Get your Beam Robot parts from Dead Electronics

You have to stock up parts such as Motors, Resistors, ICs, Capacitors to use later to build your dream robot. You can either get the parts from dead electronics or you can shop around and buy what you need at your local electronic shop. But it would be fun if you can extract most of your parts from dead electronic such as dead tape recorder, VCR player, Walkman, Mini Tape recorder, CD player, DVD Player and so on. Keep an eye oh these items other people may consider trash. Listed below are some of the things that worth watching for:

a) Tape recorders such as walkman, Mini tape recorders, CD players, DVD players, Computer Mouse, Portable Cassette Player, Car’s tape players: You can scavenge items such as Motors(big and small), gears ratio, belts, Pulleys, Pinch Rollers, Springs, Switches, Toggle Switches, couple of wires, LED lights and a few Battery, Light Detectos, compartment ( AA type battery).

b) Pagers (Vibrate Type), Mobile phones, Electronic Devices with Vibration Options: This is where the small Vibrate motor comes from. The vibration effects comes from a tiny motor spins an eccentric weight (attached to it spindle). These motors are normally used to build Mobile BEAM critters.

c) Spoilt laser printer Cartridges: You can extract quality Metal rods and plastic sheets.

d) Mechanisms that move slowly: This indicates that there are mechanical parts such as gear head motors (gear motor) presence. Gear motor turn slowly depending on the ratio of the gear box. The gear ratio provides the torque necessary to move, turn or lift load. It basically gives the motor a additional strength.

Therefore keep an eye of those dead electronic people throw away in their trash bin.

Robotics DC Motor

DC motor is the most common component used in building a small functioning moving robot. Apart from the motor's performance, the type of motor, as well as the physical size is of great important to consider when you design a robot. To understand how these motors function is very crucial as it will affect the overall performance of the robot. You can learn the basic function of motor and other related subjects at DC Motor.

Audiocity Audio Recording

If you are in a Music Band, then it is useful to get to know and use this piece of Sound Editor Application named Audacity. It has many advantages where you can simply create, edit, cut and paste, modify the sound and many more with great ease. Unlike other sound editor I have used before, audacity by far the most convenient tools for me to edit sound. Now it is in it latest version, Audacity 1.3.7 (Beta) for windows, Mac and Linux/Unix. I have use the version 1.2.3 long before this version came out. I used it to create sound effects during live stage presentation for the school where my wife works as a teacher. It was fantastic; the shows came alive with all the sound effect goes along with their stage act.

This version have significant improvement compare to the previous version since most of the former bug has been fix, basically it is a bug-fix release. It significantly improves stability and usability, especially on Mac OS X, but incorporates some new features too.

a) Cross-Platform Bug Fixes
b)Platform-specific Bug Fixes
c) New Features and other changes:
-F11 Full Screen mode, high-quality "Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift" effect, Audio Contrast Analyzer
-Windows: sound devices can now be opened using the more efficient DirectSound API
-As a first step towards improving latency correction, a fixed rather than variable correction is now applied

However because it is still in beta version, it has not complete with complete documentation just yet and it meant for advanced users. But for those who want to follow the manual/complete documentation go for the Audacity 1.2.6. This version is more stable, complete and fully documented. You can have Audacity 1.2.6 and 1.3.7 installed on the same machine.

Simple Mini Guitar Practice Amp

Looking at the circuit diagram, it is simple enough to understand how this tiny circuitry provides an amplifier suitable for guitar practicing.
List of components used as follows:

a) LM386
b) Electrolyte capacitors – 4.7uF, 100uF, 10uF ( prefer if Varicap), 470uF
c) Mono Jack (J1 and J2)
d) 9V battery
e) A couple of wires
f) Breadboard
g) Toggle Switch (S1)

However there are still more rooms for improvement i.e. additional features such as external power adaptor (if you runs out of battery during practice), one or two band EQ, Variable gain control instead of fix gain ( 20/200), buit-in guitar tuner, effect, . Hope to build this amp soon.

