tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7303838052067868022024-03-08T07:37:11.765-05:00Rockland RoboticsJournal of the Rockland Robotics ClubMike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-38407360615077387512010-07-22T23:42:00.000-04:002010-07-22T23:42:13.886-04:00Next Meeting: July 23, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on July 23, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>.Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-8140974726961556752010-07-09T14:27:00.000-04:002010-07-09T14:27:19.623-04:00Next Meeting: July 9, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on July 9, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/" style="color: #de7008;">HobbyTown</a>.Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-16800414938757477292010-06-25T09:13:00.003-04:002010-06-25T09:14:39.775-04:00Next Meeting: June 25, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on June 25, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/" style="color: #de7008;">HobbyTown</a>.Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-10736694337983137792010-06-11T15:20:00.000-04:002010-06-11T15:20:32.169-04:00Next Meeting: June 11, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on June 11, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>. (Note the new earlier time!)Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-79614987805717722912010-05-24T22:35:00.000-04:002010-05-24T22:35:13.440-04:00Next Meeting: May 28, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on May 28, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>. (Note the new earlier time!)Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-40673175228305307732010-05-14T11:10:00.000-04:002010-05-14T11:10:21.342-04:00Next Meeting: May 14, 2010<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="color: #9e5205; font: normal normal bold 160%/normal Verdana, sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal;">Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on May 14, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/" style="color: #de7008;">HobbyTown</a>. (Note the new earlier time!)</span></h3><div><br />
</div>Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-92093587731628613512010-04-27T17:57:00.000-04:002010-04-27T17:57:23.600-04:00Next Meeting: April 30, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on April 30, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>. (Note the new earlier time!)<br />
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We've finally got our meeting schedule in order! From now on, we'll be meeting regularly on the second and fourth Friday of each month, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>, at 6:30pm, with any exceptions announced right here (and on our <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/rr5dqa17sjktfri60fhrl70u28%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics">Google Calendar</a>).<br />
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Last meeting, Frank showed us how he'd got his parallel-port AVR programmer working, and Joe borrowed my USB-based AVR programmer to try out at home. This time, we'll continue sorting our donated supplies, start stripping an old laser printer, and talk about our personal projects.Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-55081816424902711082010-04-12T12:28:00.000-04:002010-04-12T12:28:52.800-04:00Next Meeting: April 16, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on April 16, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>.<br />
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This meeting, we'll finally have some proper storage, so we can organize and inventory the new stuff we received two meetings ago. Also, Joe picked up some parts and supplies, and Frank has been playing with AVR chips and learning how to program a bootloader, and I've been to a few tech-themed local events lately, including a robot competition and an engineering expo for high school students. We'll discuss all this and more at this Friday's meeting, please come join us!Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-89560384238354050092010-03-11T00:10:00.000-05:002010-03-11T00:10:23.172-05:00Next Meeting: March 12, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on March 12, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>. I'll be bringing along two laptops and a wireless access point provided by <a href="http://www.rpcug.org/">RPCUG</a>, our parent organization. We'll spend some time loading the laptops up with Arduino and similar software, and try to get the wireless link up and running.<br />
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At our previous meeting, we sorted through some donated equipment, including an old working oscilloscope, a probably-working logic analyzer (we'll need cables), several "trainers" (breadboards with maybe-working power supplies and other goodies), and lots of unsorted electronics components, cables, etc.<br />
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Now that we have some tools and materials, we can start planning projects and workshops - suggestions are welcome! We still have some funds to pick up more supplies, and a "group buy" might not be a bad idea either.Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-5559393365573758242010-02-13T21:28:00.000-05:002010-02-13T21:28:14.209-05:00Next Meeting: February 19, 2010I've been very busy since the last meeting, and haven't had a chance to post the last meeting's minutes yet, so here's a combined post....<br />
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Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on February 19, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>. Topics to discuss will include a report on a big pile of recently donated supplies and equipment, which I hope to be able to bring to the meeting for some hands-on inventory and testing. I've also picked up some screwdrivers and such for the workbench, so we can do a little junk salvaging during meetings from now on.<br />
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At our previous meeting, my son helped me demonstrate two "kid's programming languages": <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> and <a href="http://www.alice.org/">Alice</a>. Each of these serves as a friendly-for-any-age introduction to modern object-oriented, event-driven, multi-threaded programming, and can be used to create simple demos and games, talk to other networked computers, talk to an Arduino, and much more. We compared those two languages to Lego Mindstorms NXT-G, Java, Arduino, C++, and others.<br />
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We also discussed upcoming robot-related public events, and one reason why I've been so busy lately: my son's FIRST Lego League robotics team won their local qualifying tournament, and have been meeting often to prepare for the big regional tournament at the end of this month. I had been planning to have enough free time to prepare for our club to set up a robot-demo and member-sign-up table at the upcoming Rockland Youth Fest, but I can't do it myself this year - next time, with the club better organized, we'll be there.<br />
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Upcoming events of interest:<br />
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<ul><li><a href="http://www.pace.edu/pace/seidenberg//news-announcement/news-2009-2010/first-tech-challenge---scheduled-for-feb-21/">Hudson Valley FIRST Tech Challenge</a> - February 21 at PACE University</li>
