Beam News Archive February 99
February 28
Dennison may start distributing Omron gear motors.
Here's the stats...
About 30 RPM (Perfect!)
2.5v-6.5v
Small size: Around 1.2" x 1.5"
Low current
It's output gear is a little like the Mac Eject motors, with (I think) a small metal plate convient
to solder legs to. If your interested E-mail Dennison and send a Check to:
Dennison Bertram
384 Crescent Ave.
Buffalo NY, 14214
James Wilson is also selling gear motors for $5.00
Canadian.
Richard Caudle shared this link on a experimental sensor design. Check out the
Capaciflecor.
February 27
Brian's BEAM Page has a new V-3 Re-direct address.
More bots have been added to Jim's BEAM Page
, a BEAM Bouquet, "Jiggler" and a Cybug kit.
February 26
Here's one more to add to the bookmark file...The StarBeam website has it's aims at being the biggest BEAM page on the web.
Cris Daniel's BEAM Robotics
web site has a new solar roller tutorial and a few new bots.
Thanks go out to Peter for sharing this link about Mitsubishi's ultra-lifelife
robotic fish.
The quicktime movie is incredible to watch!
Dennison has some gearmotors for sale that may be perfect for walkers.
E-mail him for more info.
Rob found the link for the "next generation" solarcells.
February 25
Ian has finished uploading over 100 bots to his
mega beambot
gallery.
Dennison posted his Bitbot
schematic.
Here's an announcement from the comp.robotics.misc newsgroup.
Subject:ROBOT SUMO in SanFran ($2000 prize!)
Date:Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:11:27 -0800
From:Jason Cooper
Organization:Slip.Net (http://www.slip.net)
Newsgroups:comp.robotics.misc
Calling All Sumo Robots!
FujiSoft International, sponsor of Japan's big Robot Sumo Competition,
brings the robotic action to the San Francisco Exploratorium, Tuesday
March 23, 1999.
Thousands of dollars in Cash Prizes!
Two categories - Radio Controlled (human operated) and Autonomous.
Plus, FujiSoft is bringing 10 of Japan's top robot competitors to test the
American Sumo metal. There are just 20 spaces open so act now!
IMPORTANT NOTE - You must register your machine >>in advance<< to
compete. You get $100 just for registering and competing with an
eligable entry!
Visit http://www.chibashoten.com/robot/ for registration
Visit http://www.fsi.co.jp/sumo-e/out/outa0000.html for rules
* Build your machine!
* Register to compete!
* Show up for the action!
The tournament starts at 1 PM, Tuesday March 23, 1999.
See you there!
Jason Cooper - robotman@slip.net
San Francisco Robotics Society
February 24
Should the BEAM e-mail list be transfered to a newgroup?
Justin has finished the schematic for his bi-core photovore that can go forward, turn, reverse and
pivot on the spot.
February 23
30,000 hits since June 02, 1998! That's more than 120 hits a day! I think you guys deserve some
updates. Keep your peepers peeled...
Kristoffer got a spiffy redirect url for his site RobotCentral.
Rich has added a page on his 78 neuron cockroach model. More detail on the beginnings of this
ambitious project can be found on his Periplaneta page. Also the Rich files
circuits page has had
an update.
February 22
Here's a link to a schematic of Justins
Reversable
photovore.
Craig is going to introduce a new event at the Western Canadian Robot Games. It's called the robotic pipeline inspector
event. More details to come.
Evan Dudzik is planning to start a Nation wide BEAM club.
With newsletter and group meetings. Not many details yet...contact him if your interested.
February 21
Nothing new to report but I would like to comment on the recent increase of BEAM related
conversation on the comp.robotics.misc newsgroup. It's good to see.
February 20
Kristoffer has updated
Robot Central with posts from Ben Hitchcock and Wilf Rigter. Look at the papers section. He
also sponsored Jim's BEAM site so we can see more of Jim's beautiful critters.
Craig has added a
Construction tutorial on his cybugs. The schematic is also available here. Visit Cybug Central for more info.
Steve's BEAM page
has been updated with more pictures of his creations.
February 19
Bob Shannon let us in on a little gearmotor secret. The laptop LS-120 superdisks are pure heaven.
A small plastic brick with a motor and gear drive half the size of a BG Micro lens motor. Keep
your eye's peeled.
