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Information Resources | ||
| Batteries | Electric Flight Batteries An interesting overview of Nicad batteries for beginners. It is written for R/C fliers. Battery powered airplanes use gobs of power in short periods of time -- with lots of concern about weight and size. You can learn a lot about battery power management from this hobby. | |
| BEAM Robotics | Solarbotics BEAM Community Site This non-commercial information site is sponsored by Solarbotics Inc. to support the BEAM Robotics community. It contains tons of pure information without annoying ads or pop-ups. The site provides free hosting for BEAM-related information, so its a great place to publish your own BEAM web pages. | |
| Electronics Tutorial | Welcome to the Hobby of Electronic Circuit Engineering A comprehensive and well done tutorial providing both theory and practice in basic circuit design. A great site to review if you want to start designing your own electronics. | |
| Macintosh Software for Basic Stamp | MacBS2 Mac OS X 10.2 (or later) development environment allows Basic Stamp development without the need for Virtual PC or (OH MY GOSH) an actual Windows computer. (freeware) | |
| Motors | Electric Motors Reference Center by Machine Design This is a sales and information site for engineers who use electric motors in their designs. It is maintained by a major publisher of ad supported trade magazines so the content is a bit of a cross between "electric motor encyclopedia" and "press release". It seems like a good resource for learning about basic motor technology and finding commercial suppliers. [Don't forget to check out selection of motors at Motors -- www.HobbyEngineering.com webmaster] | |
| Project Ideas | Abe Howell's Robotics Abe Howell is a PhD Mechanical Engineering Student at Binghamton University in upstate New York. While helping kids at Vestal Middle School learn about robotics he developed a low cost, easy-to-build robot using an old CD as the base. His site publishes plans and sells low cost kits for CDbot and other interesting projects. | |
| Project Ideas | Chuck's Robotics Notebook Chuck McManis is an engineer working in Silicon Valley who is an active robot builder and a member of the Home Brew Robotics Club. His web site has a large number of how-to projects for beginning and advanced robot builders. | |
| Project Ideas | Lennard Electronics Ben Lennard is an electronics design consultant in Wellington, New Zealand, who generously shares his expertise on a number of mailing lists and on his web site. His "Circuit Ideas" web page fully documents a large number of interesting projects using the Basic Stamp, USB and many other interesting technologies. | |
| Random | "Things to do instead of sleep" A good sized directory of interesting web sites. Definately for the geekily inclined. And, yes, "Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics" is REALLY a guide to semiconductor physics. The Britney fan pictures are just an attempt at nerd humor. Or something. | |
User Groups and Clubs | ||
| USA, CA, San Francisco | Robotics Society of America | |
| USA, CT, Hartford | Trinity College Fire-Fighting Robot Contest Each year Trinity College hosts an international competition where the goal is for a robot to navigate a model home, locate a burning candle representing a fire and extinguish the flame. The 11th Annual contest will be held on April 18, 2004. | |
| USA, IL, Peoria | Central Illinois Robotics Club The Central Illinois Robotics Club meets monthly in Peoria. Their competitions are open to everyone and include autonomous sumo and RC combat events. | |
| USA, OR, Grants Pass | SORC: Southern Oregon Robotics Club | |
| USA, OR, Portland | PARTS: Portland Robotics Society | |
| USA, WA, Seattle | Seattle Robotics Society | |
Manufacturers and Dealers | ||
| USA, CA, Rocklin | Parallax, Inc. The manufacturer of the Basic Stamp. Their WEB site is a great resource for information about Basic Stamp projects including download-able manuals, sample circuits and programs. | info@parallax.com |
| USA, IL, Woodstock | ONE PAS, INC. The manufacturer of unique prototyping PCBs that let you build complex circuits with a minimum of jumpers and board space. | |
| USA, MI, Kalamazoo | Alumilite Corp. The manufacturer of an easy to use casting system that lets you create your own professional looking plastic components and details. The Alumilite web site contains lots of detailed information to help you use their material. Hobby Engineering stocks a wide selection of Alumilite products and can special order the entire Alumilte product line. | |
| USA, NC, Asheville | MCU Research MCU Research sells low cost prototyping boards and software for the Zilog Z8Encore! microcontroller. | sales@mcuresearch.com |
USA, WA, Seattle | Online Metals This is my primary source for metal and machinable plastic that I use in my projects. They offer a wide range of materials, sizes and shapes and will gladly sell you anything from a single one foot bar to a garage-filling load for "serious" projects. If you have specific technical requirements, their WEB site lists industry standard alloy nomenclature and supplemental chemistry and mechanical specifications so you know exactly what you are buying. If you are just experimenting and don't know what the specifications mean, 6061-T6 aluminum is generally the best material for home machining. Your materials arrive promptly via UPS and everything but sheet materials are packed in sturdy cardboard tubes that make great storage containers for your unused material. | sales@onlinemetals.com |
| Australia, Southport | gigatechnology.com Gigatechnology produces modules which speed implementation of complex microcontroller projects. They are the manufacturer of our USB I/O modules. | |
| Australia, Tullamarine Ships Worldwide | Dontronics Dontronics is the manufacturer of many of our SimmStick products. | |
| Canada, Calgary, Alberta | Solarbotics Solarbotics is the commercial heart of the BEAM community and supplies most of our BEAM kits, solar cells and motors. Many Solarbotics products were inspired by or designed by Mark Tilden the inventor of BEAM Robotics. | |
| Canada, Ontario, Toronto | Bawtz.com Sells robot kits and components from a number of suppliers. | |
| Canada, Ontario, Toronto | Rogue Robotics The manufacturer of our Rogue Blue robot kits and platforms. | |
| Hong Kong | kitsRus.com The manufacturer of many of our electronic kits. | |
| United Kingdom, Norfolk | Devantech / Robot Electronics The manufacturer of many of our sensors. | |
| United Kingdom, Somerset | Active Robots Provides a range of robot kits, controllers and accessories for both educational institutions and amateur robotics enthusiasts. | |
If you would like to be listed on your page e-mail your request to webmaster@hobbyengineering.com. Please include physical location, URL, site name, a brief description and a contact e-mail address. We will list any club or information resouce which we think will be of interest to our customers. A reciprical link is appreciated but is only required for sites which we consider direct competitors. | ||