Robot Room History

Yellow wire

07/01/2000Just starting up.
07/02/2000Beginning page on Infrared Transmitter.
Compressed home page image.
07/03/2000Added rudimentary links page.
Added floorboard background.
Added counter.
Added page headings.
Added legal notice.
Added contact information.
07/04/2000Added thumbnail to Infrared Transmitter Project page.
Revised Infrared Transmitter Project (added a capacitor, swapped in a 7805BT).
07/05/2000Organized links.
Added Stacey's web site! :)
07/06/2000Added more content to the Infrared Transmitter Project page.
07/07/2000Added logo (Thanks, Tom!)
Shortened legal notice.
Changed this history list into a table.
Started playing with fonts.
Added Safety Signs page.
07/08/2000Added some more links.
Added some logos to the links page.
Added Alphanumeric LED Display Project page.
Replaced lactose-intolerant hazard sign with Dan's improved version.
07/09/2000Added pages and pictures for LEGO MindStorms Chipmunk Chaser robot and Parallax Boe-Bot robot.
07/10/2000Played with visited link color.
Added some links.
Added pictures to some links.
07/11/2000Added text to the Parallax Boe-Bot robot page.
Added a new link.
07/12/2000Added links and pictures for links.
07/13/2000Added two more pictures for links to LEGO MindStorms' related pages.
07/14/2000Developed new header/footer.
Added Newark's sale on MC68HC908GP32 microcontrollers.
Links now open on a new browser page.
Added resistor and transistor text to the Alphanumeric LED Display Project page.
07/15/2000Removed a broken link www.ben2.ucla.edu/~frank/68HC11.htm.
Appended missing semicolons on named entities.
Fixed a few loose '&' characters.
Reduced file size of background image by two-thirds.
Prefixed # sign to HTML numeric color values.
Replaced valign values of CENTER with MIDDLE.
Created books page.
On the links page, added pictures for Karl Lunt and Dave Baum.
07/16/2000Started the Twofold I Robot page.
Added a picture of the 68HC908GP32CP and 68HC908GP32CFB microcontrollers.
On the links page, placed green LEDs next to the companies from which I've purchased components.
Ameritech ADSL SpeedPATH service is down once again. I swear this internet service provider is down every few days. 24-7 my butt!
Added the AMP Hexadecimal Switch page.
07/17/2000Ameritech.net SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
07/18/2000Ameritech Speedpath DSL is still down.
07/19/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
07/20/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down. I've been using different variations of the Ameritech ISP name so that potential customers might find my opinion of Ameritech's service in a keyword search. My opinion is that Ameritech stinks. If I had a choice, I'd switch to a cable modem just so I could cancel with Ameritech, which, in case I haven't mentioned it, stinks. In order to place this information on my site, I had to transfer these files from my PC to my old Mac and upload them via AOL. How ironic is that? America Online's dial-up service is, at this time for me, more reliable then Ameritech.net ADSL SpeedPath, which... stinks. Ask me what the current speed of my Ameritech DSL connection is? It's zero. 0 Kbits per second upload, 0 Kbits per second download. And it's not that easy to just drop Ameritech. I've got my email accounts all set up. I waited a month to get connected. Five days of no ADSL ISP in a big, urban market such as Chicago? Ameritech stinks.
Removed bold from Newark 68HC08 price table data.
Removed a broken link www.mitronet.com/2/mitronics/index.html.
Added logo for Avnet Marshall.
Added Imagineering On-line Magazine.
Added Why.
07/21/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
07/22/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
07/23/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
Added half a dozen logos and new links.
Corrected a typo. Thanks Dan!
07/24/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down. I've called them four times since this started over a week ago. They still have no idea how long it's going to take to fix the problem. I understand that I’m calling into a national technical support center, but with much of Chicago down, you'd think they'd tell the call takers a little more information. Is it a matter of months until the network is fixed? If so, have the courtesy of letting customers know so they can make other plans. Sad but true, Ameritech really stinks.
Added a new link and logo.
Colorized the Robot Room logo and inverted the banner.
Started experimenting with tables to clean up and annotate links.
Moved history, contact, copyright & disclaimer to an independent page to speed up the loading of the home page.
07/25/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
07/26/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is still down.
07/27/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is up!! A worker visited our backyard poles yesterday and today and apparently fixed the problem. I’m a lot more sympathetic if the issue was physical rather than software or server, but a week and a half of downtime still seems like a lot. To be fair, if the system stays up 24/7 for the next thirty days straight, I'll remove all the remarks about Ameritech and what they do with straws.
Added the P&E Bugs page.
Added the very cool Color Sensor page.
