Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #00428
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 11:13:48 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: question
Sharon wrote:
>
> More expensive than a cpu? I don't know about you, but I am just finishing
> a two motor walker with reverse, turn, and phototropic behavior, and it has
> cost less than $100 CAN. If I were to buy all the equiptment needed for
> programing even a basic stamp it would cost from $400 to $700, and it would
> be VERY expensive if I didn't already have a PC. It may be expensive to
> build beam bots from kits, but if you know enough to build your own from
> technoscrap, it makes for a very interesting hobby (and inexpensive
> compared to RC planes, and model railroads.)
> just my thoughts,
> -Jeremy Williams
Where are you shopping?
First, forget the stamp totally. If you bought a LYnxmotion walker kit,
it includes
the processor and all programming equipment needed, for well less than
$200. Forget the stamp, and program the PIC directly with a $50
programmer, and also save on the cost of the STAMPS as well, PIC's
themselves are very inexpensive.
To fairly evaulate BEAM vs. processor based robots, you need to account
for the time needed to get the design to act the way you want, and
possibly the time needed to change the behavior if what you wanted fails
to meet the 'real world' demands.
REmeber that any real world application is going to need several
design/test cycles before its ready for the task.
Here the CPU wins hands down. You dont need to make physical
alterations to change the behavior.
I think that one real issue behind this discusion is being lost.
BEAM is one way to make a stumili-response drive robot. So is using a
CPU.
The reason CPU's were developed, was to make it easier to alter the
machines behavior, and also to allow for systems that changed their
behavior to meed the demands of the problem at hand.
BEAM is not any better than using a CPU, and a CPU can emulate any BEAM
circuit known to date. It can also easilt implement circuits that go
far beyond the known BEAM circuits, like the long sought after type 3
SE.
I started to build a type 3 SE with some SMT op-amps, but very quickly
it became larger and heavier than the 8 pin PIC it simply could not
equal.
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