<li><a href="http://nycnjfirst.org/blog/2010/01/28/2010-nyc-first-robotics-competition/">NYC FIRST Robotics competition</a> - March 12-14 at the Jacob Javits Center</li>
<li>Make Magazine's <a href="http://www.makerfaire.com/">Maker Faire</a> NYC - September 25-26 in the New York Hall of Science in Queens</li>
</ul>Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-23623671466516883542009-12-21T18:19:00.001-05:002009-12-21T18:20:36.207-05:00Next Meeting: January 22, 2010Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on January 22, 2010, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>.<br />
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Topics to discuss will include: upcoming robotics competitions in the New York area (I plan to go see a few myself), and our possible participation in the <a href="http://www.sunyrockland.edu/community/calendar-of-events/youthfest">Youth Fest</a> event at <a href="http://www.sunyrockland.edu/">RCC</a> this spring (<a href="http://www.rpcug.org/">RPCUG</a> may want to share a booth). And, of course, whatever everyone else has been up to lately (Frank? Rahul?)....<br />
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Happy Holidays everyone, see you next year!Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-46915912009254237502009-12-07T19:46:00.002-05:002009-12-07T19:50:15.714-05:00Meeting Minutes: December 4, 2009We had our second meeting last Friday (12/4/09). Many people couldn't attend (the holidays keep everyone busy), but we did get one new member: Rahul, current president of <a href="http://www.sunyrockland.edu/">RCC</a>'s recently-formed Robotics Club.<br />
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Everyone present that night knew how to program, so things got quite geeky.<br />
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Meeting highlights:<br />
<ul><li>We discussed the <a href="http://www.arduino.cc/">Arduino</a>, and what makes it different from previous less-approachable microcontroller kits; I also showed off a little demo program I'd cobbled together, which controls an RGB LED via a Wii Nunchuck controller.</li>
<li>I demonstrated the Arduino programming environment, and we dug into its internal details, exploring the source code for the included libraries.</li>
<li>I loaded up <a href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=2725">AVR Studio</a>, and we discussed its advantages over the Arduino tools for more complex programming tasks. I also showed some maze-solving demo code for my little <a href="http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/975">Pololu 3pi</a> robot, which was written in C, although <a href="http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J17">Arduino-compatible tools</a> are also available for that platform.</li>
<li>I brought along a DangerousPrototypes.com <a href="http://dangerousprototypes.com/bus-pirate-manual/">Bus Pirate</a> board (as featured on <a href="http://hackaday.com/?s=buspirate">HackaDay.com</a>), and connected it to the Wii Nunchuck to demonstrate its I2C support, then switched to its new <a href="http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/11/02/bus-pirate-logic-analyzer-firmware/">Logic Analyzer mode</a> and showed off the features of the Java-based <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jlac/">SUMP</a> client interface. I mentioned that a sequel to the PIC24-based Bus Pirate was being designed with <a href="http://whereisian.com/forum/index.php?board=23.0">better logic analyzer</a> capabilities, which led to discussion of how such a device might be designed with Arduino-compatible hardware, and a <a href="http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1258704574">current project</a> to do just that.</li>
<li>Meanwhile, my son Matt got a <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx">Lego Mindstorms NXT</a> robot programmed, and had it walking around the room, until its batteries ran out!</li>
<li>Frank talked about some personal projects he'd been moving over from the PIC to the ATmega-based Arduino platform, and how the chips were similar and different.</li>
<li>Xin and Frank discussed how electronics is taught now at RCC, and how it was taught there 20 years ago; it looks like this club will have a lot to offer students who want some good old fashioned hands-on hacking experience!</li>
<li>Alex and his crew demonstrated a radio-controlled helicopter, which led to some discussion of servos and the specialized mechanism which "steers" the main rotor.</li>
<li>Infrastructure update: I'll pick up some tools soon, and we should have our big lockable cabinets some time next week, so we should be able to do some "creative destruction" next time. (Don't throw out that old VCR yet, it's got good parts in it!)</li>
</ul>Overall, I'd say it was an excellent meeting, and a good geeky time was had by all!<br />
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Happy Holidays, everyone! Our next meeting will be in mid-January, see you then!Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-45035930283476436412009-12-03T20:05:00.008-05:002009-12-05T12:20:45.485-05:00Next Meeting: December 4, 2009Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on December 4, 2009, at <a href="http://www.hobbytown.com/nynan/">HobbyTown</a>.<br />
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This meeting, we'll start building something: the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set which Alex (our gracious host) donated at the last meeting. I'll demonstrate the Lego programming tools, and see if we can get something driving around bumping into things before the evening's done! I'll also bring along my Arduino stuff for those who'd like to try that out.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.rpcug.org/">Rockland PC Users Group</a> (of which we are a small part) has provided us with a little start-up money. My plan is to buy some tools (a good soldering iron, etc.) and materials (Arduinos, small parts, solder, etc.) to stock our supply cabinet (which RPCUG is also providing). Of course, anything we can get donated leaves us more money for cool stuff! So, if you have anything suitable you'd be willing to contribute (or you're wondering what's "suitable"), please email me.<br />
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We will be getting a PC (or two) for our workbench, but in the meanwhile, I recommend bringing your own laptop to meetings if you have one. (Wireless Internet access will also be available, once I locate a spare wireless router - donations welcome!)<br />
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Please feel free to bring your questions, half-finished projects, and wannabe-geek friends to come join in the fun! Come get your geek on! :)Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730383805206786802.post-75718731141539217782009-11-18T17:49:00.008-05:002009-12-05T12:22:34.388-05:00Welcome!Welcome to the Rockland Robotics Club website!<br />
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We are a group of robotics and electronics enthusiasts, from absolute beginners on up. Our meeting topics include robotics (Lego Mindstorms NXT, BOE-bots, Vibrobots and other BEAM robots); basic electronics and soldering; Physical Computing and microcontrollers (Arduino, PIC); traditional programming tools (C/C++, Java, Processing); visual programming tools (NXT-G, Scratch, Alice, PureData); and whatever else members want to include.Mike Donovanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07945075344574058927noreply@blogger.com0