Building a robot...?

[zorm]

I went to Digikey to get better information and they actually have a better price on them too. They weigh about 5.5lbs so they are no where close to a car battery and are probably very much similar to a laptop battery. http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T061/1591.pdf for detailed specs. The thing about the battery is it needs to be rechargable and cheap is preferred. I also suspect that most motors can handle this weight with ease. You have to remember the plan is to have rather large motors, i.e. bigger than what you'd find in most RC cars and such.

My neighbor who lives behind me built a battlebot type deal, which used like 1/4" thick steel plate as a base which weighed more than the batteries he used to power it. I'm not exactly sure on the types of motors he used, I guess I should find out.

Not really planning to solder the aluminum, I plan to bolt everything to it basically. Have better suggestions for a base material thats cheap and can be easily acquired?

The problem with things like Damn Small Linux is that its made to be used as a workstationish environment and so not really suitable for this project. I've also realized that my cf size and memory may be on the overboard side. I could scale them back to way less probably.

[rabbit]

Regular steel is a good base material.  If you can afford it, titanium is stronger and lighter.  The problem with windshield wiper motors is that they are designed for only a limited range of motion (150-175° or so, depending on the type) and aren't that powerful.  I'm not too sure about a power source, but jury-rigged laptop batteries will definitely work.

And as to DSL, just don't run X!  You can install what you need, run it, and you'll be set.

[Joe]

Ubuntu Server may be a good choice for distro.

EDIT -
Also, DSL is a pain in the ass to install. Thought you ought to know.

[zorm]

Actually, I could just use Windows for the whole thing. It'd make life really easy.

[rabbit]

I wouldn't recommend it, though.  Windows will use a lot of the available power and memory on, well, a whole lot of nothing.

[zorm]

I'm not so sure I couldn't strip down a win2k to make it nice. The advantage of all of this is that I'd get to program on a platform I know a lot about, and I'll break the hearts of a lot of geeks who ask what it runs when I get it all working :p

[RoMi]

A quite powerful motor, and in this case quite cabable, is automatic window motor, they do full rotation also.  Go to a local junk yard you could probably pick up a few of thoes on the cheap, or free.

MIT is about 10 miles away from my house, and they often have open houses showing off thier latest technologies, this includes their rebotics department.  I'd think that many colleges do this also.

[MyndFyre]

I'm not so sure I couldn't strip down a win2k to make it nice. The advantage of all of this is that I'd get to program on a platform I know a lot about, and I'll break the hearts of a lot of geeks who ask what it runs when I get it all working :p

Robot .NET 2.0: OOP with serial ports, and XML web services all rolled into a small rolling package. 

[ink]

This post has thoroughly inspired me, many thanks! 

[MyndFyre]

I'm not so sure I couldn't strip down a win2k to make it nice. The advantage of all of this is that I'd get to program on a platform I know a lot about, and I'll break the hearts of a lot of geeks who ask what it runs when I get it all working :p

You know, Microsoft is always trying to market themselves.  You might try to exploit that by trying to get them to license you a copy of Windows XP Embedded.  Tell them you'll advertise that they donated to your project.

[zorm]

You know, Microsoft is always trying to market themselves.  You might try to exploit that by trying to get them to license you a copy of Windows XP Embedded.  Tell them you'll advertise that they donated to your project.

Thats a great idea, I should hit up Newby since he has Microsoft connections.

[zorm]

I played around with XPe today and its actually very cool. Now I just need to figure out the best way to get a free license for it and I'm all set!

Also, add a compactflash reader/writer to my list of needed items. I figure this might help when I want to load the OS onto it.

[MyndFyre]

I played around with XPe today and its actually very cool.

Out of curiousity, how did you get it?  Torrent?

[zorm]

No, they actually offer a free 120 trial. Then I googled around and found out how to run it inside vmware. Haven't done much aside from that since it really needs a hardware profile, but the generic one will work for now.

[MyndFyre]

No, they actually offer a free 120 trial. Then I googled around and found out how to run it inside vmware. Haven't done much aside from that since it really needs a hardware profile, but the generic one will work for now.

What I highly recommend is putting together a project proposal and see if they'll give you an internship.  I'll clarify.

I found out the Microsoft recruiter for my university is Kim Bremmer (you can find this out at http://www.microsoft.com/college/).  I didn't get the internship I applied for a while ago; however, when I was last on my let's-get-a-Microsoft-gig hype time, I sent her an e-mail asking, essentially, "If I put a project proposal together for something that would add value to a current Microsoft product, could I get an internship working on that project?"  She told me, essentially, "Put the project proposal together and then we'll talk."

That was more work than I had time for at the time, but I am fairly certain that they're not averse to looking into new and creative ways.  Their internships have great package benefits, and who knows?  You could be building a Microsoft battlebot running XP Embedded, while they're paying you to do something that you wanted to do (basically) anyway.  Then you could get parts and stuff for free too, *and* have the advantage of hardware pros like the people at the Xbox 360 division.

Of course, then you trade-off the notion of not being singularly identified with the project.  But it's still not a bad gig.

That might be way more in-depth than you had in mind, but it's probably worth considering.