Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #02004
To: BEAM List beam@corp.sgi.com
From: aellisuk@aol.com (A ELLIS UK)
Date: 03 Apr 1999 07:47:07 GMT
Subject: Re: Electrolytic Tilt sensors
In article , Peter Hesketh
writes:
>While we're on the subject of home circuits using electrolytic pill
>bottles, Wireless World once had an article about a random pulse
>generator consisting of a 100 ohm resistor in series with a two-terminal
>pill bottle containing a wad of cotton-wool and some silver nitrate
>solution.
>
>Thin dendrites of silver grow between the terminals. When one bridges
>the gap, the sudden current rise vapourises it and produces a voltage
>pulse across the resistor.
>
>Obrobots, this might be useful for getting BEAMs out of repetitive
>loops.
A Robot in an Practical Electonics article circa 1969, used exactly this
technique to randomise the machines output reflex in response to collisions.
The device was way ahead of its time, and before IC's were generally available,
requiring over 40 transistors. The project's name was EMMA, which stood for
Electronic Mime Machine Animal, and was the culmination of a series of articles
on Bionics by Gerry Brown, which was also way ahead of it's time.
Tony Ellis
--------------A89A00847AE12909B9A10A72--
2005 Fri, 3 Apr 1992 10:35:54 +0000 [alt-beam] Re: Solarbotics orders in Australia beam@corp.sgi.com davidperry@mail.geocities.com my stuff only took 4 weeks, small orders are sent air mail any way. I
live in melbourne.
David Perry
> Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 21:45:45 +0000
> Subject: Solarbotics orders in Australia
> From: "Ben Hitchcock"
> To: beam
> Reply-to: "Ben Hitchcock"
> If you're ordering from Australia, take my advice and send the stuff
> airmail.
>
> I just got my solar cells from solarbotics, after almost two months! It's
> no fault of solarbotics' - of course they have no control over the time it
> takes to ship items - but airmail is definitely the way to go.
>
> The cells look awesome! The large cell powered Alf up from 0 volts in less
> than 3 minutes - compared to 18 minutes with two calculator solar cells.
> Definitely an improvement.
>
> Ben
>
____________________________________________
I'm sure David sinceraly apologises if he
insulted anyone, it won't happen again.
____________________________________________
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