Category Archives: Uncategorized

A lamp for Grisbot

If Grisbot is to detect nearby objects by flashing a light on and off, it will need to carry its own lamp. So I went to Radio Shack and bought a few candidates. (NOTE: The packages shown on the right … Continue reading

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Object detection by photocell

A photocell is a poor substitute for a camera, but it’s a lot cheaper too. So the question for grisbot is whether a photocell is sufficient to detect an object nearby. Here’s one possible solution. Suppose an object — say, … Continue reading

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Business Lessons from Chocolatier

Chocolatier is a business strategy simulation game where you are a chocolate maker in the nineteenth century. You travel around the world gathering ingredients and recipes, then have your factories make the chocolates, which you then travel around the world … Continue reading

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Rewiring to streamline reprogramming

Each time I re-program Grisbot, I have to move the ATMega328 microcontroller chip from the robot to the Arduino platform and then back again. It was difficult to pry the chip on and off the breadboard each time because several … Continue reading

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Grisbot in Solidoodle

The Solidoodle 3D printer is selling for only $499, which means that it is within my budget. So that got me to thinking that maybe I should abandon laser cutting in acrylic and instead go with 3D printing in ABS … Continue reading

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Informal Testing of Potential Ideas

Tonight I tested out a couple ideas for where to go next with Grisbot. On the right, I was working with the good old photocell testbed, which I connected to Arduino analog input A0 and measured the light reflected off … Continue reading

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ATTiny44 / Arduino programming pin connections

The MIT High-Low Tech tutorial on using an Arduino board as an ATTiny programmer has a diagram for connecting an Arduino to program an ATTiny45, but not for programming an ATTiny44. So I cross-referenced the corresponding SCK, MISO, and MOSI … Continue reading

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Grisbot Light Above Two Demo

Here is a demo video of grisbot performing in ‘Light Above Two’ Mode. This could be the basis of a game, in which the object is to steer the robot as close to a marker as possible within a limited … Continue reading

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Light Above 2 User Interface

This is the Scratch-programmed user interface for the second mode for grisbot to obey commands from a flashlight shined from above. When a flashlight is shined on the robot with an intensity greater than user-selected value (a), the robot turns: … Continue reading

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Grisbug circuit test

Grisbug is like a hexbug, only with programmed features. It is programmed to blink its eyes when a flashlight shines on it. When the flashlight comes closer, grisbug ‘wakes up’ and the eyes glow continuously and the motor runs. When … Continue reading

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