07/31/2000Added Robotics and Electrical Engineering Webring to the links page.
Added links to Robohoo and Robot Cafe.
Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL failed twice today, although just briefly.
08/01/2000Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL is down.
Wrote more information and updates to the Color Sensor page.
08/02/2000Added 68HCXX Webring to the links page.
Added more pictures and descriptions to the links page.
08/03/2000Changed the background from a floorboard to a green perfboard. I hope this makes the text easier to read.
Reduced the size of the ugly picture on the home page.
Moved the ugly picture from the home page to the new archive page.
Added a new picture of myself atop the home page.
Resized the project thumbnails so that they are all the same width (where appropriate).
08/04/2000Created a new header/footer for the home page.
Add the new robot logo to the home page. Thanks Mot!
08/05/2000Replaced all <B> with <STRONG>
Replaced all <I> with <EM>
Replaced all <BIG> with <FONT SIZE “+1”>
Added <LINK REV> to all <HEAD>.
Replaced all <P> with <BR> in the home page.
Made sure no spaces or returns appeared immediately after <A HREF...> in the home page.
Replaced all colored <HR> references with an image of a yellow breadboard jumper wire.
Copied the new header/footer to all pages.
Added a new page about Tiny Motors. I’m really pleased with how well it turned out. The pictures capture the aspects of the subjects as I intended. And, my writing flows much more goodly.
08/12/2000Removed Newark MC68HC908GP32 sale information from the home page because the sale has ended.
08/13/2000Created a feedback page.
Added a picture and description to the link to Chiu-Yuan Fang's BEAM Photovore page.
Created the Appetizer Robot page.
Added pictures and text to Twofold.
Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL failed this evening. Oh, too bad! Is Ameritech ever going to manage to get its bad reputation expunged from this page?
08/15/2000Added a spinning logo to the links page.
Created the Mystery Parts page.
08/16/2000Added Arrick Robotics to the links page.
08/17/2000On the home page, added a prominent link to the books page.
Added three more books to the books page.
Added a few more links.
08/18/2000Created the Mini-Sumo Robot Ring page.
Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL went down again today, although just briefly.
08/19/2000Finished the Mini-Sumo Robot Ring page.
Added a favicon.ico so that people with Internet Explorer 5.0 and up that bookmark Robot Room get a cool picture.
08/21/2000Added logos and green LEDs to two links.
Added a new link.
08/22/2000Added a Sumo robot section on the links page.
Added some new links.
Simplified the introduction to the Infrared Transmitted page. Appended a link to a similar article.
Ameritech SpeedPath ADSL failed again today. Stinky Ameritech!
08/23/2000Ameritech DSL failed again today. P.U.
08/24/2000Changed untraveled link color to yellow, at Stacey's suggestion.
One mystery part has been confirmed.
08/27/2000Wow! I've been so busy working on my Sumobot, that I haven't updated the site for a couple of days.
Changed yellow link color back to green on feedback page, because Stacey pointed out that page has a white background. Thanks Stacey!
Jon has a new website address.
>Bill Ruehl had some good feedback on the mystery parts.
Kevin Sorenson takes a guess.
Added some new links.
09/02/2000Added the Photocell Grab Bag page.
The web site provider appears to have gone down briefly today.
09/04/2000Added the PLL Clock Generator page.
Ameritech DSL failed briefly today.
09/14/2000Added the events section to the home page.
Corrected a missing </TR> in the header/footer.
09/16/2000Ameritech DSL failed today.
09/17/2000Added the ChiBots September Meeting page.
09/20/2000Ameritech SpeedPATH ADSL failed today.
09/21/2000Added David Wooden's meeting minutes.
Ameritech ADSL SpeedPath failed again today.
09/24/2000Added the LEGO MindStorms Crown Gears page.
Toward late evening, Ameritech ADSL SpeedPath got very slow.
09/26/2000Updated the Crown Gears page with answers provided by Dave Baum
10/05/2000Corrected a link.
10/06/2000Web site server went down today for quite a few hours.
10/07/2000Beginning Bugdozer page.
10/08/2000Added Bugdozer's Autonomous Motherboard page.
Ameritech ADSL SpeedPath failed as I tried to upload this latest page.
Added Bugdozer's LCD page.
10/09/2000Added Bugdozer's Test Run Videos page.
Based on log examination, I added related links to some pages to improve click-through.
10/10/2000Added Bugdozer logo that Sir Tom Zehner created for me. Thanks Tom!
10/11/2000Added Bugdozer Line Detector page.
10/12/2000Added Bugdozer's Body page.
Corrected various minor HTML errors throughout the site.
