Adventures of an Urban Jungleboy

18 May 2012 @ 12:27 pm

ThinBot's next appearance: This Monday in San Francisco at Swissnex SF!

ThinBot (and yours truly) have been invited to appear at an event sponsored by Swissnex SF:

http://swissnexsanfrancisco.org/Ourwork/events/robotshumans

Monday, May 21 6:30-10pm

Tags: barbot, robogames, thinbot

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07 May 2012 @ 06:29 am

Foamhenge

We have to equip two of our footlockers as padded shipping containers for Thinbot so we can get him to conventions.

iamradar had a defective memory foam mattress that needed a home.

So bovil and I squeezed it into the Subaru, took it home, and chopped it into 8 smaller pieces. The stacked slabs looked rather like megalithic plinths, so what else could we do?

( Read more... )

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.

Tags: thinbot, thinbot rebuild, via ljapp

Current Location: US, California, San Jose, Santa Clara, Cassatt Way, 501

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30 April 2012 @ 06:41 pm

Livejournal, come on. [Scrapbook Going Away]

Originally posted by

caprine at Livejournal, come on. [Scrapbook Going Away]

Originally posted by

gridlore at Livejournal, come on. [Scrapbook Going Away]

Originally posted by

mdlbear at Livejournal, come on. [Scrapbook Going Away]

Originally posted by

thnidu at Livejournal, come on. [Scrapbook Going Away]

Originally posted by

browngirl at Livejournal, come on. [Scrapbook Going Away]

Originally posted by

zeitgeistic at Livejournal, come on.

Alright, I am not drunk enough to deal with this, so I'm just going to put out this PSA:

Livejournal Scrapbook is going away and will be replaced by the mysterious "Photo Album". Your 10GB of Paid Member space is now 2GB. If you care, there is an explanation in Russian on the Russian news page. There's also a user-submitted translation.

+ You will no longer have access to your Scrapbook once this goes live.
+ Your images will redirect, but the URL will be different.
+ Unable to tell what will happen to any photos you have that put you over the 2GB limit.
+ Back up your Scrapbook just in case.
+ If you want your photos transferred over now instead of waiting, let them know here.

ETA:
Thanks to

storyfan for telling me about this (relevant comments on page 13): For now at least, you can still upload/manage your scrapbook via http://pics.livejournal.com/manage/.

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21 April 2012 @ 05:22 pm

Picture worth 8 thousand bytes (approximately)

Here's video of the very cool mechanized Gold Medal ThinBot was awarded at Robogames 2012 last night.

Tags: barbot 2012, robogames, thinbot, thinbot rebuild

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20 April 2012 @ 10:23 pm

Victory

ThinBot took the Gold!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Tags: barbot, robogames, thinbot, via ljapp

Current Location: US, California, San Mateo, San Mateo, Saratoga Dr

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14 April 2012 @ 02:59 pm

ThinBot: Rebuild (nearly complete!)

Here are a couple of photos of ThinBot after installing the full-length food-grade Norprene tubing.

( photos under the cut )

I also did a quick calibration test of one pump, it delivered almost exactly the 100ml requested. The new hoses also maintain better vacuum back to the pump, so the nozzle drips almost not at all when dispensing ends.

Next step (this weekend): build the bell ringer and glass detectors, which are not necessary for ThinBot to perform properly but will definitely add some zing.

Tags: barbot, barbot 2012, thinbot, thinbot rebuild

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14 April 2012 @ 02:55 pm

Back to the Drawing Board: ThinBot Rebuild, Attempt Two

Having identified the interference problem with the pump motors, I took a break and built a new cable for the control unit.

( pix under the cut )

I also mocked up the design for the new mounting panels:

( more pix )

Satisfied that the new design would work, I set out to build it, and assemble the works:
( building the new pump head assembly )

Next post: assembled with new hoses.

Tags: barbot, barbot 2012, thinbot, thinbot rebuild

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14 April 2012 @ 12:11 pm

Rebuilding ThinBot, Attempt One: Back to the Drawing Board

The Anko pumps are much beefier (over a pound apiece), so I got a new set of panels and set out to rebuild the pump head portion of ThinBot, with blue LEDs behind each pump rotor.

Everything looked great until I tried to assemble the four panels into the head assembly and discovered that the pump motors collided with each other.

Along the way, I figured out a bunch of things for the second attempt, so the effort was not entirely time wasted.

( Photos under the cut )

As I said, back to the drawing board.

Tags: barbot, barbot 2012, thinbot, thinbot rebuild

Current Mood:

frustrated

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23 March 2012 @ 06:45 am

New Pumps from Anko!

Photos of some of the new pumps from www.ankoproducts.com

( images under the cut )

I just have to cut the replacement top panels and I can start rebuilding ThinBot with these new pumps!

Tags: barbo 2012, barbot, robogames, thinbot

Current Mood: working

industrious