cant build a robot

[neophyte78]

I wanted to build a robot when i was 6 years old and now i am 14 years old and i still dont know how to do it.
I know there's a tutoreal but i dont know mutch about electronics and mecanics
am i to young or what??

[superchiku]

yes u are but not too young this is the right age to get into things since ur 14 , u must be in middle school or something but i think ur old enough to atleast learn somethings abt robotics, just go thorough all the robot tutorials , first read the basics and then try to go higher , iam sure ull catch up soon

[pomprocker]

You need money too 

[benji]

 ,,get yourself a book that teaches basic electronics, that would be your first step

[Trumpkin]

Heck, i'm 12 and I have built a robot. You can definently do it.

[skatj]

Start with Lego Mindstorms, then maybe get a Boe-Bot Kit if you can't follow the50$ tutorial.

This is a lot more expensive tho

[Private Reid]

Heck, i'm 12 and I have built a robot. You can definently do it.

YER, YOUR RIGHT

IM 14 TWO

Start with Lego Mindstorms, then maybe get a Boe-Bot Kit if you can't follow the50$ tutorial.

This is a lot more expensive tho

yes this is a good way to start

You need money too 

Save

[Private Reid]

one hard thing for you.

I already new all about electronics when i was 10.

I had the knoledge to build a robot at that age!

Books are a good way to start as well

[Webbot]

Depends on what you want (and budget is obviously important).

If you want to create a 'bot but don't want to do the whole 'soldering thing' then there are kits out there like  Lego Mind Storms. If you are completely new to the whole subject then it may be a good place to start but, hey, Lego ain't cheap - and you wont learn much about electronics or even soldering. You will only work in the Lego clip-together domain. But if you want a quick result and dont care about the 'under the hood stuff' then its fine and you can get some 'quick wins' to make you feel good.

If you want to go a bit more 'free - form' then follow the previous posts:- learn 'a little' about electronic basics, see the soldering videos, set your sights small and then improve thru doing (you can read a million books but its only when you try to solder something that you start to learn!). 

So the subtle difference is:
- do you want to build someone else's robot (as per Lego) - makes you feel good but unfulfilled
- do you want to create your own unique creature - even if its a limping one-legged thug - but at least it's unique to your - and there isn't another one in the world!!


Comparing Lego vs $50 Robot on this site. Then I would say that Lego is probably $175+ (sorry live in the UK but used to spend more than $100 on lego Mindstorms for my son when he was younger so not sure what the price is today). The $50 Tutorial on this site will get you hands-on, with support from some excellent Forum folk. Depending on your starting point - then it will probably cost a lot more than $50. For example: do you have a soldering iron, solder, wire, pliers, battery clips, NiMH batteries, screws, nuts, bolts  etc etc? And you will come away with a better understanding. Hey, get your Dad to help price the $50 kit as he probably has some of the tools. You can then blame him and get him to pay for any overspend. Be devious (but fair!).


Is it cheap - No! 
Is it fun - you bet'cha!
Will it make you more interesting to girls - probably not!

[Ro-Bot-X]

I am 3 times your age... I allready knew electronics from school and a little procedural programming form a computer course. I also knew metal and wood working from school, so I had a good base to start doing robotics. That was about 5 years ago. At that time there wasn't so much of a comunity online except for the Lego Mindstorms fans. So I bought a $200 kit, then more parts, sensors, motors, totaling around $600... I have learned a lot during this time, mostly the mechanical aspect, since Lego has milions of ways of assambling parts, gears and beams. I learned about Ackerman steering, the car differential, the differential driving (tank style), I played with different gear reductions, rack and pinion, ratchet, the Killough platform, the Synchro drive, legged robots, light sensor, touch sensor, rotation sensor, IR and ultrasonic sensor and many many more. Heck I have built a one motor mechanical wall follower (maze runner) and a one light sensor - one motor line follower! No one has done that before. I also built a mechanical sumo robot (Steve Hassenplug has refined and improoved both my mechanical designs and even won the sumo competition with his mechanical design!). I have participated at lots of competitions I would never participated with regular robots. And I am not talking about regular competitions like Line following, Sumo, Maze... I am talking about Pipe Racers, Garbage Collection, Milk Delivery, Maxwell Deamons, Crevasse Crossing, King of the Hill, Crossing the Sea. Plus there is the First Lego League competitions where you have 5 tasks your robot has to do in under 90 seconds! The experience is invaluable.

