Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!gatech!concert!samba!usenet
From: Bathsheba.Grossman@launchpad.unc.edu (Bathsheba Grossman)
Subject: Tyro praises group, wants advice
Message-ID: <1992Dec5.030335.4767@samba.oit.unc.edu>
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Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
References: <1992Dec2.225902.24048@sequent.com> <1992Dec4.124428.13667@phx.mcd.mot.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 03:03:35 GMT
Lines: 37

Hello.  I am a sculpture student just beginning to work with electronics
and mechanical devices, and follow this group with great interest (though
90% of the time I have no clue).

I have two pieces in mind and would like some advice on what
controller/development environment I want.  The hardware should be fairly
small, rugged, and permanently programmable, as God knows what people will
do with the things after they (putatively) buy them.

One would have four motors executing a long, predetermined sequence of
motions (designed to illustrate some rarely-seen finite point groups in
3-space, but that's another story B).  This miniboard sounds ideal, except
it seems to have a lot more sensors than I'd need.  Do you think, offhand,
that I can get it working, starting with a little electronics skill and a
lot of motivation?   The programming isn't a problem; I do it for a living
without having much idea what goes on inside the platinum-plastic box.

The other would have a large number of blinky-lights, 512 or 729 or so,
which would ideally be individually addressable.  (The idea being to
arrange them on a space frame in some interesting lattice.  Quasiperiodic,
maybe)  I guess this is an exotic question for this group, but what would
I use to make such a setup programmable?

Also, where can I get small DC motors with built-in sensors that know when
they're stalled and stop trying?  Assuming such things exist.  I wrote
everywhere on the last FAQ, (it was a while ago, nudge nudge) and none of
the places that deigned to send me catalogs had any.

Thanks for any advice you can spare - post here or email is fine.

-Sheba

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