Best. Christmas present. Ever.
Jen, Jorge, and John all chipped in and gave me the Boe-Bot kit, based on the BASIC Stamp II microprocessor. I put it together in a short afternoon and, following the tutorial, had it programmed to follow a flashlight beam, hide in shadows, turn a series of 90° angles, etc. It was too much fun!
What I appreciate most about it -- over the more expensive VEX kit -- is that you learn a lot about the electronic circuitry in the process of building it, and you can immediately start programming it to navigate autonomously. Plugging LEDs, capacitors, and resistors into the breadboard took me back to my teen years when I used to desolder old radios and try, TRY, to build stuff with the parts.
Of course, my audience was a tough one to please.
Madeleine: "Daddy, can you build us a baby sister?"
Carter: "Dad, let's make a flying robot!
Patience, kids. Daddy has to learn how to make a cockroach robot first.
Posted January 9, 2006 2:12 PM