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December 1990 Minutes

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November 1990 Minutes

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October 1990 Minutes

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September 1990 Minutes

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August 1990 Minutes

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July 1990 Minutes

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June 1990 Minutes

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May 1990 Minutes

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April 1990 Minutes

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March 1990 Minutes

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February 1990 Minutes

February Meeting:

The Feb. meeting was very exciting! I hope the rest will be likewise. The main events were:

Brian and I showed Brian's Robie Jr. robot (modified) with my "wander" program. The program is very short, simple, and dumb. It provided a few laughs, however, and finally wandered out into the hallway and had to be chased down.

Brian also showed a new version of his "pendant" program for Robie, now written in assembler. It's more responsive and doesn't crash now from motor noise.

Brian submitted his home navigation system to the library. It will be kept as a separate disk, due to the number of files involved.

Many ideas for club projects were batted around:

Maze Contest - August meeting! Now we have a deadline set, all we need is to fine-tune the detail. We already have at least 3 "probably" entries - myself, Brian, and another member (I forgot his name, sorry) who is working on another version of the Robie modification. A few other members show interest but may not make the deadline.

We are looking for good design ideas for the maze construction. It has been "decided" that it will be an 18" grid (either 18" paths or 18" wall-center to wall-center), with walls 3.5" to 4" high (to allow 1-by-4s to be used if desired). A few construction ideas floated around, but an ideal solution is yet to be found. The criteria are:

• Modular, so it can be re-configured easily.
• Lightweight and small pieces, so a pickup and forklift isn't needed to haul it.
• Strong enough so the "mice" won't push it around or break it.
• Large enough for at least a 5-cell by 5-cell maze.
• Usable on either carpet (meeting rooms) or hard floor (garage/lobby).

Contest details and rules will be printed when available. For the first contest, the rules will probably be simple - as long as it's computer-controlled (not a puppet), it's legal.

HERO Jr. Cartridges - Brian has volunteered to duplicate any Hero Jr. cartridges (like the Basic and Programming cartridges) we can get. We also need to duplicate the RS-232 interface. PLEASE let us know if we can borrow yours! It will be returned intact.

Compass for HERO 2000 (or any robot) - Brian will design an interface for the Micronta electronic compass to work with the HERO 2000. Since it uses a parallel interface, it could work with virtually any robot. Walter and Bev are providing the materials (and will get the finished product). The November, 1989 issue of Radio Electronics has an article on constructing an interface for a Centronics-compatible printer port. This must be generalized for a simple parallel port, and will require the experimenter's card for the HERO 2000. Complete construction details will appear soon.

Checkers - Bev is still interested in the checkers project. I would still like to see this happen, since it would make such a great demo.

Robot as a club officer or mascot - We should have newsletter articles, or even club presentations, from the robot's point of view! Robot editorials ("Why does everybody make fun of my little twirly thing on top?"), product reviews ("This compass is great -- now I know exactly which lamp I just knocked over!"), project ideas ("I want to be an artist!"), etc. Would someone like to volunteer to be "the robot's voice"?

Well, I hope things get going like they should. At the very least, the maze contest should finally be a reality!

Stan Spielbusch
Treasurer/Secretary

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January 1990 Minutes

January Meeting:

Elections were held, and the new officers are:

• President: Brian Vaceluke
• Vice President: Victor Sturm
• Treasurer/Secretary: Stan Spielbusch

Brian Vaceluke showed his Robie, Jr. modifications (added a microprocessor).

Roger Arrick showed his computer control for stepper motors, which he is marketing.

Stan Spielbusch
Treasurer/Secretary