Subject:
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Re: Is there any interest in a tiny scout-like brick?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 17 Apr 2003 16:51:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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1845 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Ben Jackson writes:
> I've been working on a tiny robot brick that I've nicknamed the "picoscout".
> The goal is to fit the key features of the Scout brick (the blue one) in a
> package the size of a light sensor. The plan is to have one pigtail for
> power, and 2 electrical pads on the top AND bottom for a total of 2 sensor
> inputs (probably touch only) and 2 motor outputs. I haven't quite figured
> out how to let you choose which builtin program to run, but it will probably
> be a recessed button on the bottom that you hold down when you apply power.
>
> Besides tiny robots (limited more by the size of the 9v-battery box)
> possible applications include a slave module for an RCX (put it on a motor
> output, apply power when you want a standard drive/bump/turn robot, turn it
> off when one of the RCX's three sensors see something and act with 2
> remaining motors) or a touch-switch limted motor that cycles back and forth
> (panning a sensor, for example). I'm also hoping to write a neural net
> based learning program which will let you hook up the IO to any robot and
> have it figure out how to avoid hitting things while still moving.
>
> Anyway, I've returned to lugnet.robotics after a long hiatus to find, well,
> everyone else is on hiatus! The robotics forum isn't hopping like it once
> was. So I'm wondering if I should be buying enough parts to be able to sell
> picoscouts to other enthusiasts, or if I should stick to my current supply
> (enough for the big one on the breadboard, plus 2 finished size, muaha!).
> Would anyone want to buy one of these? I can't see making it a kit (much
> fiddly soldering) and even greatly undervaluing my assembly time they'd have
> to cost $40-50. And eBay tells me you can get a real scout (maybe even an
> RCX) for that much now.
>
> Personally I think LEGO should ditch the microscout and the new blinky
> vehicle crap and make these (which in volume they could do for $5-10 tops)
> and include them in every set with a motor.
This sounds really cool! Just to be able to pack all that functionality
into a brick that size would be very useful. I'd buy a couple from you for
sure.
I assume you'd have IR on the thing, so you could always use the remote or
commands from another brick to tell the picoscout which program to run
instead of trying to pack a pushbutton in there.
Would you support downloadable firmware? Otherwise I suppose you'd have to
burn in your own firmware in order to run byte code. How would one program
this thing?
- Chris.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Is there any interest in a tiny scout-like brick?
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| I've been working on a tiny robot brick that I've nicknamed the "picoscout". The goal is to fit the key features of the Scout brick (the blue one) in a package the size of a light sensor. The plan is to have one pigtail for power, and 2 electrical (...) (21 years ago, 17-Apr-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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