Added contact and home page links to the header/footer pictures.
Reduced the number of colors in the “David thinking” picture to reduce the file size to reduce the download time.
10/15/2000Added ChiBots page.
Added ChiBots October 2000 meeting page.
Updated Bugdozer's LCD page.
10/16/2000Added links to Robot Books, eBLOK, Serv-O-Link, and SDP/SI.
10/17/2000Added David Wooden's minutes from the ChiBots October meeting.
10/22/2000Inserted my concerns over Appetizer's Schematic.
10/29/2000I noticed in the site log that Trinity College includes a link to this site, so I made sure to add them to our links page.
10/30/2000Add a pumpkin to the home page.
11/02/2000Moved the pumpkin to the archive.
11/06/2000Started the CIRC 2000 Sumo 'Bot page.
11/07/2000Updated Jon and Stacey's links.
Added Lynxmotion to the links page.
11/08/2000Added more movies to the CIRC 2000 Sumo Robot page.
Updated Appetizer's page to show answers provided by Dave Hrynkiw!
11/09/2000Andrew Black noticed that the ChiBots meeting time wasn't posted!
Andrew also provided information on the CIRC scoring system and the official results.
11/10/2000Created a new page describing Bugdozer's line sensor bug.
Finished the CIRC Sumo robot contest page.
11/11/2000Fixed some HTML errors, added a link, and added some emails to specific pages.
11/12/2000Added a review of Robot Builder's Bonanza.
Added ChiBots November 2000 meeting page.
11/17/2000Someone's home page linked to some of the graphics on my site -- using my bandwidth without acknowledging the source. So, I unlinked my HTML pages from those pictures and modified those pictures to advertise Robot Room!
11/18/2000Added meeting minutes and constitution to ChiBots November 2000 meeting page.
11/21/2000Removed hit counter from index page; somehow it got reset. Anyway, I had been told hit counters are amateurish.
11/25/2000I made my own printed circuit board!
Added a new link.
Ameritech ADSL SpeedPath failed today. Too bad, it had been a lot better for me the last few months.
11/26/2000Edited and added additional pictures to the printed circuit board page.
I’m working on standard Sumo Robot Rules
12/01/2000Added some more logos to the links page.
12/02/2000Ameritech DSL failed today.
12/03/2000I made my own double-sided printed circuit board!
12/04/2000DSL from Ameritech failed again today. It's starting to stink again.
12/10/2000Completed the printed circuit board series with a piece about using surface-mounted packages.
12/11/2000Added Mario's surface mount tips to the printed circuit board series.
12/12/2000Ameritech DSL Speedpath failed again today.
12/17/2000Added Sweet, the candy-coated line-following robot.
Added ChiBots December 2000 meeting page.
12/18/2000Added meeting minutes and a few updates to the ChiBots meeting page.
Ameritech DSL Speedpath failed again today.
12/19/2000Per Bill's request, I've renamed his branch to Northwest on the Sumo Robot Rules page.
12/22/2000Described my standard H-Bridge motor-driver circuit.
Updated the links page.
12/27/2000Ameritech ADSL Speedpath down tonight.
12/29/2000Ameritech ADSL Speedpath down.
12/30/2000Ameritech ADSL Speedpath failed.
Moved ChiBots to a subdirectory.
Changed the banner robot to a photograph.
12/30/2000Added Parts Express to the links page.
Added Robo Sapiens to the books page.
01/01/2001Added constitution to ChiBots home page.
01/09/2001Updated two schematics to remove technical problems.
01/14/2001Added ChiBots January 2001 meeting page.
01/18/2001Included David Wooden's meeting minutes on the ChiBots meeting page.
01/19/2001Removed Robot Science & Technology Magazine from the links page. It's been a long time since they've actually published an issue. I don't feel it's appropriate to send them any more potential subscribers until they resume regular operations.
01/21/2001Created the Tach, Temp, and Count project.
01/24/2001Thanks to Peter Campbell, I've corrected Larry Kruzan's last name on the CIRC Sumo 2000 page.
Created a page regarding a tool that finds the center of a circle or wheel.
02/08/2001Ameritech was down some of today.
02/09/2001Ameritech was down some of today.
02/10/2001Ameritech was down some of today.
02/11/2001Created the Comparator example page.
Created the ChiBots February 2001 meeting page.
02/12/2001Added information about Brian's 4-inch Numeric LED Display.
Added some missing names to the ChiBots February 2001 meeting page.
02/22/2001Added feedback and separators to the Mystery Parts page.
Connecting to Ameritech DSL has been particularly unreliable this week.
