Subject:
|
Newbie's questions
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.robotics
|
Date:
|
Tue, 28 Dec 1999 09:33:29 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
684 times
|
| |
|
|
Hi there,
I got my first RIS kit for X-mas. (Actually, I bought it for myself
after I couldn't convince my daughter to wish it for herself :-)
I made my first robot last night (after my family finally went to bed),
and it runs quite well (still with RCXcode, but I'm going to NQC quite
soon).
Now, although I'm peeking into this newsgroup since some weeks, I still
have some beginner's questions:
1. Stalled motors
How big *really* is the danger to damage a motor by stalling? (Should I
really bother much to install those clutch gears?)
2. IR "range"
What is the reason one can set this IR transmitter to 2 different
ranges? Why not always set it to long range? What's the disadvantage of
short range?
3. Plastic type
What's the chemical composition of Lego parts?
(Already thinking about self-made sensors, I want to prepare the proper
glue...).
4. Spare parts in Europe
I'm living in Germany, and it seems really troublesome to get spare
parts over here. You guys in the USA who can order from Pitsco are
lucky. In Germany, too, there is a dealer of the Dacta series, but he
doesn't sell individual spare parts. And Pitsco in the U.S. doesn't
accept overseas orders... I'd be interested in any source where I could
purchase a bunch of bricks when needed (e.g. "50 pcs of that 1x2 type",
as Pitsco is doing) and *especially* those special parts like "large
roundtables" that don't seem to be available from any other source.
Has anybody found any way to obtain such parts easily over here in
Europe?
Just for the records: I'm 41 and didn't touch Legos since 35 years. But
when I heard about Mindstorms last year, I got excited immediately. I
had a "theoretical" interest in robotics for years, having read all
those papers by Brooks and the nice little booklet by Braitenberg etc.,
which arose the wish to build such little critters by myself - but
considering my poor skills in electronics and especially mechanics, I
saw no realistic way for me. Until now. Jeez, I never had such fun at
X-mas since years!
Regards,
Uwe
|
|
Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Newbie's questions
|
| Hi, (...) Last week I faxed all the firms mentioned on (URL) for mindstorms and technic parts. They all pointed me to Technik-LPE GmbH Technische Medien - Schulausstattung Postfach 1121 Schwanheimer Strasse 27 D-69412 EBERBACH Germany Tel: + 49 62 (...) (25 years ago, 28-Dec-99, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Newbie's questions
|
| (...) I personally used the clutch gears more to build timing tolerant mechanisms than to protect motors from damages. I mean in those cases when you want your motor to move something up to a point and then "slip", and you don't want to use a sensor (...) (25 years ago, 28-Dec-99, to lugnet.robotics)
|
5 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
Active threads in Robotics
|
|
|
|
|
|
