http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mem_basys.html The Web page today, includes photos of ITSABOT, which was exhibited at the West Coast Computerfaire in 1982, as a demo of the COSMAC 1802 single-board computer called BASYS of a few years prior. I read the discussion about building some kind of smarts, into one kind or another of commercial toy robot. I note by contrast, the other part of the discussion, which shows what many people of the 1970's-80's era actually published in the hobby electronic magazines. They used single-board computers to operate various scrounged motors, read simple switch-closure sensors, reflective sensors, light sensors, etc.; to operate simple wheeled robot platforms. That's activity which is replicated today with Arduinos and RaspPi's, for much the same reasons. There's also all kinds of brand-name technologies to make mechanical-robotic devices, which include these same parts at much higher prices, with nice-colored connector schemes, and ready-to-go operating systems, and Internet connectivity. and of course, there's various high-school robotics competitions which use stock/industrial control and development systems, packaged for that purpose (as in the FIRST competitions). So that part of hobby robotics is old ground, seems to me. My point being - little of that was available or affordable in 1980, when a new car sold below $5000, a college education was a few thousand a year, and engineers starting salaries were $30K (twice the average US salary). and of course, microprocessors were still new to many engineers and techs. What looks "homebrew" in the 21st century, was normal practice in 1980 and earlier, part of the process of promoting and learning about microprocessors. So it would be entirely period-reasonable, to take today a KIM or a VIP or any other 1980 single-board computer, pull steppers from a dead printer (I have many), sensors as noted, and write some assembly language or FORTH to move them around. I don't think someone will step up to do this from scratch in 90 days; but it's possible someone has something of this order that almost works, or used to work, and might loan it to VCFed for restoration. Question is: will the HOPE attendees look at a box on wheels and say "oh, that's an Arduino, it's a toy-bot, so what?" It's entirely reasonable for Evan to conclude such an exhibit would not be as productive a display as, say, a more visually impressive HERO, clearly a commercialized hobby / educational product of the period. Those seem to be the choices in discussion, those are my inputs. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info