03/05/2001I had a growing list of links that I kept meaning to add to the links page. Now I have!
Added the last missing name to the ChiBots Feb meeting.
03/08/2001Eliminated all SuperStats code. They're abandoning their free tier web site statistics.
Added the meeting minutes to the ChiBots Feb meeting.
Added another link.
03/10/2001Oops! It turns out that megaohm is spelled megohm and kiloohm is spelled kilohm. Who would of thought?
Bugdozer uses 22 kilohm resistors as voltage dividers with the phototransistors, not 2.2 kilohm.
I've been using 10 kilohm resistors as pullups, which works just fine. However, the circuits can have identical function with a savings of almost half a milliamp of current for each connection to CMOS inputs by using 100 kilohm resistors instead.
03/11/2001Revisited the Infrared Emitter 555 Circuit.
03/12/2001Paul pointed out some mistakes in my description of H-Bridge power usage.
Created the ChiBots March 2001 meeting page.
03/15/2001Added Elliot Goodman's name to the ChiBots March page.
I’m not sure of the technology used in NE555 chips, but I know it can't be TTL because of the voltages allowed.
03/20/2001Added Acroname to the links page.
03/28/2001Created Second-Generation Tachometer.
04/01/2001Added the meeting minutes to the ChiBots March meeting.
Added a new picture and some text to the tachometer page.
04/07/2001Created an Illustrated Guide to American Robot Sumo.
Added an animated GIF to indicate new articles.
Moved past events to a section towards the bottom of the home page.
Updated some text on various pages.
04/08/2001Created the ChiBots April 2001 meeting page.
Fixed a broken link on the Mystery Parts page. The problem was reported by seventwentyfour.com.
04/09/2001Modified the Robot Sumo rules and artwork based on some suggestions.
04/13/2001Added Audubon Robotics to the links page.
Restored link to Bill Ruehl's site.
Added link to NePARS.
04/14/2001Changed the Links page into a text index. Not only does this speed up access (since the page is so much smaller), but hopefully will delay crossing of the 4-gigabyte bandwidth limit that this site is rapidly approaching.
04/16/2001Described Bugdozer's battery sampling technique.
Fixed a couple of link errors.
04/17/2001Described the math for controlling current through the IR LED.
04/23/2001Added David's meeting minutes to ChiBots.
05/04/2001Added a link to the Atlanta Hobby Robot Club.
05/06/2001Corrected the distance between starting lines on a Robot Sumo ring.
Replaced references of OMSI (the location) with PARTS (the organization) in the Robot Sumo rules.
Created all-new instructions on making a high-quality mini-Sumo ring.
Updated PARTS website address.
05/22/2001Created the ChiBots May 2001 meeting page.
06/03/2001Answered a question regarding range on the IR circuit.
06/06/2001Corrected a couple of mistakes on the comparator page.
06/10/2001Created the ChiBots June 2001 meeting page.
06/28/2001Updated the main links page. Now, when you click a specific name in a category, you're taking directly to that site. If you want to see all the links and pictures in that category, click on the category title or “more”.
Corrected typos on the Sumo Ring page. Thanks Dave!
Added a background color to each page so that the links are still readable while the background picture loads. Thanks again Dave!
08/12/2001Added a link to Fairchild Semiconductor.
Added a link to Electro Tech.
09/08/2001Added official meeting minutes to the end of ChiBots May 2001 meeting page.
Added official meeting minutes to the end of ChiBots June 2001 meeting page.
Created ChiBots July 2001 meeting page from official meeting minutes.
Created ChiBots August 2001 meeting page.
09/21/2001Added LED to pcb manufacturer link since I purchased and received some wonderfully made custom circuit boards from them.
Added link to Electronic Goldmine
10/04/2001Robot Room is about to overrun the 4 GB bandwidth limit of the web host provider. So, Dan is now graciously serving most of the graphics on the home page. Thanks Dan!
10/14/2001At Dodd's request, added a solderless breadboard picture and a movie of the 4427 H-bridge.
10/16/2001Created the ChiBots Logo Contest page.
11/22/2001Created the Robot Building for Beginners page.
Added RadioShack to the links page.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
11/24/2001Created the N-Size Rechargeable Battery page.
11/25/2001Split the home page into a more page.
11/26/2001On a couple of pages I mistakenly referred to silicone adhesive as “silicon” adhesive.
12/03/2001Ouch! The Infrared Transmitter page had an error stating that resistors R3 and R4 were in the megohm range, but they should be in the kilohm range. That page has been up a long time (over a year). I wonder why nobody told me about that error before?
Removed www.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/audubon/Pages/audubonrobotics/index.html from the links page because the link appears to be broken.
