Let's Get Rolling

I had a meeting with my supervisor this week. I have completed my Initial Planning, and have recorded my supervisor's comments. He believes it would be beneficial for me if I were to program a short computer game in Scratch, before making the step into robot soldering and Python.

Scratch is a programming language created by the MIT Media Lab. It allows beginners to program and create, whilst also picking up basic "mathematical and computational ideas", before heading into the big wide world of Python.

I have taken this advice on board and will shortly be brainstorming ideas for my first programming project. I might even ask some primary children at my school to evaluate the game; peer assessment rather than self assessment. Or a mixture of both, because what I will end up creating will need evaluation of the creative process by me, and evaluation of the end result by its users.

After this meeting, I filled in my Project Proposal Part A last Friday, and am hoping to receive Part B, completed by my supervisor, next week. Then it's just Part C left, the approval of my EPQ-cooordinator, and the programming can begin!

Sites used: http://scratch.mit.edu/

Shopping for Robots

After I posed my question on the Raspberry Pi forum, asking for advice and guidance on my very first robot, I received buckets of help from some very friendly, very experienced hobbyists.

For my Robotics Project thread, this is the link: Robotics Project RPi Forum

In conclusion, I decided that these two products would be a good choice for a beginner:

This is called the Magician Chassis, which I found on SparkFun. It costs around $15/£9.80, which is fantastic if my soldering doesn't go to plan.

The description:

"It features two gearmotors with 65mm wheels and a rear caster. The chassis plates are cut from acrylic with a wide variety of mounting holes for sensors, controllers, power, etc. Simply bolt the two pre-cut platforms together, attach the motors and caster and add your favorite robotics controller. This kit includes all of the parts needed to assemble the chassis as well as a 4xAA battery holder with barrel jack termination."

The second product is the RaspiRobot Board. Costing $30/£20 is also a handy, not-overly-expensive purchase.

The description:

The Raspberry Pi packs plenty of processing power in a small and inexpensive package and that makes it perfect for robot brains! The only problem? The Raspberry Pi may have plenty of low-level hardware peripherals but motor controllers aren't one of them. That's why the RaspiRobot project got started. The RaspiRobot board is an expansion board for the Pi that turns it into a robot controller.

This is not an essential, but my forum buddies suggested this match was a great start for a novice robot builder.

Both of these kits come in parts, so I'll get to learn how to put everything together, and get a bit of soldering done, which is yet another skill I feel I should have mastered but have never tried! I know my EPQ supervisor has soldering equipment, as does my granddad, so fingers crossed I won't need to buy that.

I would like to point out that these two products will probably be the 'skeleton', if you like, of my robot. In an ideal world, I'd love to connect a Raspberry Pi Camera Board or even a PS3 Eye as a camera function, and various sensors and whatnot. But always keeping in mind that my EPQ has a deadline, I will have to wait and see what I can complete!

Sites used: https://www.sparkfun.com/, http://www.raspberrypi.org/ (specifically the thread above)

Turning On the Pi

I decided to purchase Maplin's Pi kit a few weeks before Easter, and I'm glad I did. Along with the Raspberry Pi User Guide and a rainbow Pibow, I spent around £100, but what I will end up gaining will be worth that 'empty wallet' feeling.

I possibly may have also bought a TV screen to use as the monitor! The old computer monitor I had planned to use didn't have the correct ports.

Oh dear, the costs......

It's the LOGIK HD Ready 19" LED TV: good size, has HDMI and USB ports and was only £89.99 as it was on offer at Currys (and still is). On the plus side, I now have a TV in my room, and it's so lightweight that I'm planning on taking it to uni with me, but until then it is my Raspberry Pi monitor.

I used the USB hub to connect my mouse, keyboard and WiFi dongle to the Pi. I connected the monitor to the Pi's HDMI port and turned on the Pi with the power supply provided in the starter kit.

Up until I had physically bought the Pi, I had been having difficulty describing how the Pi works to my curious friends and family. I explained it was essentially a small computer. THAT led to all sorts of confusion and debate. So in order to show them just how like a computer the Pi can be (because it is actually a computer), my first port of call was Facebook. These photos seemed to convince them.

N.B. This is not the monitor I now use, in this photo I was having to make do with the TV in my kitchen.

I then discovered the computer games written in Python that were preloaded onto the Pi. I will admit I had a good half an hour playing this...

Resources used: Raspberry Pi User Guide, Maplin Quick Start-Up Guide