Taurus 2 is the second version of the Taurus Robot build by Andrew. The main reason for building Taurus2 was to fix the errors from Taurus, and there were some nasty errors:
- Size Matters - Taurus was too big. The problems I had exponentially increased with the size. Forces were greater, as well as the price of everything. I will limit T2 to about the size of a shoebox.
- Friction - Treads were bad. Caused way too much torque in the system. Bye-bye treads, hello large synchronous high traction wheels.
- Chains, Gears - Bad. Very bad. The main reason for failure. I refuse to use them again. Ever. Servos have built in gear boxes, and are easily controllable. I will use them.
- Terrain - Taurus did not conform to terrain as expected (partially due to tread failure). T2 will have a dynamic terrain conforming system. And it’s a simple design as well.
- Steering - Treads made turning nearly impossible due to friction. Ive decided to independently control each wheel for T2.
And here is what Taurus2 will feature:
- zero degree turning radius
- near omni-directional movement (singularities at maximum servo rotations)
- simulated rack and pinion movement
- dynamic terrain conforming
The project is really great, and Andrew provides all the source files and CAD designs so you don’t have to worry about anything, you just have to start the project.
Taurus2 a reborn-ed robot: [Link]
Remember the Electronic Hits Counter i wrote about last week ? There’s a new version out, this time Bob made the counter USB capable, this means you connect it to your pc trough USB instead of RS232. The functionality is still the same, it shows your website hits, on a LED display which is cool. I’m gonna build one soon.
Electronic Hits Counter > USB version: [Link]
We all know the Sony Blu-Ray replacement drive assembly for the PS3 and the Blu-Ray Laser phaser project i mentioned in a past article. So we know its possible to build a Blu-Ray Laser with one of these modules, but what makes this project better than others ? It seems the author payed a little more attention to details and added a current-limited power supply opposed to the simple resistor based design. The project also features rechargeable Li-Ion batteries with charging jack on the back and a protection circuit module for Li-Ion batteries. So you can see now that this project brought many improvements to the original one.
Blu-Ray Laser Pointer: [Link]
The need for security systems is growing every day. These days every institution has an alarm system, and people houses are beginning to catch up. One of the features included in most security systems is the sms notification, which the author thinks is not as reliable as Ethernet Notification system because GSM networks can have a congestion at the time the alarm.
Well i disagree with the author, and i think the SMS notification is much more reliable than Ethernet, in fact from my experience Ethernet Networks tend to fail more often that GSM networks. So if you’re thinking of building a security system, i would suggest a SMS notification system instead of an ethernet one, in my opinion sms is more reliable.
Ethernet based Security System sends you an Email when the alarm goes off: [Link]
The MAX6953 from Dallas Maxim is a compact cathode-row display driver that interfaces a microprocessor (like PIC or AVR) to four 5×7 dot matrix LED display trough an I2C compatible serial interface. The Max chip includes some nice features like:
- low-power shutdown mode
- segment blinking
- test mode that forces all LEDs on
- 16-Step digital brightness control
This project can be considered both a led matrix controller and a development board for MAX6953. The project presents only the max6953 and the led matrix, if you want it to display anything, you’ll also need to stick a microcontroller in there and write some code. You might want to check this other article 50×7 LED Matrix which has everything included.
MAX6953 LED Matrix or development board: [Link]