Category Archives: Meeting Announcements

RBNV – Robot Builders Night Virtual – April 7, 2020

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Meeting video:

Meeting Chat Text:
chat minutes (pdf)

When

• April 7th, starting at 7:30 PM Dallas time (CST).
• RBNV will contine each Tuesday evening until the crisis is over and the Maker Space re-opens.

How

• Join Hangouts Meet https://meet.google.com/tkg-wzhq-prc
• Join by phone ‪+1 302-455-8896‬ PIN: ‪514 134 476#‬

Why

• Talk robots & related stuff.
• Keep going while we’re stuck at home.
• Make it easier for people to attend DPRG remotely.

Agenda: RBNV – 7 April

• Round table – everybody spends a couple minutes telling what projects they’re working on as we’re all stuck at home
• Ad-hoc presentations – Whoever would like to show & tell.
• “Stump the club” Challenges – Ask for help if you’ve hit a roadblock in your project. Somebody in the club can probably get you pointed in a good direction – or even arrange a side bar session to help.

Note 1: We record a video of these sessions and post them on the DPRG YouTube channel. By joining the meeting, you’re giving consent to be included in the recording.

RBNV – Robot Builders Night Virtual – March 31, 2020

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Meeting video:

Carl’s “Additional VS Code notes”:

More_VS_Tips-Carl

Details

What: Virtual RBNO meeting.

When:
•  March 31th  at 7:30 pm Dallas time (CST)
•  Continuing each Tuesday evening until the crisis is over and the Dallas Makerspace reopens.

How:
•  Join Hangouts Meet https://meet.google.com/txt-icwv-qgc
•  Join by phone +1 662-472-1236‬ PIN: ‪206 934 807‬#

Why:
•  Talk robots & related stuff.
•  Keep going while we’re stuck at home.
•  Make it easier for people to attend DPRG remotely on Tuesday, RBNO’s normal time.

Agenda:  RBNV – March 31th

•  Round Table – everybody spends a couple minutes telling what projects they’re working on as we’re all stuck at home

•  Ad-hoc Presentations –

•  Clay
• •  “My robot makes movies”- How to capture frames at high speed then stitch them together into mp4 video.
• •  How to make your Raspberry Pi file system show up as a directory on your computer.
• •  “Where would you steer?”- A short survey of robot camera images to study how the average person would respond if they were steering.

•  Carl
• •  More Tips & Tricks using Microsoft VS Code for robot projects.
• • •  Features that help write code better.
• • •  Use VS Code on your laptop to edit & compile code on a Raspberry Pi across a network connection.

•  Whoever else would like to show & tell.

Note 1:  We do record a video of these sessions and post them on the DPRG YouTube channel. By joining the meeting you’re giving consent to be included in the recording.

Note 2:  Our first Robot Builders Night Virtual was well received last week. We had 8 or 10 participants and healthy discussion on a variety of topics. We also found that a participant had some robot battery power budget questions – so we scheduled a sidebar session and helped with that…

Link to last week’s RBNV and Carl’s instructions to using VS can be found at,  last week’s RBNV.

RBNV – Robot Builders Night Virtual

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Meeting video:

Carl’s VS setup for Arduino instructions: 2020 March 29- Notes for VS Code w- Arduino

Who knew that DPRG had a PCP (Pandemic Contingency Plan)?

Step 1. Hold Virtual Meetings (instead of meeting at the Dallas Maker Space.)
Step 2. Simulate DPRG members.
Step 3. Create surrogate robots of human DPRG members- these surrogate robots then meet in the physical world while their human builders are stuck at home…

So let’s start with Step 1,
and hold our first RBNV (Robot Builders Night Virtual) on 24 March!

We can plan steps 2 and 3 later as things develop…

When
• Starting 24 March / 7:30 pm Dallas time.
• Continuing each Tuesday evening until the crisis is over and the Makerspace opens again.

How
• Join by Hangouts Meet: https://meet.google.com/hpm-faap-xgx
• Join by phone +1 252-501-3117‬ PIN: ‪649 689 577‬#

Why
• Talk robots & related stuff.
• Keep going while we’re stuck at home.
• Make it easier for people to attend DPRG remotely / during the week.

What
• Round table – Each member gets a couple minutes to show and tell about the progress they have made on their projects and other interesting things.
• Kibitzing – Members will give help to those having problems with their projects.
• Ad-hoc presentations – Carl will start the ball rolling on the 24th with a demonstration of how to use VS Code (free IDE) with Arduino & Git.

IRON REIGN Presents their Newest Robot – Monthly Meeting Topic – Feb 8th, 2020

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One of our favorite First Tech Challenge robot teams, Iron Reign, will present their newest champion robot at DPRG’s February monthly meeting. This robot was built to solve the current First tech challenge, titled Skystone. The robot competes to build a structure made of 4x8x5 inch blocks in 2.5 minutes while buzzing around a 12’x12′ arena with 3 other robots. As with all First Tech challenges there are multiple of complications. A full description of the challenge can be found at Skystone video. Competitive robots can build a structure of 6 feet or more.

Iron Reign’s robots always have cool and clever mechanisms that will delight anyone interested in robotics.

Come join the fun at the DPRG Feb 8th monthly meeting at the Dallas Makerspace in the Interactive Room. Presentation starts at noon.

This is a wonderful opportunity to see and ask questions about a really neat and interesting robot.

DPRG Annual Meeting – 2020

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DPRG 2020 Annual Meeting Minutes:  Annual Meeting Minutes – 2020

Every year in January, DPRG’s members meet at the club’s annual meeting. This meeting is where officers for the new year are elected, and members discuss club plans. The 2020 DPRG annual meeting will be held at the Dallas Maker Space on January 11th at noon.

