Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!yeshua.marcam.com!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!olivea!uunet!hobbes!earth.armory.com!rstevew
From: rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
Subject: Re: Hero 1 Guts
Organization: The Armory
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 16:45:20 GMT
Message-ID: <Cy17vM.6p9@armory.com>
References: <782249713snz@stump.demon.co.uk> <380upn$u60@trog.dra.hmg.gb>
Sender: news@armory.com (Usenet News)
Nntp-Posting-Host: deepthought.armory.com
Lines: 40

In article <380upn$u60@trog.dra.hmg.gb>,
Walter Gray <wagray@taz.dra.hmg.gb> wrote:
>In article <782249713snz@stump.demon.co.uk>, Paul@stump.demon.co.uk (Paul Ramos) writes:
>>
>>
>>I have recently got ahold of some old Hero 1 Guts, all the circuit boards,
>>CPu, I/O, everyting. The only thing I couldn't get was the body. I guy I
>>got it from took the body and put his own controller in it. My question
>>is, can I make anything out of this stuff? I would like to build a frame
>>and put this stuff in it and make it work. Does anyone have any suggestions
>>or ideas as to what to do with this stuff.
>
>
>This stuff makes good landfill. I hope you didn't pay anything for it. When
>I scrapped a hero I kept motors & chassis. I also salvaged those nice
>power darlingtons and a lifetime supply of 4N26. The rest of it is totally
>obsolescent and IMO you would have less trouble rebuilding it from scratch
>with new electronics than learning the original electronics.
>
>Sorry if I put a damper on your enthusiasm, but modern stuff is so far
>ahead of that old stuff that the old stuff should be kept for sentimental
>reasons only.
>------------------------ usual disclaimers etc. ------------------------

-------------------------------------
Boy, he's grumpy!;) Well, all this is not really true to the hobbyist at
that stage of his development. As an example, I believe I am correct that
the HERO used the SC-01 Votrax speech synthesizer chip. THIS is a real
KEEPER!!! And of course you at least have a single board computer with
hexadecimal entry that has real-time I/O! That is a plus. If YOU don't want
it, I know a BUNCH of folks who DO. Ignore that "hi-tech" clown behind the
curtain!!!! The trick is to get ahold of the schematics or figure them out
yourself! The latter is more fun! And since you're not going to probably
build another HERO with it, at least dig up the docs on it and do what you
like with it, short of tossing it!! I know of a couple people who might
have the old schematics for HERO, but I will have to check with them. Write
me if interested. Actually those circuits were rather simple to figure out,
so don't give up so quickly!
-Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com

