Smart Sphere or Magnetic Magic
Sometimes a coworker sees something on your desk, and they have to ask, “Where can I get one of those?” and that has to be one of the greatest compliments …read more Continue reading Smart Sphere or Magnetic Magic
Category Archives: BB-8
Spherical Quadruped Arduino Robot
[Greg06] started learning electronics the same way most of us did: buy a few kits, read a few tutorials, and try your hardest to put a few things together. Sound familiar? After a while, you noticed your skills started increasing, and your comfort level with different projects improved as well. …read more
Productivity, Unfinished Projects, and Letting Go
Most of us have been there, some projects just don’t get finished. Everyone shelves an in-progress build from time to time, and some hackers drop almost every project for fully finishing it. Why does it happen? What can we do about it? Or does it even matter? My own most memorable one is the wine glass rack I was making for my sister’s birthday, still sitting incomplete on a shelf eleven years later.
The answer may lie in what you consider to be a “done” project. Is it a fully completed build with every possible feature implemented and polished? With …read more
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How The Hero Droid BB-8 Rolls
By now we’ve come to expect a bountiful harvest of licensed merchandise to follow every Star Wars film. This year’s crop included many flavors of BB-8 so every fan can find something to suit their taste. At the top of this food chain is a mobile interactive “Hero Droid BB-8”. For those who want to see how it works, [TheMikeSenna] cracked open his unit to feed our curiosity.
Also called “Spin Master BB-8” for the manufacturer, this toy is impressively sophisticated for its price point. The video surveyed the mechanical components inside the ball. Showing how the droid travels, and …read more
Our Reactions to the Treatment of Robots
Most of us have seen employees of Boston Dynamics kicking their robots, and many of us instinctively react with horror. More recently I’ve watched my own robots being petted, applauded for their achievements, and yes, even kicked.
Why do people react the way they do when mechanical creations are treated as if they were people, pets, or worse? There are some very interesting things to learn about ourselves when considering the treatment of robots as subhuman. But it’s equally interesting to consider the ramifications of treating them as human.
The Boston Dynamics Syndrome
Shown here are two snapshots of Boston …read more
Review: Sphero Battle-Worn BB-8 with Force Band
With Sphero’s new Force Band accessory, you can control your favorite rolling bot with a flick of the wrist. The post Review: Sphero Battle-Worn BB-8 with Force Band appeared first on WIRED. Continue reading Review: Sphero Battle-Worn BB-8 with Force Band
My DIY BB-8: Problems, Solutions, Lessons Learned
Imagine trying to make a ball-shaped robot that rolls in any direction but with a head that stays on. When I saw the BB-8 droid doing just that in the first Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, it was an interesting engineering challenge that I couldn’t resist. All the details for how I made it would fill a book, so here are the highlights: the problems I ran into, how I solved them and what I learned.
The Design Criteria: Portable and Inexpensive
I had two design criteria in mind. The first was to keep it low-cost. Some spend $1000 …read more
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Ask Hackaday: How Do You Convert Negative Voltages to Positive?
I have a good background working with high voltage, which for me means over 10,000 volts, but I have many gaps when it comes to the lower voltage realm in which RC control boards and H-bridges live. When working on my first real robot, a BB-8 droid, I stumbled when designing a board to convert varying polarities from an RC receiver board into positive voltages only for an Arduino.
Today’s question is, how do you convert a negative voltage into a positive one?
In the end I came up with something that works, but I’m sure there’s a more elegant …read more
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Ottawa Maker Faire: Droids And Pick And Place Machines
Three things that I love about participating in Maker Faires are seeing all the awesome stuff people have done over the past year, spending time with all my maker friends in one big room over two days and the reactions to what I made. The 2016 Ottawa Maker Faire had all this in spades.
BB-8 – Droid With Magnetic Personality
There’s just something about BB-8 that touches people. I once heard of a study that showed that when buying kid’s toys, adults were attracted to circles, that that’s the reason teddy bears often have round heads with big round eyes. …read more
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Sphero’s New Wristband Lets You Control BB-8 With Hand Gestures
It won’t float in the air and shoot lasers, but Sphero’s latest toy is all about honing your use of the Force. The post Sphero’s New Wristband Lets You Control BB-8 With Hand Gestures appeared first on WIRED. Continue reading Sphero’s New Wristband Lets You Control BB-8 With Hand Gestures