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Domain: roboteq.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to roboteq.com.

Comments · 5

  1. i wonder ... by dominic.laporte · · Score: 1 · on Open Robotics Debuts at Penguicon 3.0

    if it will work on this

  2. Re:heh by barawn · · Score: 4, Informative · on Palm OS To Run On Linux
    One of the most frustrating things about the "death of the PDA" is the fact that there was an ancillary benefit for a lot of us: PDAs are extraordinarily useful, cheap, single-purpose interface and logging devices!

    In the project that I'm on, I've pushed for (and successfully gotten) Palms used for interfacing to the electronics in the project. They're far, far more useful than laptops for simple interfacing stuff (anything that can be interfaced with RS232, or nowadays USB). Cheaper, more rugged, much more visible in sunlight, and more importantly, far easier to use. Ever try typing on a keyboard in sub-freezing weather with high winds? Uck.

    (On a side bad note, do try to keep Palms slightly in the shade. The screens tend to darken significantly with heat from direct sunlight).

    Palms have been used for



    and lots, lots more. To be honest, part of the reason that I bought a Palm for my own personal use is that I wanted to support them. A cheap PocketPC device is $150. A cheap Palm is under $100.

    Plus, really, who wants to program for a Windows device? Palm even has a Linux programming chain, and a Linux simulator for Palm OS.
  3. Hang on for a second... by herrvinny · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Slashback: Simpsons, Buyouts, Droid

    OAP shares the same VIA Mini-ITX mainboard as the VIA-Roboteq "PC-bot" featured in an earlier Slashdot story

    But the robot in that /. story required a $500 motor controller. Forget that. Just give me the text to speech components and any important access components (i.e. web parsers, etc) and I forgo the motors. I can actually carry the computer from place to place and let it read me the stories wherever. Or mount the computer on an rc car and drive it around.

    Specific project goals include:[of the robot, from the sourceforge page]

    Design a coherent set of modular components (hardware and software) that conform to standards (where possible)

    Minimize cost to $1,500 - $2,000, about the cost of a good PC

    Develop a low-cost real-time vision system for use as the primary spatial sensor.

    Thousand dollars for a robot? No thanks.

  4. These are fun... by mgarriss · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Stealth Computers: NY Times on Mini ITX Modding

    I have three of the mini-ITX's in a rack that I made for $6 worth of home depot parts. I use them as diskless nodes. Total cost each is around $180, this includes board, power supply, ram, and network cable. The entire rack fits on top of one of my towers.

    They take load off my desktop box by doing things like DNS, httpd, dhcpd, fetchmail, procmail, qmail, postgres, etc...

    However I would like to see them move to gigabit ethernet.

    For the robot geeks these boards offer a lot

  5. "har har har" -- read the article, dummy by Charlie+Bill · · Score: 1 · on VIA-based Mobile Robot Design For Download
    Anybody actually read the spec mentioned? A horrible FPP in that it pointed just at the main page (the reference is here), but the technology behind it is kind of neat.

    While there is something to be said for scrounging parts and banging together whatever crap hardware I can find to do the job, its not a very scientific method. Being able to design something that is replicatable is a far more worthy project -- otherwise all your design work gets locked up in -your- project and crap on everyone else.

    While this does not mean this hardware = solution to all robot problems, it is a pretty robust setup. The fact that it can handle everything from battle bots to personal transport is pretty impressive. Robot! To the mailbox with me!