Intelligent and effective vacuuming robot

Nowadays people are more accustomed to adapt technology in their life especially if it help them clean their house. one good example is the robot vacuum.This particular robot keeps your floor clean throughout the day. unlike human maid, this little robot prefers to clean than complain. This is just the begining, in a few years time, a more multitasking robot will be invented to replace human maid.
This particular robot vacuum is called Roomba. It is an intelligent and effective vacuuming robot. It main component is the unique AWARE™ Robot Intelligence Systems. AWARE uses dozens of sensors to monitor Roomba's environment, and adjusts Roomba's behavior up to 67 times per second, ensuring that Roomba cleans effectively, intelligently and safely.

To see how some of Roomba's features work, please click: ROOMBA

ROOMBA main features are as follows:

a) A powerful vacuum -A smart and powerful vacuum Roomba picks up an amazing amount of dirt, dust, pet hair, dander, cat litter, crumbs, leaves and other debris as it autonomously navigates throughout your home. Roomba automatically adjusts from carpets to hard floors and cleans everywhere you want while avoiding off-limit areas.

b) Hard-to-reach places -Cleans hard-to-reach places Roomba’s compact shape allows it to vacuum beneath beds, couches and other hard-to-reach places while the innovative, spinning side brush removes accumulated debris along kickboards, cabinet edges and corners

c) Carpets to hard floors -Transitions from carpets to hard floors Roomba automatically transitions from one surface to the next, effectively lifting dirt, dust and debris from carpets, rugs, tile, linoleum and hardwood floors.

d) Avoids drop-offs -Avoids stairs and drop-offs Roomba knows when it’s approaching stairs and other drop-offs, cleans up to the edge then automatically and safely changes direction to avoid going over edges.

e) Detects dirt -Spends more time on dirtier areas Roomba detects dirtier areas and responds by increasing its vacuuming intensity and cleaning pattern to ensure deeper, concentrated cleaning in that area.

f) Won't get stuck -Won't get stuck Specially designed technology and suspension allow Roomba to maneuver over cords and effectively extract itself from fringe and tassels.

g) Light-touch bumper -Light-touch bumper Roomba identifies furniture and other obstacles, slow its approach then lightly and gently touch the obstacle with its bumper and changes direction.

h) Automatically recharges -Automatically recharges Roomba automatically locates and returns to its Home Base™ to dock and recharge between cleaning cycles and when the battery is running low.

i) Avoids off-limit areas -Avoids off-limit areas Virtual Walls create invisible barriers to off-limit areas that Roomba will not cross.

j) Lighthouse -Efficient room-to-room cleaning A Virtual Wall Lighthouse directs Roomba to completely vacuum one room before moving on to the next and creates an invisible barrier to off-limit areas that Roomba will not cross.

k) Modular Design -Modularity New modular design provides simpler cleaning, maintenance, part replacement and feature upgrades.

EXP-1 : Beam Robotic Part 2

As planned, we have successfully completed the whole circuit which include the Battery ON Indicator and reverse mechanism. The additional circuit (reversal mode) is mainly consists of the transistor 3904, one resistor, one electrolyte capacitor, toggle switch, relay and couple of wires.
Refering to EXP-1 part 1: the robot is constructed in stages based on the diagram shown below:





The circuit arrangement is a bit messy and wires are crisscross to one another. However, the circuit works fine as expected. During the experiment we found out that it is important to interpret the circuits diagram properly especially the connectivity of the relay. Anyway, the exp-1 is now has been completed. Next, we are going to house the whole circuit into a computer mouse casing, to make it look like a mouse. Rendy will be doing the circuit arrangement i.e. to squeeze the whole circuit into the tiny computer mouse casing.

Latest Humanoid Robot

Waseda University in Tokyo unveiled its updated humanoid robot, named Twendy-One, showcasing the robot's ability to pick up even the most difficult of objects.

Microbot swimming through human bloodstream

The Researchers from Monash University are working on microbot motors designed to swim through the human bloodstream. This tiny motor would be able to power a probe swimming through blood vessels.The Proteus is 2.5mm long and utilizes a dual-action action piezoelectric motor to drive a small fan that pushes the unit forward. This med-sub sailed through the blood stream to tackle the clot in the brain. The Proteus’s speed would be 6 centimeters per second.