On 4/27/2016
herb wrote:
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.
11:41 AM, Ethan wrote:
All kinds and types at HOPE. On the hacker con scale HOPE is generally more political than raw tech/exploits/theory of the other events....
There are likely to be people who know exactly what the Hero robots are, and ones that don't. As long as people don't go out and buy them and stick RPi's in them, all is good :-) The more info you can put up that is quick read about the things, the better!
Thanks for the encouragements, Ethan. I did update that Web page with photos of the little ITSABOX, thanks to Lee Hart today. herb wrote:
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.
Evan wrote:
I agree that would be reasonable. We have a working KIM. Herb, can you be the someone to step up and make a simple demo based on it? it would be our big chance to educate them. :)
Nope, KIM is not my (primary) technology. Other list members seem to say they have similar cards, someone more familiar with their KIM can make *theirs* do such things, then borrow the VCF's KIM to make it work on that one. I'm glad, Evan, you find the idea plausible. Things like stepper motor drivers aren't hard, just use power transistors of the period. Switch closures aren't hard. LIght sensors aren't hard. What's tricky is knowing what to do with these, how to mechanically set them up. I won't work on that cold in 90 days. As I said - someone who *already did that*, who could revive their work, is a better candidate. I'll poke at my 1802 boards in due course, but I can't promise to deliver in 90 days for a regional event. I just did one! I'm sorry if it's confusing, that I'm an advocate for other people's work. I'm trying to preserve a legacy that is not just my own, or my own immediate interests. That includes cheerleading; I don't have to run the ball. 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