Robo Newby is the NR-1 best for me

[half_baked]

As the title says I am a huge robot fan, but I have zero experience in programming, and very little in r/c’s other than cars. I’m going to be taking robotics engineering in school come September, and I was thinking of purchasing a RN-1.
Reasons for wanting to buy an RN-1
-I love the whole look of the robot as well as the user friendly software it comes with
-the price
-semingly endless additions and hacks that can be added
-this forum and the support it seems to give
-my absolute adoration of humanoid robotics
-and I hoping it will be an addition learning tool for me to experiment with in school and out of school

Reasons I’m not sure of getting one
-is my limited under standing of r/c’s and programming going to be an major issue is using my RN-1
-the speed of the robo nova seems slow, but does anyone think it will eventually walk and respond faster.
-I am getting in over my head, and skipping right to the end of robotic r/c’s buy buying an RN-1
-does anyone regret buying a robonova

please respond to any of the following Im looking for all the input I can before I take the plunge. Im very excited to learn more from you all, and into taking MY own first steps into robotics.

[robodude666]

Hey,

First welcome to the forums. It is good to see more people being interested im robotics. I would say all of your reasons for picking the RN-1 are good. Price, not so much. $1,000 is a high price tag on a new little roy, esspecially when you hardly know anything about robotics or programming.

As for the reasons not to, not really sure. RoboNova uses RoboBasic as its "default" or "main" programming language. Honestly, I wouldn't call it a programming language. It is really really basic. Read Hitec's pdf about the language. It will help you understand better. I would also suggest to go to their website and download the free basic scripts they offer. Read them and try to understand them. If you see that it is really hard to understand you can either search around for help or post a topic asking for help

The speed is slow you say? The speed of which the servos move can be changed within the code you use. If you want a faster moving robot you can add 1 or 2 to each of the speed values. I wouldn't really suggest this because the servos would be moving faster and the robot might fall over because of unbalancement with all the quick moving. And also, I think its called mechanics? You can't have a servo spinning really fast with a lot of pressure or weight on it. For example, if you want to drive a car up a really steep slope, your not going to zoom right into it at like 100mph... You might but I wont suggest it. You will go into it slowly. Same here, OH! The word is torque! there ya go!!! These servos... mm ima shut my mouth about this because im not totally sure about it. Forget about everything you read in this last paragraph.

In over your head, eh? Maybe yes, maybe no. If you understand RoboBasic and know how to follow directions (put stuff into a certain spot and put 4 screws into it and plug in a few wires) then I would say you may be set. If you are scared about building it wrong, you can always fork over $200 or so and buy it pre-built. Though that sorta kills most of the fun If you have money to burn then I would suggest buying something small first and the going up. What exactly are you over your head in? Oh, and once you add the words "r/c" or "remote control" it is no longer really a robot It is just a remote controlled toy. Then again, that depends on who you ask. For example: RS is a toy, not a robot.

I have been on the forums for a few days and on lynxmotion.net and also a few other forums and read many articles and not have yet found a person who regrets buying a RN-1.

Oh, and if you wanna see some really cool videos of the RN-1 in action and read some cool stuff check out bauermech's website: http://www.bauerindependents.com I personally love the gripper test1 video


So right, I would suggest looking at some example RoboBasic code for the RN-1 and try to understand it. If you see that you understand it, and looked at other options for robots and feel that the RN-1 is the one for you then go for it! If you want to enter robotics one step at a time, I would suggest looking at robotstore.com and lynxmotion.com for some basic kits that you can get and try out. Or you can get a board like OOPIC and a few servos and try learning it. Though coding for the OOPIC might be a bit harder than for RN.

As for my, I am working hard to get money to buy one one of these amazing robots!!

Cheers,
-robodude666

P.S. Sorry, I enjoy writing long replies Should sort of bring that habbit over for writing essays for school =/ all are like 20 words long >_<''

[half_baked]

By no means did I find your topic long, in fact I found it very informative. I see my self as being very mechanically inclined when it comes to cars I am a bit of a wiz, but shrink anything down and add on computer code and I just thought I might be getting over whelmed. I have seen any little videos on the robo nova I can get my hands on, including all of the videos from matt’s site, as well as all on robo-one compitions I can find.

While to you your reply not seem like much but to me it gave me that other little push I need to finally go out and buy one. I have just always wanted something like this, and now at least it’s a little more affordable. If anyone else has any comments please feel free to post, I am learning so much from reading all your posts. I did download the free software from hitechs website and the program dose seem straight forward, however my version seems to be having a habit of crashing. “silly windows, macs are for kids” but other than that I’m now try to track one down in Canada, or at least someone that will ship one here.

Thanks For All You Help
The lurker poster Half Baked

[robodude666]

Glad I can help !

At first when I found out about the RoboNova, I thought to myself "Damn, this thing must be hard as hell to program for!" but after taking a look at the examples at Hitec's website I realized it is very simple.

Jumping right into a new language is hard and can be scary. I work at a local college at a robotics lab with the Kepera robots. They have a very interesting C/C++ style language which took me a few days to get.

$1000 is a big investment, and unless you are 110% sure that you want one or have an extra $1000 around the house, I would suggest playing around more in roboscript and looking around at more examples. Also reading the manual at:
http://www.hitecrobotics.com/Tony%20inf ... 2020051115).pdf


As for buying it to ship to canada, check out
http://www.robotshop.ca/home/suppliers/ ... 1-kit.html
They seem to be a canada based shop. Or you can buy it from RoboSavvy and support the community. But contact Limor and ask if he ships to canada first.

-robodude666