Beam News Archive March 99
March 31
The next BEAM Olympics will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico sometime in the summer of 2000. More
details as they are released.
March California Robotics Club meeting will be at 7:30 PM on Wednesday March 31st at the Castro
Middle school (4600 Student Lane, San Jose, CA). Kurt Kuhlmann from Microchip Corp will discuss
the use of the PIC microchip in robotics applications and will demo some Microchip mobile
autonomous robots.
Solarbotics will NOT be processing any
orders received after 12pm, April 1st. Normal services will resume after April 14th.
March 30
The second BEAM chat will take place on Sunday April 4th at 3:00 PM Pacific (7:00AM Greenwich Mean
Time) at the BEAM Robotics
Yahoo Club.
Here's a couple Robocup Soccer sites.
Robocup-The Robot World Cup Initiative
Robocup '98
Jonathan Wolter has found BG Micro "motorized focus and zoom lense motors" in the the 1999 issue 1
of the Herbach and Rademan Catalog. Call 1-800-848-8001 to request their catalog. Price...$19.95
...OUCH!!!
Any one in England want any Namiki 7cl motors?
Remy has got a few to dispose of.
New updates to BEAM Online include...
a phototropic bicore (head), a cool "easy to build" H-bridge free form layout and a complete walker
schematic.
International Robots and Vision
trade show will be held at Cobo Center -- Detroit, Michigan on May 11-13, 1999.
March 28
Here's a long list of
surplus suppliers.
March 27
Here's a web site with some BEAM critters and a couple old bots that bring back a lot of memories!
Lee's
Robo Gallery.
Jesse's Beam Site and Zeroheroz beam site have merged together. The URL is
http://beamrobotics.8m.com.
March 26
Dennison's BEAM booklets are not being printed anymore due to legal matters. I guess that would
make the few that are already out there very rare collectables! =).
March 25
Steve has a couple BG Micro Motorized focus and zoom lenses
for sale. They are the same type that I use in my walkers. E-mail him if your interested.
My links page
has been updated. There's now over 100 links just in the BEAM section alone! If I missed your
site, be sure to e-mail me.
March 24
Richard has added pictures of RitgerPopper 1.0 on his
BEAM site.
Bert van Dam's Lego robots
and Artificial Intelligence site has been updated with lots of neural networking stuff.
The turbot page on BEAMLife has been
updated with a new schematic and movement analysis.
Here's a good page on Grey Walter's
Turtles.
Looking for Technic Lego components? Call 1-800-362-4308 and ask for a Lego Dacta mail-order
catalog. Thanks to Jonathan for the source.
For all those hard to find hardware parts go to Small Parts Inc. Make sure to order their free catalog.
March 23
Dennison put put together the Oven Timer Fantasy Package.
It includes 2 high quality oven timers, 2 pager motors, 2 brass gears for mating the motor to the
gearbox and some heat shrink tubing to help attach the first gear to the pager motors. He is
auctioning them away to the highest bidder on
eBay.
New links section on BEAM
Robotics Central.
March 22
StarBEAM has finally got some new
content and a whole new look. Check out the components page and Pete's newsgroup page.
March 20
Dennison has started his own little BEAM supply company. See what he has to offer in this e-mail.
Subject:Walker Part Packs!
Date:Fri, 19 Mar 1999 17:20:14 -0500
From:dennison dennlill@buffnet.net
To:BEAM List beam@corp.sgi.com
Remeber how I said I would be putting together and selling part packs so that people could get all
the parts they needed to build a walkers? Well I've finnaly gotten myself together and I will begin
selling Walker Part Packs.
Basically a Walker Parts Pack included everything nessesary to build a complete and working
Microcore Walker.
This means you get:
The Gearmotors
The chips
The wire for legs
Leds
Resistors
PCB
Prototyping Board*
Battery connecters
Solar Cells**
Wire
Solder
And more.
*This is included in the Beginners Part's pack. So that Even beginners can get an extra jump start.
** Included in the solar Walker Parts pack, and Subject to the avaliblitly of Low Current, low
volt, high effeciency Motors.
Right now I have various 'options' to choose from. Also, I will customize any of these packs to
your convenience. Keep in mind that these are just packs of nessesary parts. These are not kits,
If you walker a kits, I suggest buying from Solarbotics. www.solarbotics.com These are just the
parts nessesary to build a working robot. Information to build these BEAM beasts is avalible on
the Web, there is however some basic information provided with the kits, and references to web
reasources provided. It's easier for me to just sell packs of parts, it also simplifies your
search for "the right parts".
*The "Welcome to BEAM" Walkers Parts Pack.$349
This pack is the most Basic, but is intended for people who have none of the tools or anything
needed to build a walker. This means that not only are the parts for a
working robot provided, but also the tools nessesary to build one.
For example:
Solderless breadboard
PCB to match the Solderless breadboard
Soldering Iron
Solder
Wire
Getting started in Electronics book
digital Multimeter
Instructions and parts to build a simple logic tester
And all parts for a Two motor walker
Walker Parts Pack $145
This is the typical pack for anyone interested in just building a walker. It includes everything
needed to build a working two motor walker. Comes with Gearmotors, PCB, etc...
