My robotics blog is here..

I don't really update this anymore. My robotics blog is here..

billyzelsnack-robotics.blogspot.com

What are my projects 2010sep

Freedom3D
Scope now includes MCAD capabilities.

130cm Humanoid Biped
I'm devoting all my robotics research time towards a large humanoid. A secondary goal is to enter in AdultSize robocup competitions.

CNC Mill/Printer
Scope now includes fused deposition capabilities.

Shapemaniac IPhone
Yep. Still not shipped.

Fix big telescope
I need to convert the positioning motor from 240VAC to 120VAC or better yet swap it with a DC motor so I can run from a battery.

New robotics blog

So the blog plan..

Move all robot related stuff from z425.blogspot.com to my new robotics blog at billyzelsnack-robotics.blogspot.com .

Move all robot related stuff from z425.com to the new robotics blog.

Move everything else from z425 to the z425 blogspot blog.

I need to do this carefully so I don't lose my ranks. The final goal is getting rid of the z425 domain all together.

I'm also going to put a little bit of effort into my ad revenue. For years now I've been pulling in about $200 doing nothing from my blog. With the "new" analytics and ad stuff integrated into blogspot I should be able to tweak that. The robotics blog should actually do pretty well since the keywords are pretty obscure and typically have high value. My goal for this year is to get my ad revenue up to $100/mo without doing anything that I would not do anyway.

Let's see how well this shows up in buzz.

Maybe if this works out I'll start making blog posts again.


Now let's see what happens if I edit. Are they REALLY linked together.

What are my projects

freedom3d

Learning how to use behaviors. Have a little test using sketchflow.

imu demo

Getting data back from the imu. Learning to use the new .net tasks for use in other projects.

alibre ax-12 biped

Two parallel link sections operational, but really that nice.

shapemaniac iphone
It's in alpha.

stepper motor driver
AVR environment all ready. Motors ordered.

cnc conversion

Cleaned and oiled everything. 2-axis table sitting under my desk.

iButterToast in Washington Times

I never posted a link to this. Here it is..

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/26/some-iphone-apps-may-be-offbeat-but-thats-by-desig/print/

Clothing pressure sensors

Anti-patent.

I'm think that instead of putting pressure sensors on the robot itself that it might be a better idea to put them in ( probably padded ) clothing and shoes. The clothes and shoes do not need to be tight fitting, but tight enough to stay mostly in the same relative place to the skeleton.

For calibration you could have the robot touch itself all over ( while playing that song. ) That will give the location of the sensors as well as a calibration of their sensitivity.

One advantage of doing things this way is that it self-organizes the huge mess of sensor wires and provides a nice way for you to remove them as a whole easily. Which is nice for maintenance and testing.

wpf VisualStateManager.GoToState not working

I'll save you the 3 hours and tell you the answer.

It just does not work if you throw a bunch of controls into a Window. You have to add stuff into a UserControl ( maybe something else works too. ) With a Window the GoToStateAction behavior works just fine to confuse you, but if you try to call GoToState from code it just does nothing. Changing to a UserControl makes it work from code.

LAME.

more robots

ok. I thought about it. It is going to be too difficult to give my biped project up. Maybe if I figured out a way to not have such a horrible work area I could deal with it. I really try. I have like a million storage boxes, but I never get anywhere. I just don't have enough physical space. 16x12 in a crappy basement is just too small. Maybe I could build a shed for a few things and transform my garage into a workspace. It'd be super cold in the winter though and frozen hands are one of my major complaints with the basement. Frozen hands messing around with metal sounds worse than frozen hands typing.