Archive | December, 2009

Meet Rover, fresh out of Rogue Labs

29 Dec

Meet Rover, an autonomous roving robot-ish thing. ( Pictures below )

Rover was borne yesterday in the Rogue Labs, and it took its first breath to much whirring of motors and blinking of lights. Rover is the result of many weeks of experimenting with a few PIC microcontrollers which a friend very very kindly lent me. [ Full Story ]

Basically, Rover is a mobile base unit I’m using as a platform for exploring autonomy in robotic systems.  The motor control circuit and logic circuit are modular, meaning I can easily swap them out for components I’ll build later.

Rover’s  “brain” is a PIC16F84A which controls the drive circuit on Ports A and monitors various inputs on Port B to determine what it should do when it detects something.

The drive circuit is an L298N 2-motor controller and a 7805 5v logic power supply/regulator for both the motor controller and the PIC.

Right now Rover has bumpers that detect a soft collision with an obstacle and then reverses while turning. So it basically runs around a room in a straight line until it hits something, then reverses while turning for a few seconds, then continues in another direction until it hits something else. Pretty cool to watch.

I’ll post videos later when I get a better quality camera.

I’ve have waited many many years to do this. [ Full Story ]

Over the next few days/weeks/months, I’ll be experimenting with non-tactile sensors like Sonar, IR and more outputs.

Also,  since I’ve pretty much gotten the basics of Assembler and PICs, I’ll be moving on to more powerful microcontrollers and playing around with some advanced stuff.

Here are some pictures for you.

rover_brain_view

rover_motor_logic

rover_breaboard

rover_ground

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Rogue FM: Steve Jablonsky – Arrival to Earth (Transformers Soundtrack)

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Memoirs: Thank you, Gonza! Thank you, Abba!

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Offtopic:

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

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The Mega BHH is on!

10 Dec

So, it’s official. We have a venue for the biggest Uganda Blogger’s Happy Hour yet, set for the 18th December 2009.

The lovely Yvonne (http://walkonby.wordpress.com) will be hosting us at her home in Bunga. Directions will come later. Once we’ve gotten some kind of map or something.

Set the hype-machines rolling, y’all!

The Mega Ugandan Blogger's Happy Hour - Friday 18th December 2009

The Mega Ugandan Blogger's Happy Hour - Friday 18th December 2009

Let’s rock!

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Rogue FM: Bajofondo Tango Club – Mi Corazon – Campo

Offtopic:

“Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.”
- Author Unknown

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i’m told updates are very important

7 Dec

So here goes.

TEDx
Rocked. It was delightfully awesome. Great speakers, great organisers. Sadly, I was too much in a whirlwind after that to post a proper blog post about it. And I’m still in that whirlwind, so allow this to suffice. I spoke a little, here’s the video (I’m the dark shape in the video). Also, check out the “Related Videos” section for other TEDx speakers. More information can be found here and here. Also, a few photos should be here.

Node Six Moves Offices
Our new premises are at Kisementi, above Banana Boat, side entrance. The new place is awesome, and we thank our clients, colleagues, friends and acquantices for the support they’ve shown us over the years. We believe that the next few years are going to be amazing.

December BHH
A few people think a blogger’s mega-bash for December is an awesome idea. The few people being Sleek, Streetsider, Darlkom and myself. The only problem is, we lack a venue. Opinions and suggestions welcome.

Okay, that’s it for now, still got lots of stuff to setup at our new offices., so cheerio!

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Rogue FM: Windows Welcome Music. LOL

Offtopic:

“The problem with the cutting edge is that someone has to bleed”
- Zalman Stern

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