Added MachineBrain to the links page.
Uppercased all lowercase references to LEGO.
12/04/2001Added a movie of Sandwich, the line-following robot.
12/14/2001Micro$oft Internet Exploder was messing with my tables, centering text rather than flushing it left. So, I added align="left" commands.
12/27/2001Created the Sandwich, the line-following robot, page.
12/28/2001Created the secret page for owners of Robot Building for Beginners.
12/30/2001Moved up some of my more favored sites in the retail links page.
12/31/2001Transitioned all of the ChiBots material to www.chibots.org.
01/15/2002Added picture of N cell adapter.
01/17/2002The first printed copies of my book have arrived.
02/22/2002Added some new links, removed some that were broken.
Added a letter to the feedback page.
04/30/2002Switched from Barnes and Noble to Amazon. They offer better commissions on linked items and I suspect they have a larger customer base.
05/07/2002Updated the photoresistor page based on the purchase of two additional grab bags.
05/09/20021+3+3+4=10? Nope. Thanks George!
05/12/2002George caught a couple of mistakes on the H-bridge page. First, there isn't a TC4424A chip, just TC4424. Second, the breadboard example was missing a connection to +V from D1 and D3. I've also added a few part labels to the breadboard picture to make the association to the schematic a little more clear.
05/14/2002Removed a vendor from the links page.
Added a detailed page about Sandwich's circuit board and the parts that go on it.
06/09/2002Added XS Boost robot.
Removed Mystery Parts page from index.
06/27/2002Added Sandwich Printed Circuit Board which is available at Solarbotics.
08/18/2002Added Microscopic View of PCB.
Removed the glowing reference to National Semiconductor on the XS Boost page. They started quietly refusing me free samples, even after I followed up with references to the designs and positive publicity I had generated. I've since switched over to Texas Instruments parts, so ha ha.
12/23/2002Added field-effect experimental results to the Sandwich PCB page.
In my review of Mechanical Devices For The Electronics Experimenter, I made a snooty remark about I=VR being all you need to know in robot electronics. Unfortunately, the correct formula is V=IR. Oops. Thanks to Marcus Evans for pointing that out to me.
Updated the N-cell page to reflect the disappointing news that the batteries no longer appear to be available at RadioShack.
Removed the link to Bill Ruehl's site. Someone seems to have purchased the domain rights and posted ummmm.... uhhh... a different kind of content.
Updated the link to Duracell's OEM page.
12/24/2002Updated the link to Nashua Robot Building Club. Thank you Michael Pettengill.
Updated the link to Dave Baum.
Added a link to J.P. Brown's Serious LEGO.
Updated links on Sumo Rules.
Removed Hobby Robot link.
Added a link to International Rectifier.
Added a link to Maxon Motor.
Added a link to Portescap.
Added a link to MSC Industrial Supply.
Added a link to Invention & Technology magazine.
01/18/2003Updated Sumo Rules to include permissions, micro-Sumo sizes, ChiBots rules, and to correct typos.
Added a spreadsheet of Sandwich's part list and prices on the resource page.
05/16/2003Updated N Cell page to reference a RadioShack in Ontario that has the batteries and adapters. Thanks Joel!
A movie file was missing from Sweet's page. Thanks Sam!
07/13/2003Removed all HTML references to images on the Chibots site in preparation of turning the club webmaster reins over to someone new. That way, they can modify the site as they please without it breaking any Robot Room pages.
07/27/2003Updated the H-Bridge page to warn about the fairly low current limits of the 4424 and 4427A chips.
08/19/2003Corrected a typo in a link on the Links page.
09/10/2003Updated the Tach page to correct a broken link.
01/04/2004Updated the PLL page to reflect the revision 5 documentation.
01/14/2004Updated the Color Sensor page with some color sensor links.
01/25/2004Added a description of my second book Intermediate Robot Building!
01/27/2004Updated the text for Future-Active to remove the reference to their local retail store, which was unfortunately closed.
Updated the text McMaster-Carr to recommend their online material selector.
Pruned the links to dead sites: w3.one.net/~hughesj/technica/technica.html (Jim Hughes Technica Site), home.flash.net/~sevcik/IRschem.htm (IR Proximity Detector Schematic), www.gernsback.com/poptronics/ (Poptronics)
Updated the links to: Portescap
Added links to ENCO, Robot MarketPlace, Joe's Mindstorms Gallery, Bert's Quarter Shrinking and Can Crushing Gallery, Home Shop Machinist and Machinist's Workshop, Learn-C, Grizzly Industrial, Faulhaber, United States Plastic Corp, Think Labyrinth
03/07/2004Updated the Legal Mumbo Jumbo to match standard text.