Now I am doing both Lego and "sheet metal" robotics. My goal is to build myself a big robot (I allready did part of it, but I am not happy with the design so I will think more and rebuild it completly). I like Lego for prototyping and for the competitions. But I will get to the point where I will have a general purpose robot (like Admin's ERP) that I will use for some of the competitions.

The conclusion is: Lego brings lots of fun, experience, competitions, a better understanding of how things work. It is a good start for any roboticist. It spares you the pain and frustration the regular robotics involve. You will like to love the hobby not to hate it (just because you soldered a wire wrong and nothing works and it takes days to re-check everything to finaly find the mistake... then to get another problem...). In order to be succesfull with regular robotics you need to work very organised and meticulous.

Why is Lego more expensive? Because you pay for a system that is failproof, is well documented, is designed for middle schoolers, is a great educational system. Take a look at NXT, the new Lego kit that is even more advanced than the RIS kit, for $250 is a well done investment.

[Private Reid]

If you want to create a 'bot but don't want to do the whole 'soldering thing' then there are kits out there like  Lego Mind Storms

Thats what I started off with

Lego ain't cheap - and you wont learn much about electronics or even soldering.

True

Is it cheap - No! 
Is it fun - you bet'cha!
Will it make you more interesting to girls - probably not!

Cheap, No
Fun, Yes
  Girls, Yes for me 

[superchiku]

plzz keep ur self in the topic , and abt girls comeon he is just 14 , let his first facial hair grow

[neophyte78]

Heck, i'm 12 and I have built a robot. You can definently do it.

mayby u can do that but i cant...

[neophyte78]

I am 3 times your age... I allready knew electronics from school and a little procedural programming form a computer course. I also knew metal and wood working from school, so I had a good base to start doing robotics. That was about 5 years ago. At that time there wasn't so much of a comunity online except for the Lego Mindstorms fans. So I bought a $200 kit, then more parts, sensors, motors, totaling around $600... I have learned a lot during this time, mostly the mechanical aspect, since Lego has milions of ways of assambling parts, gears and beams. I learned about Ackerman steering, the car differential, the differential driving (tank style), I played with different gear reductions, rack and pinion, ratchet, the Killough platform, the Synchro drive, legged robots, light sensor, touch sensor, rotation sensor, IR and ultrasonic sensor and many many more. Heck I have built a one motor mechanical wall follower (maze runner) and a one light sensor - one motor line follower! No one has done that before. I also built a mechanical sumo robot (Steve Hassenplug has refined and improoved both my mechanical designs and even won the sumo competition with his mechanical design!). I have participated at lots of competitions I would never participated with regular robots. And I am not talking about regular competitions like Line following, Sumo, Maze... I am talking about Pipe Racers, Garbage Collection, Milk Delivery, Maxwell Deamons, Crevasse Crossing, King of the Hill, Crossing the Sea. Plus there is the First Lego League competitions where you have 5 tasks your robot has to do in under 90 seconds! The experience is invaluable.

Now I am doing both Lego and "sheet metal" robotics. My goal is to build myself a big robot (I allready did part of it, but I am not happy with the design so I will think more and rebuild it completly). I like Lego for prototyping and for the competitions. But I will get to the point where I will have a general purpose robot (like Admin's ERP) that I will use for some of the competitions.

The conclusion is: Lego brings lots of fun, experience, competitions, a better understanding of how things work. It is a good start for any roboticist. It spares you the pain and frustration the regular robotics involve. You will like to love the hobby not to hate it (just because you soldered a wire wrong and nothing works and it takes days to re-check everything to finaly find the mistake... then to get another problem...). In order to be succesfull with regular robotics you need to work very organised and meticulous.

Why is Lego more expensive? Because you pay for a system that is failproof, is well documented, is designed for middle schoolers, is a great educational system. Take a look at NXT, the new Lego kit that is even more advanced than the RIS kit, for $250 is a well done investment.

i also know a bit of wood and metal (learned at school)
lego is to expensive it isnt worth is money

[neophyte78]

Depends on what you want (and budget is obviously important).

