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Stuff to do while waiting for parts.

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By bobonthenet

November 16, 2009
bobonthenet's picture
I ordered my parts for my first robot (from the start here section) and not wanting to sit idle I have been finding and doing projects from instructables.com that involve soldering or other skills that I believe may be transferable to robotics.  Any other suggestions?  The hard part is finding parts locally, Radio Shack just doesn't carry a lot of electronic components like they used to.
‹ SF order on it's way[shipped!] My BGMicro order is in the mail ›

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By Chris the Carpenter
@ Mon, 2009-11-30 00:35
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Seriously, download the picaxe programmer and start learing the various commands. There are 3 "books" -hook-ups, commands and something else. Grab a beer and just browse around through the commands. I still do this from time to time and I still find things I didn't notice before.
By renkku
@ Mon, 2009-11-30 00:28
renkku's picture

I am waiting for my parts to build my first robot. I could'nt just sit and wait so I planned the robot on a cad software and builded the "base". A platform with motors.

I have been waiting forever.... (3 days...)

By maneuver
@ Tue, 2009-11-17 09:29
maneuver's picture

Get your hands on some old defunct cassette, VHS or CD players and try to make some of them BEAMbots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics
You'll get to:

  • solder
  • machine your own parts
  • recycle
  • learn physics
  • try out mechanical solutions
  • not spend any money
  • make awesome, insectoid bots

Just google beam robotics or beambots or Mark Tilden (BEAM inventor, now with Wowwee), you'll get all the info you need. There are even som BEAMs here on good ol' LMR...

By Ian_K
@ Mon, 2009-11-16 23:19
Ian_K's picture
Our Radio Shack isn't that big however it stil carries a ton of parts. They are quite expensive but I could easily build a few robots form their parts...
By Benbo231
@ Tue, 2009-11-17 00:15
Benbo231's picture
Our radioshack carries servos. One comes in a kit called 'what's a microcontroller' for 85 dollars. With a winning lotto ticket, I could easily build a robot.