Unlike Sparkfun, who actually manage to find fake Atmel ICs, we just get strange batches. The Atmel ATMega328 is the power behind the Arduino/Freeduino/*duino, and we have to set up a programming system to burn the venerable Arduino Bootloader into these chips. We normally use an AVR STK500 in HVSP (high voltage serial programming) mode, […]
Back from PDXBot04
Dave Hrynkiw
June 8, 2004
Grant and I are back from Portland. Nice damp city, that one...reminds me of where I grew up in B.C.
We had a great time under the hospices of Monty Goodson and the rest of the PDXBot crew. We had a good time seeing cool new custom robots by Josh Triska (1st place Advanced Mini-Sumo with "Lo-Bot") and Daryl Sandberg ("Slik", who was out for StrongBad blood this year!). 2Strong2Bad was a bit outclassed this year by really, really fast robots, although it was still the only 4WD mini-sumo there.
We were a bit ambitious with the sheer number of robots we entered:
- 4 Mini-Sumo (2Strong2Bad, StrongBad, Sumovoracious, Ender's Wraith)
- 1 Micro-Sumo (Microvore)
- 2 Nano-Sumo (Princess Becky and BittyBad)
- 2 Walkers (Servocore and ScoutWalker2)
- 2 Line Followers (Herbie and Atmel Sumovore)
- A Family (8?) of Herbies for the Robot Talent Show
How'd we do?
- 1st and 2nd in Nano
- 2nd in Mini-Sumo (Grant's own "Ender's Wraith" - Yaaaay Grant!)
- 3rd in Robot Talent Show
- An unnofficial 2nd in Beginner Line Follower (we just demo'd a Line Follower Herbie)
- 3rd in Micro-Sumo (Grrr...We'll get you Mouse-Trap!)
- 3rd in the Walker Race
Not only that, but Sumovores placed 1st (Kris Miles) and 3rd (Leif Bowlin) in Amateur Mini-Sumo!
In other news, the Calgary Flames fought the honourable fight, but Cinderella was finally handed back her broom by Tampa Bay. Nice work guys! Not many teams can go from last place to almost first place in one season!
MORE POSTS
PIMP YO' SUMO!
The biggest complaint we've ever had is that the Sumovore is boring. I mean, yeah, it can beat the tar out of most other sumos in the ring without batting an eye. But it's just so boring to watch. It'd be funner to watch the paint dry on a pot of boiling water. So, after […]
Wednesday Links: Smile TV, New Materials...
Brief summary of today's short issue: it is about squishy mice robots that feed on the dark matter, live in weird motors and make TVs smile. Smile TV Pretty retro-looking 4-legged TV leaves you smiling like an idiot in order to watch anything. (Via Designboom) How Squishy Would You Like Your Robot? Finally science moving […]
Closed for Canada Day (July 1st)
Well now. When we told you to "drop by and say hello" while we were at the Vancouver Mini-Maker Faire, we weren't expecting that big of a turnout. It seems like half the people in attendance were there just to see us. We were thrilled to meet so many of you, and although we were […]
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