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Subject: 
Re: LRGOAA & MichLUG Joint Meeting?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, lugnet.org.us.michlug
Date: 
Sun, 28 Mar 2004 06:11:05 GMT
Viewed: 
3234 times
  
In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, David Laswell wrote:
   In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jona Jeffords wrote:
   I think the lack of theme crossover is another big reason we haven’t gotten together in the past. Looking forward, I can imagine a “show” which has some of our robots wandering around one of your layouts, or something similar.

I’m not sure there’d be enough room to have fully functional robots actually wandering around on an actual theme layout (especially ones with moving trains that could get derailed), but I can think of two options that could work. Robotics could be added to an existing layout to help automate certain aspects of it

“could be”, and *have been*, since way back when, actually. 2001 I think. We’ve (well, our resident robotics wizard, Steve Ringe has) been using RCX’s and other Technic gadgetry for doing things like turntable automation (press a button on the remote and the table indexes to the next track position, then locks into place so the track is perfectly aligned, press another one and it moves back the other way) streetcar automation (have a linear track with no bumpers at the ends, streetcar trips a sensor and stops at the station, then reverses, travels to the other station, repeat over and over) and even, believe it or not, radio controlled trains. (take an RC unit, and use it to drive the throttle. Now your handheld RC controller is wirelessly controlling the speed!)

Our current area of exploration is into DCC. Several of us have DCC motors and have been playing with various control systems. I’m probably going to stick to the “Mark Riley RCX/DCC” approach but others have went out and bought Digitrax.

In another thread, Jason’s given a pretty good overview of the history of the club. I hope you, Jona, will get over your perception that we’re not about robotics. Robotics is more than just robots. And our club is about more than PD realises, because, as he said, he’s new, and as you’ll learn if you talk to him for any period of time, he’s pretty Bionicle centric and not very aware of what else goes on around him. Not that that’s a bad thing, necessarily, unless it gets in the way of realising what’s actually going on.

I’d love to do a joint meeting some time, or just have you or other LRGOAA members come to one of ours. We do a LOT more than just plan shows at our meetings.

And, Jason is right. There’s no right or wrong organizational division or whatever... if you have another club, that’s great. It’s a lot of work to start and grow a club, so hats off to you!

++Lar



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: LRGOAA & MichLUG Joint Meeting?
 
(...) <SNIP> (...) While I do realize that the current definition of robotics (especially in the automotive capitol of the world) includes many things that are not commonly thought of as "robots", I also have to say that automating a train layout (...) (20 years ago, 28-Mar-04, to lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, lugnet.org.us.michlug, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: LRGOAA & MichLUG Joint Meeting?
 
(...) I'm not sure there'd be enough room to have fully functional robots actually wandering around on an actual theme layout (especially ones with moving trains that could get derailed), but I can think of two options that could work. Robotics (...) (20 years ago, 27-Mar-04, to lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, lugnet.org.us.michlug, FTX)

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