Solar Walker Parts Pack $Depends
This is basically the Walker Parts pack, but with all the peices nesseasry to make a SOLAR powered
walker. The availiblity of this Part Pack depends on the Avaliblity of suitible gearmotors. E-mail
dennlill@buffnet.net for more information. Imagine adding
this baby to your BEAM park!
Sensor Part Pack $25
This is a small collection of Springs, Piano wire, and more to help you build senors for your
robots. Works with any BEAM application. Includes general sensor constrution instrucions, and
examples.
Custom Part Packs
Need something you can't find? Want a custom part pack? Perhaps you want to build a three motors
walker? Or maybe five? Contact me at dennlill@buffnet.net
for more information and a quote.
Omron Gearmotors:
I'm still selling my Omron GearMotors, e-mail me for a quote.
Ordering:
When ordering be sure to specify what type of gearmotors you want. Currently I serve traditional,
(and reliable) Servo Motors. In addition however I also serve various other gearmotors as they
become avalible. Currently I'm offering small Omron gearmotors, which have been fairly popular.
Choose either a Servo or Omron motor, your choice.
Before you send me a check E_MAIL ME FIRST!!! This is very important, I need to know what to
expect, I don't want to come home and find a check for a large sum of money, and not know what I'm
supposed to be doing with it. Also, don't send a money order without consuling me first. I've had
some troubles with that.
Send any Check to :
Dennison Bertram
384 Crescent Ave.
Buffalo NY, 14214
If there are any quesitons, or anything I left out, just E-mail me.
Dennison
Here's a non-beam Balancing Robot.
March 19
My site has been added to the Robotics and EE Webring.
Check out some pictures of Brian's new five motor walker,
Shrimpy.
Build session in the Toronto area. Interested? Contact
James Wilson.
March 18
Well...no BEAM news lately so here's some cool links.
World's Smallest Web Server
Buy a piece of the Moon, Mars, Venus or Io
March 16
Steven Bolt designed a horticulture water meter for his lemon geranium. Check out the
Green Thumb and if
your interested, you can even buy a kit.
A great "newbie" website has sprung up. Check out Jason Feser's bots at
BEAMLand. I like the front page logo!
Buried Contact Solar Cells
are being developed.
Here's a very cool Conventional robot. Roger's Suped-up ARobot is controlled by 2 networked Basic Stamp II's.
March 15
Paul Beckingham is back!!! With three
of new bots to share, a turbot, BEAMant and a micro photovore.
March 14
Richard posted a picture and the schematics of his turbot.
There is a new sumo contest at the may Western
Canadian Robot Games called "micro-sumo". The size of these sumos is limited to only a few
inches square!
Richard put up a picture of his geared pager motor built with the gearbox from the Ladybug toy at McDonalds.
Here's a great HTML site.
Jonathan has put a pdf file describing his PIC bot built to BEAM conventions.
Light Species Derivative I.
March 12
Wondering about those cool hextile photovores? Zoz gave some details on
The BEAM Club.
Ian has added ten more photos to his
Mega BEAM
photo gallery.
Pager motors available at TechMax. #6 Micro motor 3/$10.00
The BEAM Meta-URL List
site has been updated with more URLs. There's now over 1050 to choose from!
Here's a post from the comp.robotics.misc newsgroup that I thought you'd like to read. Don's site
(at the bottom) is very good too.
Subject:Re: Mark Tilden and BEAM -- just a bunch of hype?
Date:Fri, 12 Mar 1999 21:54:10 GMT
From:Don Roy
Organization:Personal Robotics
Newsgroups:comp.robotics.misc
References:1 , 2
Adam wrote:
>
> I've had a bit of a look at some BEAM circuit diagrams and there
> doesn't really seem to be anything remarkable about them. As far as I
> can see, the entire circuit is really just a serious of pulses (albeit
> analog) driving some transistors and integrators.
>
> I'm confused as to how these things can "learn" or "adapt". It would
> seem to me that it is more a case of if a motor stalls or is blocked
> by an obstacle then more/less current flows through that point in the
> circuit. The change in current causes the other capacitors etc to
> charge differently, which means that the next series of movements will
> be different. Eventually the change is enough to circumvent whatever
> problem is causing the motor to stop in the first place.
>
> This are really just my thoughts - I am by no means an electronic nor
> robotic expert. But IMHO there is no intelligence as such to be
> perceived in these robots. Please don't think I'm knocking Mark or his
> bots in any way - I think they're good for what they are - but I think
> I'll be sticking to my uP to do my work.
>
> Comments?
> Adam
As it happens, I don't find the _building_ of BEAM robots to be
particularly intriguing either. However, I do appreciate what the BEAM
folks can accomplish without the use of a uP. In my humble view, they
are exploring the area of reflexive behavioral response to environmental
stimulus, which is a valid and useful direction.
