Minutes from the February 2004

Connecticut Robotics Society Meeting:

Total attendance: 25

The meeting began with a discussion of some of the first computer aided design software and hardware ever developed. Two members brought in some examples of these devices which were able to create 3D wireframe models of real-world objects. Very impressive!

We then watched a 30 minute movie of last year's Trinity College Fire Fighting Robot Contest video. During this video, we were able to see several of the Expert Division robots running.

Jake was up then with the usual introductions along with a few announcements.

Peter came up next and he showed everyone his Lego Robot models. Very nice job on these Peter!

Brian then talked about his latest projects. Using his own parts and building these completely from scratch, Brian built a Rumble Pack, a LED Light Device, a large fan, and even a hydraulics demonstration. He described how each one worked and how he made them. Very good job Brian!

Next up, Visar, talked about his latest experiments with stepper motors. He explained that he used an L293D motor driver along with a PIC processor to drive these motors. He also gave several tips that everyone should remember when working with steppers such as using a separate power supply to power the motors instead of the processor power. He then went on to explain the robotic arm that he plans on building using stepper motors. Great work Visar!

Our speaker this meeting was John G. talking about the Atmel AVR Microprocessor. In this very informative talk, John explained what the AVR is, including it's large amount of memory, everything from EEPROM to Flash. He also talked about why the AVR is such a great processor. Because of it's many unique features and great price, along with some nice development boards, the AVR is a processor everyone should look into before starting their next project. At the end of his speech John demonstrated how easy it is to program the AVR by creating a "Hello Connecticut Robotics Society" program. Thanks for this great talk John!

The meeting adjourned around 3:45pm