 | | HardToSeperate - solutions?
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I noticed a new folder in the SMART Brickshelf today: have you tried using those flexible thin rubber pads used to open really tight jar lids? I use one of those, and it works great (and is cheap). Using two of them makes pulling small pins out of (...) (20 years ago, 18-Nov-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: November 20th, 2004 SMART Meeting
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(...) For the BrickHeap Wars competition there were strict rules about what and how the robots had to work. For our mini-challenges, we leave much of the interpretation up to you. Do what you can. Challenge yourself to build the best robot you can. (...) (20 years ago, 14-Nov-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: November 20th, 2004 SMART Meeting
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(...) Hi David This challenge sounds like fun. Some questions. Will the blocks be white? How many blocks will there be (approx.)? How long is the course? (to gauge speed to complete in 3 minutes) I read some of your previous notes and understand (...) (20 years ago, 14-Nov-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | November 20th, 2004 SMART Meeting
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It's hard to believe that the next SMART meeting is almost upon us! I've been so busy with the Crate Contraption at Robothon, and NWBrickCon that I haven't even thought about the next meeting until now, but it's only 10 days away! So if you haven't (...) (20 years ago, 10-Nov-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: NWBrickCon 2004 - Crate Contraption
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(...) Thanks for coming by to see us! We'll look forward to seeing you again in a few weeks. (November's meeting is on the 20th, due to Thanksgiving weekend.) There's a few more pictures of the crate contraption robots at (URL) (Most of the second (...) (20 years ago, 1-Nov-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: NWBrickCon 2004 - Crate Contraption
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I just saw this thing live and I must say it was incredibly impressive. I talked with a gentlemen from SMART for a bit of time, but I forget his name (I believe it was Mark). Anyway, hats off to you folks, it was a really neat display. The whole (...) (20 years ago, 31-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: NWBrickCon 2004 - Crate Contraption
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As promised, I have a few more pictures of our current Crate Contraption. I'll have a write-up of them sometime in the next week or three. Overall layout: (URL) forklift: (URL) distributer: (URL) Truck: (URL) End Loader: (URL) Forklift: (URL) robot (...) (20 years ago, 31-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | NWBrickCon 2004 - Crate Contraption
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Gus, Mark and I have spent much of the last week ironing out little bugs in getting our latest Crate Contraption working. It's now set up at NWBrickCon. I'll have more pictures soon, but for now here are two: (URL) you'd like to see it in action (...) (20 years ago, 30-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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(...) Why 2x2 square bricks for feet, instead of 2x2 round bricks? Having played (only as little!) with the crate on a self-aligning stand (2x2 slopes to help center the feet), the slopes don't seem to need the square edges of the 2x2 feet, and a (...) (20 years ago, 22-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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A friend passed this thread onto me and thought you might be interested in some work I've done with marbles: A marble pump (Pump folder) A marble machine i.e. continuous pump with falling devices A marble factory (supertrain2004 folder) (URL) be (...) (20 years ago, 21-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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(...) up on it. Two things I can see at this time, though, are that it only has one technic hole. It'd be much more useful with two or three that you could connect to. And second that it's not quite as thick as a rounded beam on the 'lifting' part. (...) (20 years ago, 20-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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(...) Similar to this piece? (URL) Good luck! Thanks! (20 years ago, 20-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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(...) Thanks! It has been extremely fun and rewarding to build these. They certainly attract a lot of attention from crowds. (...) The current crate that we use is this one: (URL) The other one that you see was an old prototype when we first started (...) (20 years ago, 19-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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(...) If I haven't said this already, let me first express how impressed and fascinated I am with your Contraptions. Three questions about the SMART crate. 1. The one at (URL) is 7 1/3 bricks high. The ones at the Road Show ((URL) appear to be 7 (...) (20 years ago, 19-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption scripting system?
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(...) That sounds very interesting. David Schilling has some white 3x7 boards that we are using that work fairly well. I would prefer something less glossy because then I get a better gray scale reading on the edge of the line. I'm going to look (...) (20 years ago, 18-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption scripting system?
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(...) Wow. Thank you for an absolutely fabulous describtion - that is far more than I hoped for, and it makes a lot of things clearer. (...) That's probably next on my list. I grabbed some cheap retroreflective tapa at Meijer's the other day, and (...) (20 years ago, 17-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption scripting system?
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I'm not sure how 'exactly' I can describe the system but I'll give it a try. I'll basically describe how the scripting system is used and you can infer how the code must work. First of all, let me talk about the marker tape pieces. They come from a (...) (20 years ago, 17-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Crate Contraption scripting system?
