Back to Minutes

Total attendance: 19

The meeting started by watching 1/2 hour of a video about robotic hands, the MIT design contest, and walking robots & vehicles.

Scott then did the usual introductions.

Jake then gave away several microphones.

Bob Schluger ( a new member) was looking for some people to talk at a science fair (elemetary school). If you are interested, you can e-mail him at: shlu4law@msn.com , or call him at 860-659-4703.

Another member brought in two Lego robots who where able to move forward using non-Lego motors. Good work!

Mark W. brought in some of the lights for the upcoming CRS contest in June (see the February meeting minutes for details). He also brought in a Lego robot that could scan for and detect the light and turn it off! Mark then briefly described how his robot worked. Nice work Mark!

Wayne brought in a Lego robot that was able to move forward and backward. He said that he is currently working on a more advanced program. Nice work Wayne!

Another new member Chris, talked about his robot for the Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest. The robot used geared motors with shaft encoders, an AVR MCU, and had Omni wheels. He plans on using a wireless connection from the PC to the AVR so that the PC can control the robot. Nice work Chris!

Jake then gave a talk on how to program the PIC micro controller. He first talked about what features the PIC has including 15 digital I/O lines and a speed of 4-20MHz. Jake then wrote two programs for the PIC. The first program turned an LED on, waited 2 seconds, then turned the LED off. The second program demonstrated inputs as well as outputs. Some links that Jake gave are:

www. microchip.com
www.MELABS.com

Thanks Jake!

The meeting adjourned around 3:30pm