YES WE CAN.....

Yes we can program our Basic Stamps wirelessly. YES WE CAN!!

What's that? You say Parallax engineers for years have been saying it is not possible? That you can not do it because the nature of the communication protocol when connected to the computer and because wireless protocols can't communicate the data as required?

Well hold on to your hats my friends because I just programmed a Basic Stamp II wireless!!

Muuhahahahahaha, your Stamps are belong to me!

Okay, where is what I used, a wireless USB hub. It's an IOgear GUWH104KIT which included a wireless USB dongle you connect to your computer and a wireless hub you can connect 4 USB devices too (as long as they are not Webcams or speakers). You can read about the device from here: www.iogear.com/product/GUWH104KIT Currently you can purchase it from here for around $30 usd: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/58-14255&CAWELAID=552469334 I got mine from www.ebay.com

It might be hard to see in all the mess, but connect to my robot's Basic Stamp II is the wireless USB hub, through an IOgear serial to USB converter (not the one Parallax sells) which is connected wireless through the USB link to a Windows7 laptop. Not too bad huh? So if your dream is to program a Basic Stamp wirelessly, this might be the solution for you. The down side is it will not support webcams or speakers of any kind. I was counting on it to transmit my webcam data as well. Oh Well, can't win them all.

Bubby is back home

Bubby and I before returning him home just after the new year. Still have not finished his manual yet, but it was good to see him returned home. Not everything worked on him as planned. The voice board I had in mind to install fried. The motor control board there were in home did not want to work. His programming was a little tricky too. But overall it was a good upgrade from when I first brought him home I think.

Next in store of Bubby is the completed of his manual to detail is circuits and construction. And then we might pick an upgraded motor control to make is drive and naviagation easier to control.

Neck and arms

The neck has some disconnected pull rods to the motors that I thought were going to be hard to replace, but to my surprise they actually snapped back into place with out much fuss and the neck works perfectly.

The arms comes off with a bolt and the inner sholder bracket (pictured above) is set on the sholder motor shaft via two set screws that require a meteric alan wrench to turn them. The right sholder was really lose and need to be completely reset. The manufacture RoboTronics actually marked the motor shaft with a red marker to mark the set point the arm mount should be set to. This was really nice because if the arm is set back to far is make the upper body shourd almost impossible to take off and will interfer with the movement of the arms, as was the case before I fixed it.

RoboTronics really did make a nice robot with Bubby in 1986, the plastic and mechical peices have held up extremly well.

Not pictured are the gutted electronic boxs as most of the electronics were too old to try to keep with the parts that were missing. The electronics boxes and some of the internal supports for Bubby are metal and had some rust and dirt on them. A good way to clean those up a some light sanding and a good scrubbing with rubbing alcohol.

He drew first blood....

If you don't cut yourself working on a robot you are not trying hard enough....I believe that is the old adage from Dennis Clark. After I scratched my arm a few times working on Bubby I took a minute to pose a funny pic of Bubby attacking me with a box cutter. Working on a robot is never complete until the robot draws first blood. :-)

Latex Painting Tips

Tip number One: Don't paint latex in cold weather, it will never dry.
Tip number Two: Never let your paint get cold!
Tip number Three: Never assume the clear coat will not strip your paint off latex and plastic.
Tip number Four: If the paint on the latex or plastic is still tacky and won't dry, you can use the spray paint further away from the painted surface to create a mist on the surface and as the paint has a drying agent in it, the further away it is, the less paint and more of the drying agent seems to land on the surface, thus causing the surface to dry and stop being tacky to touch.

Bubbys face is finally drying right. Can't wait to put his head back together!

Video Capture Issues

If anyone has any problems with their USB video capture device working with Windows 7 like I just did, try this driver before buying a new expensive Win7 approved video capture device: http://www.sabrent.com/drivers/USB-AVCPTSetup_For_Win7.zip-

It sort of seems to work as a universal driver.

12-3-10 Bubby updates

Order new batter from BatterySpec.com...they have a great selection and good prices. Tryed to get a battery for Bubby from a local store called MECI.com but as usually they were clueless on if they had a battery or not and if they did have they did not know where they put them...I mean it was only listed in their catalog for goodness sakes!

Touched up the eyelids with some more paint, neeed another coat of touchups. Replaced the damaged left eye lid servo motor. Eyes are just about finished. The face is still tacky, it seems to be hold a lot of mositure from the cold. If you are painting a latax face like bubbys in winter months be sure to store your paint in a warm place and not a cold place like a garage. Latex is hard to work with sometimes.

Have to send another email to the Robotronics with a question on the hands, bcause while the servos in the arms will pull the hands closed there is nothing to push them open. Normally a hand design like this the servos would push and pull the hand closed and open, but this design does not. Or there would be a spring to pull the hand closed, and there does not appear to be a place for a spring, even if it were missing.