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How exactly does the scripting system you use work? I'm trying my hand at this, and did not think of using the remote to "program", so you've got my curiosity arroused (I'm using NQC, but that still gives me program access to three buttons (...) (20 years ago, 16-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Robothon 2004
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(...) Oops. Should be fixed now. -- David Schilling (20 years ago, 16-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Robothon 2004
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(...) Some of the video links are broken, but you can still see the videos at (URL) (20 years ago, 16-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Robothon 2004
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(...) Wait no more! Well, except for the downloads! :-) (URL) has a discription of the Robothon 2004 Crate Contraption setup and links to various video clips. I put up a bunch of different overviews, but essentially they all show the same thing, (...) (20 years ago, 16-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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David, Thanks for the input. I think the goal for the Great Ball Contraption will be different from your Crate Contraption for a couple reasons. For example, I don't expect this to run constantly. I'm hoping we'll be able to make it work for (...) (20 years ago, 15-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Robothon 2004
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(...) Me too! ;-) (...) Actually we used one of the 3x7 melamine boards from Home Depot. These are easier to transport in a car, they have a pretty good surface for line tracking, and they are quite inexpensive. Using only one, however, was very (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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(...) Usually we aim for around 30 balls per crate. That gives enough leeway that if a robot is out of commission for a few minutes (changing batteries, say) that a 'filling' robot still can run without being stopped. More than around 60 balls and (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) I've been quite busy recently, and so haven't had a chance to participate in this discussion until now. Pardon the long post, but it'll answer many of the questions and give details about SMART's own quest for a module standard. As Mark said, (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Robothon 2004
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(...) ... (...) I'm looking forward to the video. From what I can see, the whole layout is on a white 4x8 board, right? Two stationary "Ball Lifting" robots, and two moble "transport" robots. One question. Does this robot: (URL) the "dump truck" by (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Size
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Here's a couple more questions for the SMART guys. First, how many balls are "normally" loaded into a crate? I'm guessing between 20 and 30. How would things be effected if the crates were a little shorter? It appears the crates could be one or two (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Robothon 2004
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In the "Better late than never" department, here are pictures from the second day of SMART's mini-crate contraption at Robothon 2004. (URL) display was VERY popular! We had several thousand people come by to take a look at our display during the two (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) Which brings up a point about the standard. For a "simple" input, my methods (flip-up-able feeder ramp to temporarily hold incoming balls, or gravity-fed empty crates into newly vacated input zone) need very little height beyond the standard (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) I'm sure many AFoLs will feed on each other's ideas. My thought was to make a "holding" bin/crate with a trap door at the bottom, that is opened when a removable crate is put underneath it, or, something else that's only "active" when the (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) As long as the "Type 1" standard doesn't tightly constrain future expansion, I think both are achievable. (...) It seems a good one, but certainly not the only one. For instance, have a empty crates not filled directly, but instead via a (...) (20 years ago, 13-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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Steve clearly wants to keep this simple for the first go-around. But others, including myself, dream of more flexibility. I like Larry's idea of referring to versions. So rather than having to reject some features as too difficult, we can ear mark (...) (20 years ago, 12-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) I had in mind something a bit like the moonbase concept except where they have level passage-ways between modules, a GBC module would have either one or two two ins which include a slight down slope to encourgage balls to enter and either one (...) (20 years ago, 11-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) Yes, I think more people will participate in a "ball contraption" than a "crate contraption". It's my intent to create a ball contraption standard. People can use crates to move balls within there own module, if they choose. When balls are (...) (20 years ago, 11-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) I guess I am confused then. A crate is a thing that balls go in. A crate contraption would need to be able to handle crates, yes? Else it would be a ball contraption? The thing is, I think the problems of actaully building a mechanism which (...) (20 years ago, 8-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) This is really along the same lines as what I was thinking, except, I'd start with two ports (1 in, 1 out) on opposite sides of the module. Each module would have 1 input "crate" in a specified location, and would be responsable for moving (...) (20 years ago, 8-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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I have been pondering on the subject of a modular "thing" for next year's BrickFest Mindstorms room. I have been working on an idea similar to the moonbase idea where a module can have four ports. West and North are ins, East and South are outs. My (...) (20 years ago, 8-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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Are the SMARTies going to be showing anything off at NWBrickCon? (...) Alternatively, if you restrict the depth of a module somewhat, you COULD devise a standard way for a sorter to branch, and a combiner to merge (sorter has two outputs that are (...) (20 years ago, 7-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) I suspect it will be somewhere between very difficult and impossible to define and interface that is truly flexable enough to do everything you (we) will be interested in doing. However, the goal is to define an interface, so anyone can build (...) (20 years ago, 7-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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| | Re: Crate Contraption Standard
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(...) Steve - We've discussed this a few times too. What keeps blocking us is trying to define an interface that is flexible enough. Here are some of the issues we saw: Different interface types: Balls Crates (e.g., drop & pick up) Lines (e.g., (...) (20 years ago, 7-Oct-04, to lugnet.org.us.smart)
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