This is my first "successful" robot. I had a servo driven Basix Stamp SX, that ran out of IO room and memory way too fast, and it moved way too slow, then I bricked it; and put it away for a year. Then I modified a 50 dollar RC tank (from radio shack) to be autonomous with a Infineon C167, but the "free" C compiler was only free up to 8K, then it was $3,000 for the full compliler, and the base was too loud and looked dumb- and my hand built motor controler was either all out fast (1) or stopped (0); so I put it away for a year. But I couldn't stop thinking about building a robot - as a database .NET application programmer, I really enjoy programming something and seeing it move in reality - so I decided to throw money at the problem and just get it the way I want with out any wasted time, so I got the very expensive Tri-Track, the expensive motor controller, and it all just worked the way it should, which makes me happy. There is even 90 dollars worth of batteries on it.
As I was typing that, there was a knock on my door and my voice sythensizer was delivered. The speakjet ... I pretty excited to try that out.
Anyway, back to the work bench.