Ian posted a schematic for a two motor walker with reverse that fits on on 74XX240 chip. Check
BEAM Online.
February 18
Zoz has a new bot named Lurch. The
Heretics board has a picture and short description.
The eGroups list archive has
gone public, also the work of Zoz.
February 17
Check out Wilf Ritger's Microcore cicuit with driver and reverser in only two chips.
nupnc.gif
Here's a French distributor of Solarbotics and other robotics products.
Robocom Technologies.
February 16
The battle on the BEAM list rages on.
Jeremy's BEAM
Page is the newest addittion to an ever growing on-line BEAM presence.
February 14
A little more added to BEAM-Online.
Dennison has set the price for his BEAM booklets at $15.
Contact him if your interested.
Rich added some PCB diagrams and schematics to the
Rich Files.
February 13
Steven says Conrad is a
good place to get BEAM parts in Europe.
February 12
Check BEAM On-line for Ian's new solar
roller tutorial and 1381 Solar engine tutorial.
February 11
Ian's BEAM Central/BEAM On-line web page has a spiffy new URL.
http://www.beam-online.com/. He also
promises many updates to come in the following week.
February 10
Here's a different
Photovore circuit.
February 9
The SunBEAM page has a very well
done solarroller tutorial.
February 8
The first BEAM booklet is done and ready for purchase. It includes all the "official"
documentation from the web, The Patent, The Living Machiens Paper, Controller for a Four legged
walking Machine, Yuma Proving grounds, Automatic UXO Detection using Biomorphic robots and SATBOT
1:Prototype of a Biomorphic Autonomous Spacecraft. It is about 50 pages and sells for $10.00.
Contact Dennison if your interested in purchasing a copy.
Robotcentral has 2 new
photopoppers, 2 new symets, a beautiful butterfly, a FPOW and a small "How To" on "Attatching legs
to gearmotors". Great stuff from this fledgling site.
Hey, here's a new one! Take a look at Terry Lambert's
Solar wind chimes. Parfect for those
days when the wind ain't blowin'
The next WCRG madness will take place in the Symposium room in Calgarys Southern Alberta Institute
of Technology on MAY 8, 1999 (Saturday). Contestants arrive for weigh in at 8 am, and the
events begin at 10am. Register early as they are limiting the maximum number of contestants.
Contact info@robotgames.com for more info. They need
people to assist and coordinate during the games too, contact the above e-mail address if you are
interested.
Also, the Western Canadian Robot Games
has been updated with more images and videos of past events.
Craig Maynard (of Cybug fame) has put a beta version of his
on-line digital electronics course
which will eventually be used by SAIT students.
February 6
BEAM Robotics has a new "How
to Build a Gearmotor" page and a "BEAM Pictures" page.
Here's a pdf of the Sunceram catalog
. Rob McIntosh dug this file up for us.
Dennison has decide to try and make booklets of various
BEAM info. Very good idea and best of all...it will be free!
Single schmitt inverters
from Fairchild Semi. Thanks to Michael Kennan for the link.
February 5
Jim has posted two more awesome looking bots. His asthetics always amaze me! Take a gander at
Mite and Symet3 on
Jim's BEAM Page.
Robotcentral has a new
wallpaper page up. Very cool pics of Tilden's Lobster and a plate of Symets.
February 4
Robotcentral has some
new stuff. Check out the SolarSpeeder upgrade page and the Bigfoot hextile page (from
The Advanced BEAM Heretics Board).
February 2
Message regarding this years BEAM workshop at Los Alamos, New Mexico. I wish I could attend!
Chiu Fang
I have not yet gotten our website fleshed out for this year. But our workshop will be on april
8-10. the first two days will be our classical workshop (for 12 years and older), where we have a
graded set of kits the participants can work through. This year we will have a parent-child
workshop on saturday the 10, where younger studnets can build the lowest level kit and get started
on their robotic career.
paul.
Ian built the base for a very nice photank (my suggestion for it's name). The link is on the news
section at BEAM Online.
John finished his web page a little too late for the Microvore contest. The
PushmePullyou page is finally done.
Here's another EMRoS page.
February 1
Take a peek at
Solarbotics new 1/8" square solar cells!
They can put out 0.4V (oc) at 1.4mA (sc) in noon sunlight.
Also, the Solarbotics Photopopper 4.2b
is back in stock.
Rich has made the Rich
Files easier to navigate.
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