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He won't be able to do much with a single-axis gyro. Also I didn't see any mention of an accelerometer, or an altitude sensor. He would be much better off (and save some money) by learning how to solder and use real components instead of the overpriced lego stuff. For example, my current RC autopilot setup uses 2x IDG300 dual-axis gyro IC's and an ADXL330 3-axis accelerometer. Also a SiRF III 20-channel GPS module, a pressure sensor for altitude, and a set of Nordic 2.4 GHz wireless tranceivers. Right now I have everything tied into an ARM7 but a Nano or Pico-ITX might be in my future.

5-axis IMU ($109.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=741
2-axis gyro (use with above to make a 6-axis (double up on one axis) ($69.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=698
Altimeter: ($49.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=8161
GPS receiver, SiRF-III ($55.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=465
And finally, 2.4 GHz 1Mbit transciever to control it ($24.95 each): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=152

Add a GWS slowstick RC airplane ($35) and miscellaneous electronic pieces for a grand total of $370 or so. Not to troll, but I really don't see why people invest so much in doing things in legos when there's so much real hardware out there to play with.

Well I'm a pretty young guy, but that doesn't stop me from having the same gripe as you. Luckily, http://gumstix.com/gumstix exist. 200-400mhz, bluetooth, 64mb of ram, two types of flash memory storage, wifi through a daughter board, tons of sample projects and schematics with a quick Google search, and Linux out of the box.

Now if only this fella could get the keyboard size down... he could throw in this little guy, http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=7917the GM862, a headphone and a speaker, and you have GPS enabled GSM smartphone.

What utter bullshit!
Having personally developed and packed a six axis MEMS inertial sensor (x,y,z acceleration, roll, pitch, yaw rate of rotation)into a 25x25x13mm cube (With my bare hands!!)potted in epoxy, with a rubber lining and a kevlar reinforced cord, and run 2 of these units for several hours at kilohertz rates logging onto a SD card, I can attest that 30mm cube MEMS sensors already do exist and have existed for over 5 years. Hell you can buy them in quantities of one from sparkfun:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=23_85
(while the sparkfun units are 51x51x23mm thats because they're avoiding many layer multilayer boards and low pin count microprocessors)
Note that 3 axis compasses are readily available as well:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=23_83

Now the devil in the details. MEMS accelerometers are noisy, and so are the MEMS rate gyros. They're about as good as your inner ear which operates on somewhat similar principles. As a result they track reasonably well for short periods of time but exhibit considerable drift over longer periods of time, just like you can guess your path over a short distance but end up going in circles in total darkness. A compass helps, but they get scrambled by magnetic fields from electric currents or pieces of ferromagnetic material. Inertial sensors (other than missile grade units which are orders of magnitude more sensitive and complex) only complement GPS and other absolute measurement systems. That's why the Wii has the optical sensor integrated in it as well.

What utter bullshit!
Having personally developed and packed a six axis MEMS inertial sensor (x,y,z acceleration, roll, pitch, yaw rate of rotation)into a 25x25x13mm cube (With my bare hands!!)potted in epoxy, with a rubber lining and a kevlar reinforced cord, and run 2 of these units for several hours at kilohertz rates logging onto a SD card, I can attest that 30mm cube MEMS sensors already do exist and have existed for over 5 years. Hell you can buy them in quantities of one from sparkfun:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=23_85
(while the sparkfun units are 51x51x23mm thats because they're avoiding many layer multilayer boards and low pin count microprocessors)
Note that 3 axis compasses are readily available as well:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=23_83

Now the devil in the details. MEMS accelerometers are noisy, and so are the MEMS rate gyros. They're about as good as your inner ear which operates on somewhat similar principles. As a result they track reasonably well for short periods of time but exhibit considerable drift over longer periods of time, just like you can guess your path over a short distance but end up going in circles in total darkness. A compass helps, but they get scrambled by magnetic fields from electric currents or pieces of ferromagnetic material. Inertial sensors (other than missile grade units which are orders of magnitude more sensitive and complex) only complement GPS and other absolute measurement systems. That's why the Wii has the optical sensor integrated in it as well.