If you want to create a 'bot but don't want to do the whole 'soldering thing' then there are kits out there like  Lego Mind Storms. If you are completely new to the whole subject then it may be a good place to start but, hey, Lego ain't cheap - and you wont learn much about electronics or even soldering. You will only work in the Lego clip-together domain. But if you want a quick result and dont care about the 'under the hood stuff' then its fine and you can get some 'quick wins' to make you feel good.

If you want to go a bit more 'free - form' then follow the previous posts:- learn 'a little' about electronic basics, see the soldering videos, set your sights small and then improve thru doing (you can read a million books but its only when you try to solder something that you start to learn!). 

So the subtle difference is:
- do you want to build someone else's robot (as per Lego) - makes you feel good but unfulfilled
- do you want to create your own unique creature - even if its a limping one-legged thug - but at least it's unique to your - and there isn't another one in the world!!


Comparing Lego vs $50 Robot on this site. Then I would say that Lego is probably $175+ (sorry live in the UK but used to spend more than $100 on lego Mindstorms for my son when he was younger so not sure what the price is today). The $50 Tutorial on this site will get you hands-on, with support from some excellent Forum folk. Depending on your starting point - then it will probably cost a lot more than $50. For example: do you have a soldering iron, solder, wire, pliers, battery clips, NiMH batteries, screws, nuts, bolts  etc etc? And you will come away with a better understanding. Hey, get your Dad to help price the $50 kit as he probably has some of the tools. You can then blame him and get him to pay for any overspend. Be devious (but fair!).


Is it cheap - No! 
Is it fun - you bet'cha!
Will it make you more interesting to girls - probably not!

i know how to solder but i dont know where to get started to build a robot

[neophyte78]

You need money too 

i have € 500 to spend :p

[neophyte78]

one hard thing for you.

I already new all about electronics when i was 10.

I had the knoledge to build a robot at that age!

Books are a good way to start as well

how did you learnd that school,parents,friends?

[Ro-Bot-X]

lego is to expensive it isnt worth is money

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

But it doesn't matter, you will learn, little by little. You might want to start with spelling?

[superchiku]

lego doesnt pose any challenge but it is quite cool when u want to build a powerful project within a short span of time..

[Ro-Bot-X]

Lego doesn't pose any ELECTRONIC challenge (it's allready done) and not so much MECHANICAL challenge (the parts and gears are allready done, you just have to come up with the way of assembling them, which IS a challenge). Unless you want to build your own compatible sensors, like Compass, Gyro...The programming part is the same. There is a C language similar to the gcc for AVRs. And the microcontroller is a 32 bit ARM7, not an 8 bit AVR, with more flash (256kbytes) and ram (64kbytes), with a (100x64pixels) graphical display, the motors have buit in encoders so you can use them as driving motors OR as regular servos...

Ok, let's think about the money, how much will all these parts cost?
- augumented 32 bit ARM7 microcontroller with USB2.0 - about $90
- bluetooth connection - about $65
- graphical display - about $25
- 3 (9V) geared DC motors with encoders - about $20 each
- 1 ultrasonic sensor - about $20
- 1 color sensor - about $10
- 1 sound sensor - about $8?
- 1 touch (contact) sensor - about $2

If we add them up we get $280! But the whole kit costs $250!!!

[Trumpkin]

i know how to solder but i dont know where to get started to build a robot

READ ADMIN'S TUTORIALS!!!!!!!!
 
 
 

[TK]

Deffinetly go with the lego it gets you thinking about what you can build for each project and because you have all the peices in the kit you can most likely build it there without waiting weeks for parts to come in.  Plus with the NQC compiler that you can get it turns all of the programming into a more advanced stage.  It is also handy not to have to solder anything.

[SmAsH]

TK, did you read the date of the last post? That's right, it was 2008!
Please be sure to read the post date of a topic before you post to prevent old topics being bumped.

[Choco_liger]

Yay, other 12 year olds!

Sorry I'm getting off topic.

EDIT: O-O This is an old topic. Sorry didn't read the previous posts.