Hey, I haven't built any robots lately due to the lack of funds. I am still thinking of robots I want to build though. I really want be able to build many robots if I do what I am about to do. I am thinking of entering some branch of the US Military after graduation. If I do so I will not have the facilites forsure to build robots or atleast very nice ones but this is my only way to pay for college and so I have to do what I have to do. Wish me luck! I'm going to need it! I still don't know if I can take all of the physical conditioning but I guess I will just have to endure and push myself beyond all the pain.

Hey, I am not doing much right now. I am building a stirling engine and some other stuff I am having to do right now but after I am going to get back to my robotics work. I am going to build a few more BEAM bots. And learn to program in basic a little more before I move on to a project with a PIC. I still have to study for my ACT that is coming up so I got to try to do good this time so I can have better luck getting into college. I made a 15 last time. Not good enough to get into college! I still have a few more months left before I graduate high school. I hope to get a masters in computer science and a minor in cognitive science when I attend a college or university.

Hey, I am purdy mest up because I didn't win anything in Brian Fields online competition but I guess I will get over it. I thought my robot would atleast score high in asthetics, since it wasent small and of course my circuitry wasent soldered together neatly so that kinda killed it there. If I would of used smaller motors and soldered better I probably would of atleast won something. I tried a new robot design and I knew it was a risk to this competition but I just couldent give up on a three motor turbot. Now I am going to build a BEAM walker when I get the parts. I hope to compete in other competitions Brian Fields holds but I will be prepared next time and not try something like this in a competition. I was going to just build some kind of photovore but I couldent give up on this design. I am going to do some more exercises and stuff with my new Stamps Work kit. after I finish this kit I am probably going to use it for a new robot or something else.

Hey, I have had a very merry Christmas. I got a BASIC Stamp DISCOVERY KIT(Serial Version) and I have been learning to program in PBasic. I hope to use this in a robot later but since I dont have any experience with microcontrollers and only a little knowledge about them I decided this would be a good starting point. I also got parts for christmas to build a walking BEAM robot. Its the robot from Dave and Mark's BEAM book, "Junk bots, Bug bots and Bots on Wheels". I am also waiting for Brian Fields to judge the robots in his online competition and hopefully I will win a decent robot kit. He said he should have them judged and the prizes shipped out on the 27th of this month. I cant wait and I hope I did well.

Hey guys, I finally got my robot finished and entered into the online competition. I finished it today. It is a turbot with three legs not two. It is controled with a monostable timer that activates a relay and turns on the three GM8 motors. It runs for about a minute. This thing is truly wild and it flops everywhere. I named it "Mad Flagella". I am late entering the competition but the man who is running it, Brian Fields, Said I could have a weeks extention on my entry. The due date was 12/01/05 but I entered it today 12/03/05 which I dont think is to bad for getting it in late. I am glad I finally got it complete. And now I am going to wait for the results and build more BEAM bots.

Hi, I got some of my parts in the mail today, for the turbot im building for the online competition. I am still waiting for the rest of my parts to come in before I start to build. I am really excited and cant wait to see how this robot will turn out. Also I cant wait to see how the competition turns out and I hope the judges like my robot and hopefully I will score in a decent range. But even if I dont win I think I will have a really cool robot to add to my robot shelf and I will have loads of fun with just it. But I do really hope I do well and mabey win a robot kit in the competition.

I'm also still thinkning about what BEAM robots I want to build soon. I am thinkning of building a few BEAM bots that I havent built yet like mabey some turbots, headbots, photovores, walking, and mabey try some bicore projects later.

Also I want to say I really like your comic Jim Brown. I cant wait to find out what happens next and mabey I will actually get what it is talking about. I got what the first was talking about and I cant wait to read more. I love that these comics have been added to this site. So now when I visit the site daily not only do I get to check the latest robot news and what people have posted but also some laughs from these comics on here. I really like them!