Check these out. Full six-axis IMUs for just a very few hundred dollars.

I about wet my pants when I saw these. The last time I had checked, a few years ago, solid-state gyros (from Systron Donner, maker of the GyroChip line) were $1000 apiece.

Thad Beier

http://sparkfun.com/ is the USA distributor. I also highly recommend this platform... it's awesome.

http://sparkfun.com/ is the USA distributor. I also highly recommend this platform because it connects via USB and has native IDEs for window, linux, and Mac OS X.

This is a common topic on comp.robotics.misc... search the archives -- its come up at least once in the past couple of months. Instead of using embedded processors, why not use the PC with an I/O board?
http://www.phidgets.com/
http://wiring.org.co/

And single-board computers are getting affordable...
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=8207

While Z80s are cool, some people prefer microcomputers with RAM, ROM and I/O integrated on the IC. For example:

Microchip or
Atmel

or a small board level device like:

The Basic Stamp

A very cool supplier of microcontrollers and accessories is:

Sparkfun

And the usual suppliers:

Digikey
Newark
Arrow
Mouser

Ill bite Wii Internals.
Have a good luck arounnd WiiLi for more Wii goodness.

..to the Wiimote - at least reversed from the eeprom on the device. This should improve the compatibility of PC's to the Wiimote, and I hope we see some interesting applications on the PC soon ; that or Nintendo should release a Wii-SDK, otherwise I think they are definitely losing a whole lot of interest in the long run of the more adventurous type of user who longs for interesting applications for this simple (proven) but now widely available concept of three-axis sensing devices.

for those of you who are all ways complaing about wanting a phone that is just a phone, look no further. check out the port a rotary from sparkfun. you'll be glad you did. with its elegant style and ultimate portabilty. it also has very high quality sound and best of all- all it can do is make and recive calls. heck it dosen't even have a display! check em out here kids! http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=96 and why has it taken anyone this long to notice these? they have been around for some time, and all this time you have been suffering needlessly because you're lazy.

This "product" is completely bogus.

"The Jelbert GeoTagger has a mount for the Garmin Gecko 301 GPS receiver which must be fitted in order to operate (purchased separately)."

This thing costs 149 british pounds, and ALL IT IS is a serial port connected to a processor that translates NMEA sentences to location and directional information, connected to an SD slot. You have to buy a GPS unit for it to work!

You'd be better off rolling your own with this for a heckuva lot cheaper, and it comes with the GPS too! But you lose directional information. boohoo! :P

For the lazy though, the sony unit still wins.

Were you using a full GSM phone, or a module? This module weighs 23 grams. There's a variant with a GPS radio included, and some of them also have an on-board python interpreter, so you don't even need a separate microcontroller.

• USB Bit Whacker
• Arduino
• (you can buy the above two from SparkFun if you don't feel like DIY)
• LabJack
• various FTDI-based devices from many companies

Go to Sparkfun and search for USB. Lots of cheap (less than $30) dohickeys for doing all kinds of electronics projects.

check this bad boy out...
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=287

The first thing to realise there are plenty of technology related hobbyists around the world, although most are not high profile and some may be different very different demographics than yourself.

Some (hobby) groups to consider looking towards for ideas and help include: woodworkers, metalworkers (hobbyists using micromills and mini-lathes from TaigTools and Sherline, etc.), model railroads, model aircrafts (static and RC), robotics, amateur radio (ham), 2600, LUGs, and Artist Run Centres/Communities

