[Yaaarc] Notes from 12/12 YAAARC meeting

[Erik Kauppi]

Note for GO Tech folks:
YAAARC is Ypsilanti Ann Arbor Area Robotics Club.  www.yaaarc.org. If 
you're interested in hobby robots, microcontrollers and stuff, you 
might want to join the YAAARC mailing list.  We meet at 7pm on 4th 
Friday of each month except November/December.

We had a good turnout, about 22 people including maybe 10 small 
ones.  We're seeing an increase in the number of kids each month, I 
think we should make some effort to have kids robot 
activities.  Anybody have any ideas?

One highlight of the meeting was Dr George Albercook and a team of 
students.  They asked about wireless links for their Flutterbot, and 
also showed a video of a balloon launch.  The unmanned balloon got 
several thousand (?) feet high, with a videocamera payload.  Yes the 
payload was retrieved after descent and you can see the video here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6230395918848250337&q=albercook&total=3&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
or just Google videos for "albercook".
You may want to fast forward, the launch is at about 6:15.
We discussed improved camera stabilization systems and anti-spin 
systems.  Dr. George wants to get to 100,000 feet!

We discussed wireless links for the Flutterbot development 
team.  Bluetooth, Xbee / Zigbee, and dedicated 900mhz radios.  Here 
are some various links that came up:

The book "Making Things Talk" from O'Reilly is all about wireless 
communication:
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Things-Talk-Practical-Connecting/dp/0596510519/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197564555&sr=8-1

Here are inexpensive ($19) Xbee wireless modules:
http://www.digi.com/products/wireless/point-multipoint/xbee-series1-module.jsp

Sparkfun has a lot of cool electronics stuff.  Click the "wireless" 
button on the category list.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php
Also try the 'tutorials' button at the top, there are a lot of good 
articles there.

Adafruit has interesting electronics hobby stuff, and the USB to 5v 
serial cable on this page is perfect for getting from Xbee or other 
module to your PC:
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=18

Any ideas for next month?  Kids activities?  What else?

Happy holidays, and keep those robots rolling!


---- Erik Kauppi -- ekauppi at corsa-inst.com (734) 761-1545 ---
----   Corsa data acquisition: http://www.corsa-inst.com   ----