I'm not doing much right now. I didnt do anything for halloween which isnt unusual because I have a family who does nothing on halloween and I couldent think of anything to do and even if I did I dought my parents would let me go out on halloween night. So for me Halloween is just another day. So I just stayed home and watched a movie on tv that I have never seen which is Jeepers Creepers(2001). Man im behind! I dont get to see many movies. I did get to see DOOM in theatres though and I thought it was good. But theres just something about the regular characters that dont have any powers or anything whooping up on zombies and evolved zombies, that is just disapointing. I loved the part about the 24th chromosome which makes humans super human with great strength and the ability to heal rapidly and increased agility aswell as increased intelligence and Grimm then whoops The Rock's butt after being injected with the syrem with this 24th chromosone in it.

Now I am getting ready to build my robot for the online competition. The past few days I have been down because I didnt think I would find a way to buy the parts since I have no money. But after my mom seeing how depressed I was is going to order the parts to build my bot and for a good reason because this competition means alot to me because its my life's goal to compete in many robot competitions even though this is a online competition it is a good start and its my first BEAM competition of any type aswell as my first online competition. I'm proposing to build a turbot for the competition and its going to be unlike any other turbot ever seen. The guy who is head of the competition , Brian Fields, said he has never seen or heard of a turbot with three motors. But also my turbot is going to be different from a normal turbot because it's not going to be photovoric.

Hey yall, I just finished LineRider2. The problem with it or problems with it were very simple ones and I cant beleive I didn't cetch them sooner. The first problem was the battery wasent brand new and was inadequate to run the robot's motors and ciruit and the other problem was I didnt use the motors that came with the PCB and compenents kit I used a tamya gear box I already had and it required to much power to run it and bogged the whole circuit down and stole all of the power from stall. But im glad I found out the problem and fixed it and finished this bot. Now I need free time to watch it go and I need more batteries. lol. Now im getting ready to build my bot for the online competition if things permit I mean as in being able to get more ideas for the bot and if I can get the parts to build it because right now I dont have a job and I have to beg for my mom to buy me parts. Also I have to use whatever junk I have laying around. I still need to get on my RS and I know its old now but I bought one in july of this year and still havent hacked it or done anything with it. I think my first mod will be some cool LEDs in his hands and I will go from there. Like I may turn him into a alarm clock that dances or something even cooler I dont know this is just some ideas.

Hi, things are not going good right now because I am trying to get my PCB and components to work but something is wrong because the sensors sense the change in light and the LEDs indicate that but the motors are not running so I dont know what is wrong and what I'm going to do but hopefully I can figure this problem out soon. I know this a kit PCB and components but something is wrong and its not working as it is suppose too. I mean I did everything acording to the instructions and rechecked my soldering but the motors are still not driving and I tried a switch where it changes from sensing black and white lines and everything cuts off and also once the motors did drive but it was for a second and then cut off but it did do it to the change in light but I guess I have a short somewhere. Well anyway I need to finish LineRider2 soon because I want to start on my robot for the online competition and even if I get to that point in my projects I still have to find a way to get the parts I need and right now I have no money and my parents are becoming tight so things look bad right now and I cant get a job intill next semester of school. Everything is looking down but I hope things get better soon, real soon. Also soon I may try a wack at a sterling engine made from aluminum cans and then after that do some more tesla coil stuff like I did last year and hopefully get some of his plans and decent tesla coil. Also im going to try to find some local robot compeitions soon. But in the mean time I got to tackle this robot(LineRider2) and then start on my robot for the online competition!

Howdie everybody,well right now im just trying to come up with new ideas for robots while trying to come up with design ideas for the robot im building for the online competition that solarbotics is helping host. I'm building a turbot probably and I have a few ideas so far and this will be my first online comeptition also my first turbot to build. After this or before I may start building my line following robot LineRider2 this weekend or sometime in the near future which I have had the parts for it for sometime but havent got around to building it yet but I have finished my solar roller which is named "Tri" a three wheeled solar roller that uses a 555 timer ic solar engine and its drive is made out of a walkman motor and pully drive system which I cut out to my own liking.