Added four books to the Books section, including Intermediate Robot Building, Junkbots, Bugbots, & Bots on Wheels, Robot Sumo: The Offical Guide, and Building Robot Drive Trains
Updated the introductory text for the Intermediate Robot Building book. An interesting side note, I wrote more pages and took more pictures for this book, but the final number of printed pages are less than the first book. It appears to be due to multiple photographs being combined per figure and perhaps (?) the figure sizes or text being printed smaller. So, more content in less space.
Added notes to the email section to direct students to helpful sources and to set expectations on replies.
03/20/2004Updated all three Homemade PCB pages to match the things I've learned since they were originally written.
03/21/2004Updated the cover for Intermediate Robot Building.
04/07/2004Intermediate Robot Building is now shipping!
Created the secret resources web page (see page xxii of the book).
Updated the HBridge Motor Driver, Photocell Sensors, and Infrared Emitter pages with corrections and references to further information in the book.
04/18/2004Added a link to Bufbotics, a new robot club in Buffalo, NY.
Uploaded complete 6808 (MC68HC908KX8 HC08 KX8) assembly source code for the 68HC908KX8 microcontroller to the resources page for Intermediate Robot Building.
04/25/2004Created the Roundabout page with robot videos and DIP switch instructions.
Created the KX8 ICG Trimming page. I've been busy today!
04/28/2004Added a link to Dave Hylands website.
Fixed the link to the 68HC908KX8 source code.
05/01/2004Created the Roundabout PCB instructional page.
07/15/2004Updated the email help lists.
Corrected a few links.
Added pi to a diameter-based linear formula.
Corrected the part numbers for Roundabout's PCB.
Added a link to Theodore Gray's Periodic Table of Elements.
08/22/2004Removed the Amazon Honor System Donation link from all of my pages. After 100 days, I received only $0.67.
Updated the Pager Motors page to include the latest prices and part numbers.
10/13/2004Added a MOSFET PWM H-bridge schematic to the secret IRB web page.
10/16/2004Created the Robot Repair web page.
11/22/2004Updated the Sandwich PCB web page to include v2.0 features.
Posted to the secret page a simple change to make if your Sandwich robot is underperforming due to higher resistance photocells.
Added a link to Wright Hobbies Robotics.
Added a link to BudgetBot.
12/08/2004Updated the secret page for the Robot Building For Beginners book to “clarify” instructions for testing transistors.
12/17/2004Created the Big Trak page!
12/20/2004Updated the Big Trak page to disclose the discovery of a Big Trak that includes a 3906 transistor for the IN command.
12/25/2004Merry Christmas, everyone! Created the Jet ultra-fast line-following robot page.
01/02/2005I've made a lot of changes to the website over the past couple of days. Including...
Added my name to the site banner.
Removed the background image (it made it more difficult to read the text.)
Consolidated all the link pages into one page and eliminated the logos.
Eliminated all links to low-value sites that aren't linked to Robot Room. In other words, either the referenced site has to be of value to my readers, be of value to me, or reciprocate in kind with a link.
Eliminated links to links (now the articles directly link to a company, person, or product being discussed).
Fully converted the XSBoost page over to standard Robot Room style.
Noted that N-Cell page and the AMP Hex Switch pages are obsolete because the parts are no longer available.
Moved the N-Cell page off the index page.
Removed all references to Motorola microcontrollers, since they are now out of that business.
Updated some component prices.
01/30/2005Chuck Kutscher has been kind enough to put together this extensive errata page for Practical Electronics for Inventors.
02/22/2005Fixed typos and clarified remote control language in Sumo Rules.
03/20/2005Thanks to Pablo Bleyer Kocik for sending me pictures and information on the REV E board for the Big Trak.
09/03/2005A lot of updates to the Big Trak page, including serial numbers (thanks to James Unger and Tim O'Connor), trailer switch information (thanks to Rich Harman), and information from Ed Levy.
09/03/2005Added a sneaky link to my Storm Impact days.
12/11/2005Created the Dual Fan Controller page.
08/06/2006Updated the Photocell Grab Bag page to include results from Electronic Goldmine grab bags.
08/12/2006Revised the order and details of instructions on the Sandwich PCB page to make it easier for people with manufactured boards, since most people choose that route.
Revised the secret Sandwich page to suggest an alternative IC1 for dealing with higher resistance photoresistors, trying black paint markers, and to eliminate PCB version information for boards that can't be etched.
Revised the Homemade PCB page since the PCB manufacturer now seems to allow printing without background or grid interference!
