Open Hardware Leftovers
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Stephen Smith ☛ How to Program a SunFounder PiDog
Last time, the SunFounder PiDog was introduced, this time we’ll introduce how to program the PiDog to do our bidding. Previously, we looked at the SunFounder PiCar and how to program it. Both robots share the same RobotHat to interface the Raspberry Pi with the various servos, motors and devices attached to the robot. For the PiCar this is fairly simple as you just need to turn on the motors to go and set the steering servo to the angle you want to turn. The PiDog is much more complicated. There are eight servo motors that control the legs. On each leg, one servo sets the angle of the shoulder joint and the other sets the angle of the elbow joint. To get the PiDog to walk takes coordinating the setting of each of these servos in a coordinated fashion. SunFounder provides a PiDog Python class that hides most of the complexity, though it does give you direct access if you want to control the legs directly.
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Raspberry Pi ☛ Watch NE-5, the Raspberry Pi-powered robot, on TV
Keegan’s more compact version of one of film’s favourite robots sits on a bespoke four-wheeled base, which is a different look to the original Johnny 5. Earlier iterations did feature two additional wheels above the rear wheels, and the six wheels pulled rolling tracks (like a military tank has) to move the robot forward. Keegan ditched this idea in favour of the simpler and more reliable four-wheel setup we see today.
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Raspberry Pi ☛ HackSpace magazine meets VEEB Projects
For a small mountainous country divided between Italian, French and German [and Latin] speakers, Switzerland punches well above its weight in terms of design. Univers, Frutiger, and the mighty Helvetica are all Swiss; HR Giger, the creative brain behind the look and feel of the Alien films, was Swiss; even the Swiss flag is neatly minimalist. If you’re designing in Switzerland, you’re standing on some very large shoulders.
Two such designers are English duo Vanessa Bradley and Martin Spendiff. As VEEB, the duo have been creating devices sometimes simple, sometimes complicated, but always beautifully clean. We caught up with Martin late last year to find out what they’re all about.
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Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications
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Andre Franca ☛ Thoughts on my new Smartphone
The choice of an Android device over iOS it is philosophically a more open system, allowing better interoperability with other operating systems, such as Windows and Linux, whereas Apple devices only work well (and perfectly well) between their ecosystem.
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