Hack The Shell

The DeVry Robotics Club is building a machine that accomplishes the following objectives:

• Cross a balanced see-saw-type bridge
• Dispense batons (6″ x 1/2″) into robot for scoring
• Detect magnetized batons
• Place magnetized batons in rolling goal pipe
• Put non-magnetized batons in a

A few rules: The robot can only hold 5 batons at a time & the rolling goal may not be grasped.

complete details can be found here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/content.aspx?id=962

If you’d like to help or just share an idea, please stop in the Robolab, room 209A, or visit www.HackTheShell.com

Hi, guys! After some effort, we finally got it. Here are the details, with the registration link below. Please feel free to share with other DeVry students if you think they’d be interested. If you have any questions during the registration, please read the notes below the link. I’ve probably answered them.

DETAILS:

What: Hands-on Linux and Android Applications Development with Eclipse and the i.MX51EVK

Who: Freescale, featuring Eric Gregori (http://www.chibots.org)

When: Saturday, October 16th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (lunch provided, registration opens at 9:30 AM)

Where: Chicago DeVry campus, right here at 3300 North Campbell Ave. Room number TBA.

Price: FREE! What a deal!

What do you bring? Freescale is providing much of the equipment, but if you’d like to bring your own laptop and Android device, you may.

Are you excited yet? Ready to register? Click on the link below. There are a lot of questions on the form, but I’ve addressed those below if you have issues:

https://getregisterednow.com/Training/Register/Register.asp?e=iMX51Devry

AGENDA:

Introduction to embedded Linux, toolchains, and LTIB

* LAB: Using the GNU toolchain to build your first “Hello World”
application

* LAB: Executing your “Hello World” application on the i.MX51EVK

Introduction to the Eclipse development environment

* LAB: Creating/Building a embedded Linux application using Eclipse

Introduction to OpenCV and Face Detection on ARM Cortex-A8 based embedded systems

* LAB: Building your first OpenCV application for a ARM Cortex-A8

* LAB: Building/Running various OpenCV example application

Introduction to Android

* LAB: Using Android on a embedded device

Introduction to Android application development tools

* LAB: Using Eclipse and the Android SDK to build your first Android application

* LAB: Building the Android SDK sample applications

Introduction to the Android NDK

* LAB: Building the Android SDK sample applications, including OpenGLES

FAQ:

1) When registering, what should I put under Company Information?
A) If you are not currently in the industry, select “other” then put “student” in the “Job Description Other” field. For “Company’s Primary Market Focus” feel free to choose something of interest, or choose “other” and put “general knowledge” in the “Market Focus Other” field next to it.

2) What should I put in for the “Referred by” and “Distributor” fields at the bottom of the page?
A) Unfortunately, despite not indicating they are required fields, the form will complain if you don’t have these drop-down fields populated. For “If you were not referred by a Freescale Semiconductor sales…” drop-down, choose “Colleague.” For the “If you are working with a distributor…” drop-down, choose “Not working with a distributor” at the very bottom of the list.

3) I didn’t get a confirmation email. What should I do?
A) First, make sure it hasn’t been routed to your junk email folder. If it isn’t there, try contacting Freescale at FreescaleTraining@GetRegisteredNow.com or email me at rollins@invenium.com and we will work to find out whether you are registered, as space is limited.

4) The times on the confirmation email are earlier than what you gave above. What’s up?
A) Yes, the times given on the confirmation email are an hour earlier. Please disregard that. I’m working to get that resolved. If you get one of these early emails, the time is actually from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM with a 9:30 AM registration time.

5) Is there lunch?
A) Yes, Freescale is graciously providing lunch for us. If you sign up, please show up. We would like to continue to offer these types of seminars on campus, and having a good turn-out shows our vendors that we are sincerely interested in the information they’re willing to share.

6) I registered, but I found out I won’t be able to make it. What should I do?
A) Email the good folks at FreescaleTraining@GetRegisteredNow.com and let them know what’s going on. If it’s early enough, they may be able to allow another student to register in your place, since seating is limited.

Thanks! And I look forward to seeing a lot of you there! Please feel to email me at rollins@invenium.com if you have any questions! And let others in your classes know about this opportunity!

There’s still time…but not much. You, too, can participate in one of this year’s hottest geek fests — Arrowfest! Learn, network, eat tasty food…it starts at 8:30 AM and runs until 8:30 PM, with a number of great learning tracks to choose from. Get a jump start on your career and join us:

http://www.arrownac.com/offers/arrowfest/city_detail.html?id=1

Yes, it’s out in Itasca, but if we get enough interested participants, we can start forming carpools.

Still feeling a little intimidated about building your own robot? If you weren’t there to get one of Dr. Dan’s amazingly cool hand-outs, I can recommend the following site:

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_faq.shtml

This is a link to the FAQ page, which offers additional links to specific tutorials on how to build from kits or how to re-use old electronics and computer parts to get started. It even has a microcontroller tutorial if you want to roll your own microcontroller to really understand how things interact.

Texas Instruments MSP430 days  seminar was great and very informative.

at the end they mentioned a really cool aplication using the eZ430 Chronos “watches” 

here is a link:

http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/msp43016-bit_ultra-low_power_mcus/b/msp430_news/archive/2010/08/09/rock-em-sock-em-robots-goes-motion-controlled-for-ti-design-challenge.aspx

if the link doesnt work then just youtube Rockem sockem robots TI.

V

To recruit for robotics club, I propose we use what we’ve got: Boe Bots.

I want to outfit them so they know their way around campus and tell people how to get involved with the club. We can let them wander down the hallways self navigating with whiskers or IR, promoting for the club.

I”ll bring in an LED belt buckle I have which can flash something like “Join Robotics Club”. It can drag a little wagon full of fliers or something.  I’d like to hear your ideas on ways to improve their function as well, such as putting a gearbox on the servos to make it go super fast or putting tank treads on it to make it go over anything.

I found this event in my daily routine and thought I’d share it with you.

Regardless of your background, entrepreneurs and artists are visionaries, each in our own way. We all want to make a difference, create and be innovative. Isn’t it cool to try and prove that creating the “impossible” isn’t that hard to do?
So COME to the next week’s Create.Innovate.Repeat. networking night on Thursday August 19th from 7-9 pm at the ING DIRECT Cafe Chicago @ 21 East Chestnut in Chicago.

Connect yourself with other local artists and entrepreneurs who might be of service in helping you realize your next big idea. And did we mention free food and drink?

RSVP here: http://createinnovaterepeat.eventbrite.com/

Check out this awesome site. The tower kits are around $100 from Digikey. If you’re looking for something to dink around with, this may fit the bill:

http://www.towergeeks.org/

Check out the following online free robotics seminar from Freescale’s Eric Gregori:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/training_information.jsp?code=WBNR_VFTF09_AZ132#

As a side note, Eric is the one teaching the free Android workshop at University of Phoenix this coming Tuesday, August 17th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM (we ask that if you’re going to help out with the fundraiser, please leave early).

You can find out more about the Android/Linux seminar here:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=DWF_IMXCLASS

You can also see more cool videos and get great downloads from Eric’s site here:

http://www.EMGRobotics.com