Slashdot Mirror
VIA-based Mobile Robot Design For Download
An anonymous reader writes "This article at DeviceForge introduces the "PC-bot" -- a new mobile robotics demonstration platform design that is being made available for free download from Roboteq. PC-bot was designed to be highly flexible and extensible so that it can serve as the basis for a wide range of customized mobile robot designs featuring web cameras, motion detection software, and more. Details on the mechanical, electronic, and software design are available at Roboteq's website. Currently the bot runs Windows, but Roboteq expects that one of the first enhancements from the user community will be Linux support." Unfortunately, there's no way to download the RoboteQ motor controller the design requires -- that will cost you about $500.
I've often thought that Erector Set construction kits would be ideal for custom robots. Unlike Legos they are strong. They are various strips and plates of metal with holes, most of them L-beams, that you bolt tegether as needed. They were sort of the Legos of the 1940's. My dad had a set from his younger years and I used them for science class projects that needed sturdy platforms.
But, the company bellied up. Maybe some Chinese firm will resurrect them.
Table-ized A.I.
VIA's Mini-ITX boards might have low power consumption while operating but they are total shit for power management. They leave practically everything they can powered up even during S3 suspend when only ram is supposed to be fully powered. Even when totally powered OFF they operate USB, SuperIO, and PS2 ports at FULL power, no matter what the OS asks for, totally failing their own specifications.
:) At least VIA has some truthful advertising on one point: the board is indeed a very small 170x170mm!
The boards are capable of pulling up to 2A off of ATX 5VSB in flagrant overconsumption. Even if the power supply is capable of providing that current on 5VSB, providing it continuously without the internal fans operating (which they don't in suspend) could be dangerous. The ATX specification provides for an absolute maximum current draw way below what the average Mini-ITX board draws from 5VSB when idle or off.
This problem was identified over a year ago after the ITX boards were initially released; however VIA has never issued a single fix for it, although it's apparently not the hardware preventing the fix from being implemented! Needless to say, their customer support in the Mini-ITX department is also shit. Is it so bad to want the board to work as advertised?
Luckily, I haven't even gotten into the processor or video driver issues, which many people see as an even larger problem than the power issues.. To each his own
~GoRK