Reddit reviews Physical Computing
We found 2 Reddit comments about Physical Computing. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Reddit reviews Physical ComputingWe found 2 Reddit comments about Physical Computing. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Been building robots for about a year ... great fun and perfect for someone with programming knowledge. Here's how you can get started:
--An awesome, supportive community of robot builders.
--In my opinion, simply the best introduction to electronics you can get.
--Arduino or equivalent (I use: http://www.moderndevice.com/RBBB_revB.shtml) ... this will be the centerpiece to your projects, the "brain." You'll program it in C.
--Lots of resistors, capacitors, LED's, jumper wires, maybe a few IC's to play around with, and other components (from anywhere BUT Radio Shack ... buy in bulk online from somewhere like this: http://www.futurlec.com/ValuePacks.shtml but be warned, shipping can take weeks) ... organize it all in a tackle box or small plastic drawers.
--A decent soldering iron (I use a Weller WLC100 with ST7 tip)
--A multimeter (this will be your best friend when you need to debug, so if you have the money, invest in a Fluke)
--A breadboard, a couple half-size breadboards, and prototyping boards.
--Motors and wheels like these: http://www.solarbotics.com/products/gmpw_deal/
--A motor controller like this one: http://www.solarbotics.com/products/l293d/
--Expanded PVC for the chassis.
--Ultrasonic rangefinder for eyes.
--Basic hobby servo for swivel head (S03N STD is what I'm using)
That will get you started nicely, but I'm sure I'm leaving things out. A couple other great sites for buying parts:
--http://www.pololu.com/
--http://www.sparkfun.com/
Whatever you do, don't buy from Radio Shack lest you spend 4 times as much cash as your should. Electronics stores like Fry's are a good bet, or if nothing like that is available to you, the links above should suffice.
--Remember to keep it simple for your first go ... I'd recommend you build a wall-avoiding robot (something that just drives around your house) before attempting your paintball bot. For any design, don't add anything that isn't a necessity.
--Plan everything out before building. If you have the patience, make a CAD (Google Sketchup is powerful and free) to make sure everything fits together the way you want.
I don't have time right now to make sure I covered all my bases, so don't consider this a fool-proof plan. I may have failed to mention some things. But it's important to stay open and absorb as much as you can ... I think this should be a solid starting point for you. A great tutorial for your first robot can be found here: http://letsmakerobots.com/start but uses Picaxe (BASIC) as opposed to Arduino (C), which I prefer.
For your paintball bot, you'll probably want to connect it to your computer for the kind of image analysis you want to do. Arduino is sufficient for basic edge detection, but not for recognition. However, Arduino is still a great intermediate for your robot to talk with your computer. Read about serial communication (http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Serial) so you can send info from the robot to your computer for analysis, and back to your robot so it can take action.
May be of use to you: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/1119
Best of luck in your evil robot endeavors! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Some book suggestions:
Making Things Move
Physical Computing
Motors for Makers
These books can be found on the Web ...
Maker Media, Inc., publishes many books and a magazine that could be of inspiration.