Agenda

  • Ray Casler, the current president, will sum up the club’s 2019 activities and discuss the state of the club.
  • The candidates for 2020 officer positions will be introduced.
  • The 2020 election will be closed after all attendees have had a chance to vote.
  • Ron Grant, the election overseer, will combine the votes received prior to the meeting by email and the votes made at the meeting, and announce the election results.
  • The new president will take office.
  • The new president will preside over the annual planning meeting.
  • The club’s 2020 annual planning meeting will start:
    • New president will discuss club direction for upcoming year.
    • Determine community events that the club will participate in.
    • Formation of Competition committee.
    • Determine topics that members want to have presented at the monthly meeting and ask for volunteers to cover topics.
    • Listen to suggestions and ideas on how to make the club better.
  • Member show and tell of projects.

DPRG Elections – 2020

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It is time to hold elections for DPRG club officers. The election will occur at the DPRG monthly meeting on January 11th, 2020. This meeting is also the club’s annual meeting, where plans are discussed. It is very important that members vote and attend the January meeting. The by-laws require that a specific percentage of members vote to make the election official.

A slate of candidates is proposed below at the recommendation of the present officers. This slate is composed of members who have indicated interest at recent club events. Any member can come forward and be added to the list of people considered for the various officer’s positions. If you want to explore holding office, an overview of officer duties can be found at  officer duties. You can also get additional information by talking to an existing officer at any monthly meeting or RBNO. If you want to throw your hat into the ring, please let me know quickly at email “secretary at dprg dot org” so you can be added to the ballot.

Proposed Slate of Officers for 2020

President: Carl Ott
Vice-President: Clay Timmons
Treasurer: Steve Edwards
Secretary: Doug Paradis
Librarian: John Kuhlenschmidt

How to Vote

All members in good standing can vote. The list of members is at member list. If you are not on the list and you think you should be, the problem is most likely that you need to renew your membership. Contact “secretary at dprg dot org” if you need help renewing your membership.

Members can vote by emailing their vote to “election at dprg dot org” before the January 11th meeting. The email should contain the text “I vote for the proposed officer slate”, or “I vote for the following people for office”, or similar text that allows our volunteer election vote counter to determine your intentions.

Members can also vote in person or proxy at the January 11th DPRG meeting. If voting by proxy, you should signal your intention to vote by proxy by sending an email to the person that you are giving control of your vote and to “election at dprg dot org” so the person holding your proxy and the person tallying votes knows of your intention. The person holding the proxy must then vote.

Scarily Realistic Animatronic Spider – Monthly Meeting Topic – Dec 14th, 2019

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Link to John’s slidedeck: slidedeck

December’s DPRG monthly meeting ventures into the frightful, with a presentation on the construction of a scarily realistic animatronic spider that happens to be ~4-feet in diameter.

John Gauthier conceived of this spider as a Halloween project. His presentation will carry us all the way from its layout in SketchUp to its final implementation. The spider is remotely controlled by a data glove and a switch wand. Movement of the robot is done with stepper motors and Microchip PIC MCUs. A Raspberry Pi handles the sounds. Communication between the controls and the spider are accomplished by using nRF24L01+ RF transceiver modules. The project utilizes custom build PCBs, 3D printing, and fabric crafts to create a truly impressive result.

The spider in all its glory (or is that gory) will be lurking at the DPRG December 14th monthly meeting at the Dallas Makerspace in the Interactive Room. Presentation starts at noon.

This is a wonderful opportunity to see how to conceive and execute a complex project. Don’t miss it!

Practical LiDAR for Hobbyist Roboticists

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Scott’s slide deck: slide deck (PDF)

Followers of DPRG’s competitions are familiar with Scott Gibson’s very successful robot CanMan. CanMan utilizes a spinning LiDAR manufactured  by RPLidar (~$100). In competitions where the arena is bounded by walls, CanMan’s LiDAR allows the robot to reacquire its location even after a collusion with walls or other robots.

At the October 12th DPRG monthly meeting Scott is going to share how you can add a similar LiDAR to your robot. The presentation will take a quick look at the serial interface and data fields used by the RPLidar unit, and then dive deep into how to use this data.

Scott will discuss the algorithms and code that he uses to:

  • Find the center of the arena,
  • Align to an arena wall,
  • Detect an outside edge,
  • Detect an inside edge.

This is a great opportunity to learn about how to use a spinning LiDAR unit.

The meeting is at the Dallas Maker Space and starts at Noon on Saturday, October 12th.

Introduction to the ESP8266 – Monthly Meeting Topic – Sep 14th, 2019

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Steve’s code and presentation slide deck: code_and_slide_deck

DPRG member Steve Edwards will present an Introduction to the ESP8266. The ESP8266 is an easy to use, inexpensive, yet powerful 80 MHz WiFi micro-controller. You will learn how to create a simple and secure REST api (Web Service), which will allow you to send commands or query information from your robots or other electronic projects. Steve will also be demonstrating one of his recent projects. A lot of blinking LEDs are involved.

This is a great opportunity to learn about the ESP8266.

The meeting is at the Dallas Maker Space and starts at Noon on Saturday, September 14th.

Autonomous Rover Robot with GPS RTK and Novel Control System – Monthly Meeting Topic – August 10th, 2019

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Ross’s slide deck can be downloaded at: slidedeck (PDF)

Guest speaker Ross Melbourne will demonstrate his autonomous rover robot which uses GPS RTK for navigation, and a novel robot control system that employs Unity and Python. Ross’s robot control system has potential practical applications such as: robotic lawn care, security patrol robots, and autonomous delivery services. Ross’s talk will cover both the challenges and the lessons learned that he experienced while building the robot.

This is a great opportunity to see a sophisticated antonomous rover build.

The meeting is at the Dallas Maker Space and starts at Noon on Saturday, August 10th.