09/05/2006Revised the Homemade PCB page again, to better explain the need to mirror the image of the top layer.
09/07/2006Added links to the Microscope page, thanks to Charlie Wallace.
10/20/2006Revised the Big Trak page with new pictures, data, and mysteries.
01/09/2007Removed four dead links (Trenton Henry, Phil White, If I Had A Robot, Nerd Rock), but added ten new links (JRobot, Brick Link, eMachineShop, Fortal.biz, Little Machine Shop, Atmel, Imagecraft, AVR Freaks, Hack A Day). Thanks Mario Camarillo!
01/13/2007Moved web site hosts because my prior host was too lame to add SPF records. I got sick and tired of spammers forging email addresses and making me look bad. Fortunately, the new host offers so much more bandwidth and web space that I can merge in the content that I had previously split onto LineFollowing.com to stay under the old limits.
Created the Debounced Counter page. I know it's lame. But I had it written up anyway so I figured I'd post it.
Reordered the index page a bit and cleaned up some text on some other pages.
01/14/2007Updated and added gear puller content to the Tiny Motor page.
02/04/2007Updated the part number, supplier, and price list for Sandwich.
03/18/2007Created the Machining page.
07/06/2007Added a picture of Tom O'Toole's satellite radio mounting bracket installed in the vehicle at the Machining page.
08/21/2007Created the LED Tester page.
08/26/2007Created the Number Two sumo robot page.
08/27/2007Joey caught a typo on the Number Two sumo robot page, where I referred to brinklink instead of bricklink. Thanks!
About 1/3 of my readers use the Mozilla Firefox browser. That's pretty cool. Anyway, my friend Tom Zehner found the new CSS pages weren't working correctly in that browser. I made a few changes to the pages and style sheet to get it to look the same on both IE and FF.
09/02/2007Created the Caliper Capacitor page.
09/04/2007Created the Mini-Mill Digital Tachometer page.
09/08/2007Created the Aluminum LEGO Tire Hub page.
09/08/2007Created the Clamping Motor Mounting Block page.
09/10/2007Created the Bipolar H-bridge Motor Driver circuit and transistor-comparison article.
09/10/2007Created the Numeric Base Conversion web article.
09/12/2007Cleaned up the books page and added magazines such as Scientific American, Circuit Cellar, and Home Shop Machinist.
Restored the old ChiBots pages. The club has a new website now, but it seems a shame to discard all that wonderful old content. There are lots of fun pictures of people and robots. And, there are even some movies.
Added Google Search to the site.
Added robots.txt to the site.
With the help of archive.org, I restored a couple of old .gif images from the original site.
09/13/2007Moved the contact page.
Moved the legal page page.
09/15/2007Created the Silica Gel page.
09/23/2007Created the Pumpkin LED Candle page.
09/27/2007Updated the Pumpkin LED Candle page with the completed soldered PCB.
09/29/2007Created the Polarized Beacon and Sensor page.
09/30/2007Fixed a couple of typos thanks to an email from Dustin at Rooster Robotics Institute.
10/06/2007Created the Pulse-Width Modulator Motor Control page.
10/09/2007Changed the press-fit LEGO drill size from #11 to #14 on the Machining page.
Added Sky Coyote, SparkFun Electronics, and BoingBoing to the link page.
10/14/2007Created the Lathe Coupler page.
10/18/2007Announced contest winners, cleaned up links on all of my pages, and noted that LittleMachineShop has a carriage lock available.
10/20/2007Created the Robot Joystick page.
11/03/2007Remade the home page with a white background and sorted categories.
11/07/2007Created the Screw Straightening page.
11/18/2007Created the Aluminum Can Cleaning Device page.
11/25/2007Created the Water Softener Display page.
11/26/2007Significantly updated the seven-year old Color Sensor page with references to trimpots, TAOS Inc, and multicolor RGB LEDs.
11/28/2007Created the Sharp Distance Measurement Sensor Testing page.
12/06/2007Fixed an error in the schematic on the LED Tester page thanks to Barry Walker.
12/17/2007Created the Faulhaber Gearmotor page.
12/17/2007Created the Optical Encoder page.
12/18/2007Created the Brass Cover Plate and Brass Pushbutton page.
12/21/2007Created the Multi-Segment LED Display page.
Fixed an error regarding gear order on the Roundabout robot page thanks to Joey.
12/22/2007Created the Mounting Motors and Attaching Wheels page.
01/02/2008Updated the Multi-Segment LED Display page after receiving the official LiteOn datasheet via Marty Beem. I had mixed up GND and Enable (now Reset) because they were both grounded during my usage.
