Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: groovy9 on January 17, 2007, 11:07:13 AM

Title: Great stuff
Post by: groovy9 on January 17, 2007, 11:07:13 AM
New robot geek here, thought I'd drop in and say thanks for the great site.  I'll start off a trivial contribution:

Amazon will give you $30 for applying for an Amazon.com credit card (no annual fee, instant approval).  I'm trying to bootstrap myself as cheaply as possible, so I did that and picked up a couple robotics books for next to nothing.

FWIW, I ordered "Robot Builder's Bonanza" and "Robot Programming : A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics".   Now for some cheap motors.... :)


Title: Re: Great stuff
Post by: jsbarone on January 17, 2007, 11:40:50 AM
Welcome to the board.  There is a lot of great information in the thread below "Tips and Tricks for the new hobbyist".  One of the posters suggested a collection of parts that can be had for around $50.  I plan on doing it (as a beginner) and picking up a few books.  You might want to try it too.
Title: Re: Great stuff
Post by: groovy9 on January 17, 2007, 12:39:55 PM
I hope to do one quite a bit cheaper than that.  I'm already a programmer geek (CS degree), and set myself up with a next-to-free Atmel programmer (http://www.instructables.com/id/E5H5UDWB5UEUKIKV8V/), thus avoiding dropping $30+ on a robot controller board and related accessories.  Picked up some free broken printers on Craigslist, out of which came some nifty rubber-coated wheels and plenty of aluminum stock (and my 4-year-old had a *blast* tearing them apart.)

I'll order some cheap gearmotors, hopefully find some HDPE locally (thanks for that tutorial!), and go to town.

That's the plan, anyway :)