March Robot Giveaway to Celebrate GoRobotics' 10th Birthday

It's that time again! Time for the March celebration of GoRobotics' 10th Birthday. We're once again giving away fabulous robot prizes to 3 lucky winners. Previous contests have been great, and we're excited to be doing it again with prizes from our sponsors Pololu, Super Droid Robots, Zagros Robotics, Solarbotics and No Starch Press. There are four ways of entering this month’s contest: 1. Simply comment on this post and tell us your favorite robot websites. 2. Follow GoRobotics on Twitter and leave a comment below telling us your Twitter username. 3. Follow RobotBox on Twitter and leave a comment below telling us your Twitter username. 4. Retweet the following, “Enter @GoRobotics.net’s 10 Year Birthday Robot Giveaway http://wp.me/pgDpL-kM“. Leave a comment when you do. YOU CAN DO ALL FOUR (four comments) TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING! Winners will be chosen at random. Three winners will be chosen and the first winners will get his/her choice of the prizes, second place gets second choice and third place gets whatever is left over! The contest ends MARCH 31st, 2010 at 12AM EST. Comments are moderated to prevent spam. Your comment won’t show up till the moderator has approved it. Here are this month’s prizes:

1st Place Prize - Orangutan B-328 Robot Controller (donated by Pololu), 2x 24V 195 RPM Gear Motors (donated by Super Droid Robots), and The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book (donated by No Starch Press) - worth $100 The Baby Orangutan B-328 robot controller from Pololu is the perfect choice for a brain for your robot. Its 24 pin compact form allows it to fit into very small robots without sacrificing its powerful AVR microcontroller and 2 channel motor drivers. Yep, that's right - this little guy is both a controller and a motor driver! All you need to add is sensors and some motors. It has an ATMega328P processor, an onboard potentiometer and LED, and 32 KB flash, 2 KB RAM, and 1 KB EEPROM. The motor driver can handle up to 1A continuos per channel, 3A peak. These powerful 24V motors donated by Super Droid Robots will kick-start your next robot project. They are high-quality motors with steel gears (not cheap plastic), and used in Super Droid’s All-terrain robots. They use a 1:27 gear reduction and have an amazing 12 kgf-cm of torque. That means they could lift a 26 lb (12 kg) load using a 1 cm lever arm! They are rated for < 250 mA of drive current. Note: These motors are probably  bit too big to be driven directly from the Baby Orangutan B-328P. Try the Dual MC33926 Motor Driver Carrier The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book features chapters on programming and design, CAD-style drawings, and abundance of screenshots make it easy for the reader to master the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit and to build and program nine example robots. Chapters cover using the NXT programming language (NXT-G) as well as troubleshooting; design; software; sensors; Bluetooth; even how to create a NXT remote control.

  2nd Place Prize - Arduino Duemilanove, Tamiya Gear Box and Sport Tires (donated by Zagros Robotics), and The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide (donated by No Starch Press) - worth $75 The Arduino Duemilanove is a powerful and simple robot controller built around the AtMega328P microcontroller. It comes with a bootloader already on the device so you can easily write and download programs using only a USB cable. It has many digital and analog IO lines to make connecting it to your project easy. The Tamiya double gearbox is perfect for use in amateur robot contests, this gearbox is suitable for use with remote controlled robots. Choice of 4 gear ratios, offers emphasis on speed or power to suit your needs. Left/right independent design means you can set different gear ratios for either side. Coupled with the Sport Tire set, you'll have a great robot propulsion system to hook up to your Duemilanove. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set is a very powerful robotics toolkit, but it lacks a detailed user's guide. This is the user's guide that every MINDSTORMS owner needs. The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide begins by introducing the NXT set and directing the reader through setup. Following this is an in-depth discussion of the set's electronic elements and other LEGO pieces as well as building techniques. Next, it covers the NXT-G programming environment and introduces several unofficial programming languages, providing examples of code and programming insights along the way. Finally, it presents a method for designing NXT robots in addition to a series of projects with building and programming instructions for creating complete robots. 3rd Place Prize - Herbie the Mousebot Kit (donated by Solarbotics), and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Thinking Robots (donated by No Starch Press) - worth $75 The Herbie the Mousebot Kit from Solarbotics is a great way to introduce ourself or a child to robotics. The kit is a 9-volt battery-powered light-following robot that loves to chase flash light beams. These little robots are so quick, you have to run to keep up to them! We've even enhanced Herbiewith functional whisker and tail sensors, so he doesn't get stuck in corners or under obstacles while chasing around. It doesn't require a microcontroller or any programming and the kit comes with all the parts and documentation to get started. LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Thinking Robots includes full building and programming instructions for two of Daniele Benedettelli's most unique creations—a brand new version of his famous Rubik's Cube solver and an interactive Tic-Tac-Toe playing robot. Rules/Regulations/Fine Print:

• To enter the contest, you must comment on this post.
• Giveaway ends March 31st, at 12AM EST (9PM PST)
• One prize package per winner.
• No purchase is necessary to enter the contest – it’s free!
• Everyone is eligible, but shipping is free to only those in the Continental US – if you are outside this area, you will have to pay for shipping.
• PayPal is required to pay for shipping if you live out of the Continental US
• Winners will be contacted via email supplied in the comment form.
• You have 48 hrs to respond to the email and choose your prize package.
• GoRobotics.net makes NO WARRANTY or GUARANTEES about these prizes.
• GoRobotics.net can change the rules WHENEVER IT WANTS.

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