Updated the Water Softener Display page based on the results of using the device for a couple of months. I needed to average the sensor reads, add a capacitor to the sensor signal, and I made a mistake with the strain relief hole that prevents the connector from fitting through it.
01/05/2008Created the PCB Tarnish Eraser page.
01/08/2008Created the Reversed LED Color Sensor page.
01/15/2008Created the SMD LED Ring Light page.
01/21/2008Created the Electronic Counting Device page.
Added a part number to the edge detector on the Miniature Milling Machine Speed Sensor page.
01/24/2008Created the Infrared Testing with a Remote Control page.
02/10/2008Started the StreamHawk Wireless Robot page. Lots more work left to do.
02/15/2008Updated the robot links page to match the new look of the site. Removed dead links.
02/16/2008Increased the description meta tag for several pages and revised the Safety Sign page to match the new look of the site.
Added two more pages to the StreamHawk Wireless Robot article.
02/17/2008Added another two pages to the StreamHawk Wireless Robot article.
02/18/2008Created a page to ask for support from loyal readers. There's a funny easter egg associated with that page if you can find it.
Added subject links to the top of the web pages and moved home and other standard links to the bottom of the pages since that's commonplace at the end of articles.
02/19/2008Finally got done with the StreamHawk Wireless Robot article. Wow! That has got to be the longest article on the site.
Created the What's New page to free up space to move the Google Search button up on the home page.
02/23/2008Converted Appetizer to the new page format and added some updates to the voltage trigger sources.
02/27/2008Tips on creating your own video inspection system for sorting small components.
03/02/2008How to make a power-switch target for less destructive robot combat.
05/12/2008Created an article about adding an electric motor to power shear.
Updated the Faulhaber Gearmotor page with hex key information, a revised connector picture (-M), and to note that BG Micro sold out.
Added another errata link for the book Practical Electronics for Inventors. Thanks Marty.
Corrected a couple of typos and added a suggestion to the StreamHawk pages. Thanks Dustin and Joey.
08/02/2008Added downloads and read me files for the Storm Impact software.
08/07/2008Corrected the most-significant (leftmost) and least-significant (rightmost) phrasing on the Number System pages thanks to John Peel.
08/10/2008Updated the pricing on the photocell grab bag page thanks to Tuomo Tanskanen.
08/31/2008Created the page on How to solder using the solar power.
09/01/2008Wrote the page on spring-switch sensors to detect movement.
09/08/2008Created the laser sensor power control circuit.
09/15/2008Made the article about the stoplight modifications.
09/27/2008Created the Flip-Flop Robot.
09/29/2008Wrote the article about my old Robot Maze Solver.
10/06/2008Built the robot in the Monkey Mints container.
10/12/2008Coded a resistance code table, just like every other electronics site in the world.
10/19/2008Wrote a slightly-more-complicated-than-it-looks Ohm's law converter.
12/26/2008Created the Multimaster TWI issue page.
Added a photo and description of the bipolar motor driver on a circuit board.
12/27/2008Created the Perforated board and soldering suggestions page.
Replaced the MCP1700 with the MCP1702 voltage regulator on the Pumpkin and Mini Mill pages. The MCP1700 is limited to a maximum of 6V input and therefore shouldn't be used with a 9V battery. It actually works on the projects I've built, but I may be getting lucky since I don't stress the device.
12/28/2008Added “low power” information to the multisegment LED page.
01/25/2009Included calculations of maximum throughput on an I2C bus on the multimaster page.
03/14/2009Corrected units on the distance sensor text.
08/15/2009Updated the prices for the photocell grabbags.
08/30/2009Corrected a spelling error and cleaned up the code on the calculator pages.
Improved the instructions for Sandwich PCBs so that they’ll be clearer when printed in the Solarbotics kit. Also added a hook loop photograph.
12/15/2009Cracking open a kid's meal toy to find a number of salvageable components.
12/26/2009Playing with ShapeLock plastic to create motor couplers, LED bulbs, and circuit board covers.
Ah ha! The Jake Sully Avatar toy uses the speaker to measure vibrations.
Added an article about ATtiny adapters for the Atmel STK500 programmer.
12/27/2009Created instructions on simple motor control with a physical switch.
01/01/2010Updated the format and some content on Robot Building For Beginners, Second Edition as part of the release of the second edition.
01/04/2010Make a chip temperature sensors by burying a thermistor in a DIP socket.
04/18/2010Created a page dedicated to the choices of solderless breadboards available, including clear.
04/25/2010Massive article that compares and tests the accuracy of cheap DMMs.
04/25/2011Removed Amazon as they ended their affiliate program in Illinois.