 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US At 09:30 PM 1/18/97 GMT, Bob Mottram wrote: >> Triangular Nv "Tilebots" have been under study for several years. Using >> magnets on their edges, they are the most capable of all the creatures in >> the robot park. Only recently however, have we acquired the funding >> necessary to study them further. Watch this space for details. >I've seen something to this effect on the Solarbotics site. Yup. At these URLs: Picture http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/images/hirez/81_1.jpg Descriptions (at bottom of page) http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/beam_2.html >The only problem might be that the magnets might fix the robots to >other metallic objects and become trapped, or other types of robot and >become solar parasites! Actually, these beasts have considerable torque, so if anything, smaller 'bots would glom onto _them_ and interfere with their (ahem) mating with each other. Sounds like robot viruses... -- "Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only 2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_". NEW EMAIL:skip@cadvision.com Solarbotics URL: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~hrynkiwd/index.html From: Bob@fuzzgun.demon.co.uk SendTo: mwtilden@aerie.lanl.gov CopyTo: beam@webconn.com Subject: Re: robot 'cells' ComposedDate: 01/21/97 10:23:12 PM PostedDate: 01/21/97 10:23:12 PM DeliveryPriority: N Importance: N ReturnReceipt: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=Beverly Yu/O=DLNOTES/C=US,CN=Laurence Mayer/O=DLNOTES/C=US In message "Mark W. Tilden" writes: > Triangular Nv "Tilebots" have been under study for several years. Using > magnets on their edges, they are the most capable of all the creatures in > the robot park. Only recently however, have we acquired the funding > necessary to study them further. Watch this space for details. I like the magnetics idea. I could imagine small tesselating robots joining together magnetically. There could then be the possibility of a "collective" organism. If the magnets were not too strong, then the whole system would be free to break up and reform, following the rather selectionist rule that those configurations which moved together most harmoniously would tend to survive. I've seen something to this effect on the Solarbotics site. The only problem might be that the magnets might fix the robots to other metallic objects and become trapped, or other types of robot and become solar parasites! -- Bob Mottram "I am the resurrection Bob@fuzzgun.demon.co.uk and I am the light" http://www.fuzzgun.demon.co.uk - Stone Roses