In fact, properly integrated in support of uP operations, there is a lot
to be gained in taking the best of both approaches. A good example of
this is Rod Brooks' description of how a hexapod robot walks when using
a subsumption architecture (MIT AI Memo 1091). See:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/brooks/papers/AIM-1091.pdf
Following a signal from a central source, the remainder of an individual
leg's actions are entirely reflexive... i.e.: the bot has no choice but
to walk. Point is that the central controller is not tied up in handling
the minutae. Whether the reflexive actions are handled by subprocessors,
analog circuits or gremlins is relatively unimportant.
Some further ideas along this line, including the potential emergence of
"complex" behavior from simple circuits, are explored in Braitenberg's
"Vehicles" book... recommended reading.
While there might appear to be some "us versus them" division, I think
it would be a dreadful mistake for anyone to dismiss the BEAM approach
out of hand.
Just my $0.02 ...Don
--
________________________________________________
FirstBOT Mobile Robot - Free plans and info at:
http://www.personalrobotics.net
Personal Robotics: The Second Cambrian Explosion
March 11
Check out Terry Newton's new "How to build a PIC bot" page. Good stuff...but it's (gasp) CPU controlled.
Check out Widow and Jiggler on Jim's BEAM Page which is hosted at
Robotcentral. It's
under "Jim's BEAM page", "others".
Justin's Bicore
Photovore page has an updated schematic.
More images of BEAM bots posted to my BEAM Robotics Yahoo club.
March 10
Take a quick peek at Ian's counter then
come right back here...don't waiver to the dark side!!!
A "How to get started in BEAM" page has been added to
Will's Beam Page.
Remember the BEAM chat Sunday 2:00PM US Mountain Standard Time ay my
BEAM club. Check for the
right starting time where you live with this time zone converter.
March 9
I uploaded a bunch of pictures of Tildens bots to the Picture gallery on my
Yahoo Club. Check them
out and remember...This Sunday we're all going to gather in the club's chat room.
Check out zeroheroz new Tactile Sensor construction page.
Here's the beginnings of another BEAM page.
Richard's BEAM page
.
March 8
Congratulations to Ian for getting BEAM-Online listed at
Yahoo. I've been trying for months with no success.
Will's BEAM Robotics has a
new layout and a couple reviews on a Cybug and Photopopper 4.2 kit.
Steve's BEAM page
has a "howto" on a LED scope..kinda. I like the pic of Jonny 5 though!
Jesse Meers BEAM webpage is on-line.
March 7
zeroheroz created his own BEAM site with pictures of his bots.
March 6
In addition to gearmotors, Dennison is supplying high value capacitors.
.047 f Cap for $2.00
.33 f Cap for $3.50 (limited supply!)
1.0 f cap for $5.00
and
Reed Switches for $1.00 each
Super Tiny Stepper motors (perfect for bicore setups?) for $3.00 each.
Email him for more details.
James Wilson is selling gearmotors for $5 cdn
each. Hopefully, more details on these motors to come. E-mail him if your interested.
The solar walker, Blue has been
updated.
Richard share this little hint with us...the lady bug toy at McDonalds has a really nice gearbox
that can be coupled to a pagermotor.
March 5
There will be a BEAM chat on my Yahoo club site on Sunday, March 14th. It'll start at 2:00 PM Mountain
Standard Time and will go until the conversation dies down or we all fall asleep at our keyboards.
Be there or be square!!!
March 4
Mid-term tests, projects due, a couple birthdays and a screwed up registry file...it's been a busy
week. Sorry about the lack of updates.
Ian has made BEAM Online really shine.
It looks totally professional! Maybe it's time I buy a WYSIWYG HTML editor instead of hard coding
this stuff in notepad.
I've created a Yahoo club for
BEAM Robotics. I'm not expecting this club to become very popular as these kind of things
never do, but it's free so...why not? The Yahoo club service is very good with chat areas, link
areas and lots more stuff.
Here's a couple pics of a pager motor gearbox.
gearpgr1.jpg
gearpgr2.jpg
T.R.L. Enterprises announced that they are negotiating with the manufacturer of the BG Micro Lense
Motors. If you are interested in purchasing these motors, Please email inquiries to
trlmotor@colba.net.
Hopefully they can match the BG
Micro price of $4.00 each.
Dennison's gear motors have arrived. E-mail him for
details. dennlill@buffnet.net
Take a stroll down memory lane at the Amazing Robot Museum.
Rich has been bouncing around from server to server. His new address is
here.
A page on the Electronics Now Solbot. A rip off of Dave's Photopopper. Have I posted this already in the
past...?
Singapore Robotics
Club just started up. Maybe someone should start a Yahoo club for BEAMers.
Turtle Tek's BEAM
page has finally been released. Pretty good start...
The "Amazing Wilf" ;-) has come up with another one. Check out his Single 74XX240 reversing photovore circuit.
Check out Martin's Snailbot pics on
Martin's BEAM page
Will's BEAM page...fresh
off the presses.
Beam Table of Contents