Random list of some I use or know of:
  Make magazine http://www.makezine.com/
  Instructables http://www.instructables.com/
  ARRL http://www.arrl.org/
  http://www.sparkfun.com/ (check out their tutorials)
  http://www.fpga4fun.com/ / http://www.knjn.com/
  QRP-L http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/qrp-l/>
  GQRP http://www.gqrp.com/
  http://www.pololu.com/ (cheap stencils laser cut, e.g. 3x4 for $32)
  http://www.diyaudio.com/
  http://www.digikey.com/ (if you're still buying electronics from Radio Shack, get these 3 catalogs now!)
  http://www.mouser.com/
  http://www.jameco.com/
  the ton of various surplus/NOS dealers online
  http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/
  http://www.seattlerobotics.org/
  http://www.chibots.org/index.php
  DorkBot
  http://eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page= tools
  MIT CBA FAB http://fab.cba.mit.edu/
  http://www.leevalley.com/
  http://www.smallparts.com/
  http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/
  http://www.wmberg.com/
  http://www.acklandsgrainger.com/
  http://www.grainger.com/
  http://www.onlinemetals.com/
  http://www.amqrp.com/
  http://www.princessauto.com/
  http://www.sherline.com/
  http://www.taigtools.com/

their phones look and act as if it was the 90's

So? some people like new tech in old packages.

Cue the smarm with a link to some clever hacker's rotary cell phone.

Okay.

I work with AVR controllers a lot..and constantly want a serial terminal. I dunno how to do that with a TI calc...but the way I debug a lot of my projects, is by connecting a cheap 433mhz transmitter to the avr, and the reciever to a serial adapter(or in my case, the serial transmitter on the stk500). So all you need to do is send serial data to the transmitter, run a terminal on the pc with the serial adapter...and you have an easy way to wirelessly debug. You could also switch the reciever/transmitter around and have a one way serial connector to the AVR...which could be useful.

transmitters and recievers

Sparkfun.com sells an OEM GSM module kit for $229 which contains antenna, module, PCB, camera, and USB interface. This OEM module, a Telit GM862, has full GSM and GRPS functionality, including audio and camera phone functions. You could easily adapt it to an astrisk system.

I purchased one of these kits a while back, and you have enough functionality to create your own home-brew cellular phone.

This site has quite a range of wireless communications modules: http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cart =354104&cat=62&

Coin-size transceivers for $20. There's also Bluetooth modules in case you want to roll your own Bluetooth thingamajig.

Now they also want to marry it to my cell phone and my desk phone?

Already done.

Ask and you shall receive.

Portable Rotary Phone

and

Spark fun elentronics

Nokia 7280 with a wheel and no number buttons.

Spark Fun Portable Rotary Phone with a rotary dial.

Enjoy!

You seem to be in the minority.

If they made money selling a phone-only, they would make it.

Meanwhile, here you go.

m-

Well, see gEDA for GPL electronic design automation software. In particular, they've been putting some development work into updating pcb, which has been around since the dawn of time. I've used pcb to make a few boards, it definitely has that late-80's X11-Athena feel to it but it's quite versatile once you get used to it.

For dirt cheap PCB fabbing for hobbyists, check out sparkfun's pcb pooling offer. There are also a lot of hobbyist-friendly PCB prototyping services out there, but they're mostly catering to actual engineering shops even if they don't mind working with hobbyists.

serial accelerometer

Scroll down, and they have accelerometer you can just plug into a serial port. You'd want to have a laptop on board, and some simple software to interface with the serial port...but serial port interfacing isn't to hard, so this might work for you.

oh, and it's like $45 or so.....

Get a decent soldering station with sponge and adjustable wattage (or if you really want to spend money adjustable temperature.) They are suprisingly affordable, also for a while you won't need a soldering ironas much as you will need a breadboard and lots of wire.

Just about any multimeter will do, even a $5 analog one, most of the time it is more a question of presence and magnitude rather then particular readings. (Though the nicer ones do have some cool features).

Look at http://www.sparkfun.com/ for your starting out. Lots of tutorials, a forum, a well stocked supportive store, and unlike digikey it has a limited enough selection that you won't feel like you are paging through a large city's phone book.

Do eventually sign up for digikey/mouser/future etc. catalogs though, just don't let them intimidate you.

The real hard part is finding a project.

a rotary cellphone