Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #10234
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Blumojo13@aol.com
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 07:43:55 EST
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: osciloscope
http://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/baict/bac/jf/labs/scope/oscilloscope.html
http://www3.ncsu.edu/ECE480/scope1.htm
These are the only scope sites I have. Hope it helps.
Blumojo13
10235 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 07:47:19 EST [alt-beam] Re: On making a better RJP... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com JVernonM@aol.com In a message dated 2/14/00 6:47:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, jfeser@ea.com
writes:
> Lets do it the BEAM way...Cheaply, effectively and most importantly, one
> that makes the bots show some interesting behaviours.
>
Hi all,
Here's some of my ideas for a park that I intend to build when I get the
room. First, make it as large as possible. Even if you put a few or a lot of
bots in it, you'll be amazed at how fast a small space will get boring. Paint
the walls and floor flat black. This will allow you to place reflective and
white areas strategically around the park to influence behavior and
performance. Make ramps to different levels, and mazes that lead to other
parts of the park. Entice the bots to explore them by placing a small light
or white surface at the top level, or at the end of the maze. Use these
reflective surfaces like the old Burma Shave signs, one placed after another
to guide the bot in the direction you want. Think of what you can do with
mirrors. Place at least two 500 watt halogen lights over the park for main
feeding of the bots. This will make them very active and with careful
placement, make things more interesting. Secondary lighting should be added
around the park in the form of small lights and LEDs to keep things
interesting. Place objects of differing reflective properties into the park
for the bots to push around, play with, and avoid. A black field, a couple of
white ping pong balls, and a small white corner of the park could be tweaked
into a sort of soccer game with a few Unicores tuned to this environment.
This same concept can be used in many ways. By covering the eyes of some bots
and leaving others unshaded, differing behaviors can be observed. Also, try
to add some dark activated circuits to make things light up, move, and
otherwise snaz up the joint after the bots go to sleep. This can be in the
form of night time roamers, plants, or corner beacons. Add some sound to your
park as well. Wilf has posted a couple of chirping and bird like noise makers
that could make your park sound like a Tarzan movie. Above all, use your
imagination. The possibilities for entertainment are endless and more fun to
watch than Baywatch. Well, OK, maybe almost as much fun :).
See ya,
Jim
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/8281/beamart.html
ICQ# 55657870
10236 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 08:04:14 EST [alt-beam] Re: Electronics Xpress beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Blumojo13@aol.com And the address is...?
blumojo13
10237 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 08:19:50 EST [alt-beam] Re: On making a better RJP... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com JVernonM@aol.com In a message dated 2/14/00 7:28:14 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mwtilden@math.uwaterloo.ca writes:
Hi Mark,
> you must also put 4
> inch high blue wedges in each corner to keep the robots from getting
> stuck (the inside arena will then have octagon type sides).
Wouldn't it be better to paint these wedges black? The idea is for the bots
to avoid the corners. Seems to me that painting them a light color would
entice the bots to explore the corners.
> Cycling halogen lights is annoying and reduces their lifetime
> considerably. The best method we've found is to drop 200 watt clear,
> non-frosted lights from the ceiling directly overhead using
> conventional electrical cladding. The lights must be inside aluminum
> lightshades and placed a minimum of 2 feet above the centerline of the
> park
I've used 300 watt halogens, and presently use 500 watt bulbs. 200 watts
seems low to me. I understand the problem with heat build up. The 500s do put
out some major heat. But, the bots are extremely active. 500s placed a meter
above the surface at opposing angles works very well, but could lead to
problems with heat build up, particularly if the park is covered. Putting the
park in an open area, or at least only against one wall helps dissipate the
heat considerably. I suppose it comes down to a trade off of activeness
versus heat build up. Thanks for the advice, hopefully after my garage is
finished, I'll have room to employ some of it.
See ya,
Jim
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/8281/beamart.html
ICQ# 55657870
10238 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:28:30 -0500 [alt-beam] Re: Solar cell Q beam@sgiblab.sgi.com "Sathe Dilip" The capacitor we connect in parallel with the solar cell acts like a
current storage tank. You save enough current to last you for a small
burst of motor (run) power. The level of current stored in the tank is
indicated by the voltage on the capacitor. How much current you can
store is decided by the size/value/capacity of the capacitor.
I don't know about the American curriculum but we used to have math
problems in school about a tank with a faucet filling it & another
emptying it. If you have done those, you will understand the above
analogy even better.
Dilip
-------------------------
William Cox wrote:
>
> Q: All the solar cells in Solarbotics catalog have a small current rating, I
> mean, that the current they supply is smaller than the motors draw (30 -
> 45ma). How does this work? I've got the MPJA motors, and someone said that
> they draw about 45ma, what type of solar panel should I use? I'm using a
> FLED, so I guess I'd need something with >2.4 or so volts. What about
> current? Right?
> -William
>
> ____________________________
> http://robot-central.webjump.com/
> Robotics books, projects, resources,
> links, news, and more!
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
10239 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 07:40:38 -0700 [alt-beam] Re: Electronics Xpress beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Senior Eh heh ;)
http://www.elexp.com
Blumojo13@aol.com wrote:
>
> And the address is...?
> blumojo13
10240 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 11:07:39 EST [alt-beam] Re: Mark Tilden's BOOK beam@sgiblab.sgi.com AprLBrooke@aol.com FWIW, I saw something recently that said that MIT press will have some BEAM
books out next year, incl. one by MT. After Dennison's comment, I'll take
that with a large grain of salt, though, especially since I can't remember my
source.
In a message dated 2/14/00 7:10:34 PM Central Standard Time,
wildstar@ok.freei.net writes:
> I was wondering if anyone knows the status of the book that Mark Tilden was
>
> supposed to be writing? It got a lot of coverage here a while back, but I
>
> havn't seen anything Lately
10241 Tue, 15 Feb 2000 11:01:20 -0600 [alt-beam] richfiles BEAM Richard Piotter CRUD!!! It looks like my site is going to be down for a while. I'm going
to look around for a suitable alternative during the time it is down. I
can't even contact the people hosting my site cause their e-mail is also
down. I can connect via ftp though, so I'm wondering what is realy going on???
--
Richard Piotter The Richfiles Robotics & TI web page:
richfile@rconnect.com http://richfiles.calc.org
-- Make Money by Simply Surfing the Net or responding to E-Mail!!!
-- Click below!!!
http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=ATL147
http://www.spedia.net/cgi-bin/dir/tz.cgi?run=show_svc&fl=8&vid=329630
10242 Mon, 14 Feb 2000 16:04:58 -0500 [alt-beam] ....still more questions, thanks..... "BEAM Mailing List (E-mail)" "Scolman,Jim" Hi, my first solar robot project, kit, is a success. Thanks for all the
answers to my questions. Here's another.....the solarpopper style
robots....the two motor ones, why do they run on just the tubing covered
motor shafts?.......why not wheels of some sort?.......is it because of the
mechinical leverage envolved, a large wheel has a long lever arm, etc.
Thanks......JWS.
Jim Scolman
AMS Services, Inc.
Bothell, WA
425-402-1000 x353
206-910-6095
scolmaji@amsworld.com
Network Administrator
Home