Workshops would probably be once a week for a few weeks or something like that but essentially whatever we want to do.

As for facilities they have a computer lab and will have a sort of electronics workshop. No actual metalworking or construction facilities that I know of. Apparently they were looking at having some 3D printing and laser cutter and stuff down stairs but that is not covered under their current budget.

I think they could probably store our arena short term like for few months if we were doing things regularly but that would have to be negotiated.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

microswitching setups are easy to make using $3 microservos and the switches epoxied to the side, I can't see any budget way of using real esc's for a workshop...
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quote:

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Originally posted by kkeerroo:

Or ant weights powered by modified servos?

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True, you could get standard servos and modify them beforehand for continuous rotation, hand them out with cardboard and doublesided tape - instant antweight. Little dull though.
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quote:

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Originally posted by dyrodium:
True, you could get standard servos and modify them beforehand for continuous rotation, hand them out with cardboard and double sided tape - instant antweight. Little dull though.

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I had written a rather large post but I lost it when site went down for a short while last night.

So workshop ideas which I currently am considering:

Antweight workshop + comp. Should be fairly easy to do and we could run a comp for the antweights leading up to event and have some feathers there to show entrants. I am pretty sure we would at least get a few people interested enough to continue with bigger bots.

Lego mindstorms robot workshop. I know that UQ do an entire subject using the NXT robot system so I have been looking at the kits as a teaching platform. It seems to be pretty widely used though the upfront cost of $400 per kit could be an issue.

Robot sumo workshop. A bit harder to do than just the antweights but incorporates some AI which lends more the actual robotics learning. Not sure how much it would cost and would be harder to do .

Learn how to build and learn AVR programming from scratch. I have been looking at designing a board which has components which can be incrementally added to build a robot with more and more functionality. Rather hard to run and many things could go wrong.


I think that at the very max the cost of one of these workshops should be $100. Which should be doable for all these options.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

You could roll the antweight and AVR programming ideas into one. Use the AVR based Baby Orangutan B-328 Robot Controller from Pololu, it has a 1amp cont, 3amp peak dual motor controller on board, which could be used with either some Pololu Gearmotors or gutted servos for drive. You can then teach them the basics about programming the AVR to read adc's, do pwm and all the other widgets for a bot controller.

Provide them with source code that works for the workshop and allow them to build upon it.
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Yeh that could be done but I was looking at something that I could put a bootloader on or that had programming built into it so that they don't need to buy a separate programmer.

Another thing was to build up a robot for a workshop. Send them away with it and a working source then they can modify it and reprogram it for a competition in a weeks or two.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

quote:

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Originally posted by marto:
Yeh that could be done but I was looking at something that I could put a bootloader on or that had programming built into it so that they don't need to buy a separate programmer.

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Then you gotta make board with MAX232 Chip on it to convert to the right logic levels. Which sorta gets bit messy. Easy enough but would prolly be easier to put everything on the same board. You can get the 2A /channel LN298s for pretty cheap. Which would be fine for antweights just dont have the same tiny footprint.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Put the MAX232 on the serial cable itself, saves having to put it in the robot. Otherwise, just buy the programmer
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Controller + programmer is at least $40USD + radio and gearmotors. You are looking at well over $100. Before all the other bits.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Another option which would be very low cost and would be good to get people involved. Would be just to run a few demos and open up some robots and tell them how they work.

If we could have just a rock, paper and scissors bots. And make posters of them dissambled and how they work. Then get up explain them then do a bit of a demo would pretty good.

Do a rammer and explain the basics. Then throw in marauder and scare some people. Them maybe a spinner. And have a bit of a battle. Do all this with someone talking with powerpoint. Then take them out of the arena and put them next to posters and people can walk round and ask questions.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

All the talk about building ant weights has got me thinking of building one again. I just want to confirm if we are following the RFL rules. Will we be building an ant weight arena?
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I think we will do the antweights. Sent off another email today. Will see what they think.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com