Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #04974
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Wyzyrd" wyzyrd@cais.com
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 23:47:53 -0400
Subject: [alt-beam] a pretty wierd idea........
I'm in the process of beginning to lay out an HO scale model railroad setup,
as an
excuse to do some scale model building and to try to get my 10 year old
interested
in something besides playing Pokemon. (It's not a normal railroad, ofcourse,
but based
on Shirow Masamune's anime masterpiece "Galaxy Express 999")
I started thinking about controlling the thing and it brought back some
memories
of discussing a "locobot" a LONG time ago....
This is by no means a complete list, but a locobot would have to:
1) Sense an upcoming curve and slow down
2) Sense a straight section and speed up
3) Sense a "station" point and brake to a stop
4) Start moving after a predetermined pause or on a "start" signal
5) Sense incline and slow down or speed up
and possibly:
6) sense "turnout" switch position and "tell" the switch (an immobile
beambot?)
to change positions
7) sense track obstructions and brake quickly (reverse)
The locobot would have a constant supply of 12VDC, so batteries/caps/solar
cells
seem unnecessary. IR LEDs seem like a good signal mechanism, because they're
invisble to onlookers. I'll eventually put this list and some photos at :
http://www.wyzyrd.com/bots/
any good ideas?
Wyzyrd
<:)}
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