yup… very first attempt
i must admit tho i spent several months planning and learning to get to this point (thanks to people at LMR for helping me get over the basics)
i always knew my technical drawing at school would come in handy some day
dom
Again I’ll say it’s
Again I’ll say it’s scaringly tidy, and I like it 
I went ahead and bought a cutting mat just like yours (happened to be the cheapest one I could find ) which should arrive any time this week.
I especially like the way it is modular however, my own current approach to canibalization is to make my stuff anti-pretty :-p
that’s very magnificent!
that’s very magnificent! wait a minute…are those smoke i’m seeing in the background or just the background image?
Nice work
You now have 2 of the 3 common disciplines out of the way for your robot. 
Now, you only programming left. 
Real Craftsmanship Here.
Real craftsmanship here, Dominic. These little handcrafted PCBs are very nice done - very organised they look. Good work.
Nice work ! It is very tidy,
Nice work ! It is very tidy, I like it
i know none of us get out much, but still…
they are clouds (well ok pics of clouds on my telly - if local kids saw what i was doing i’d probably be burgled in a week)
brain is mush
dont i know it…just spent 6hr’s creating my modular programming base - flashing LED’s, ultrasonic detection, swiveling servo necks and a bunch of alternate names for everything
thanks peeps
always nice to know people are actually reading this… and if you have any ideas on improvement or questions - just post away
Fritzing for Circuit Diagrams?
As I see you use Paint to draw the circuit diagram here a suggestion:
Some LMR use Fritzing others use Eagle to draw circuit diagrams. In Fritzing there are several pre-defined components called parts. You find Arduinos, resistors, ICs, LEDs, Resistors, …, and a lot of different Picaxes.
Using this tools you not endup having a dead paint but an active, semantic and coherent model.
good,i love you~
i like the idea of wire to pin converter.very neat,it is a big project.you are very good at what you do.
I love your design process
And the way you have detailed your project. You have put a lot of thought into this I can see.
wow
superb piece of kit (i just downloaded and have been playing with it) thank you so much for that - its exactly what i was after.
Would i be right in thinking the picaxe 28x1 board hasnt been converted into a part yet?
dom
Ah yes, I saw you SB comment
Ah yes, I saw you SB comment I’ve been using it from the start, albeit my first schema I just went there to “steal the arduino pic” and painted the rest 
But subsequently I had a little more time and been using it since. It’s quite OK to in the breadboard view, it’s annoying if it hasn’t the part you’re usingm but then again one can always improvise and since so far my purpose has been to show my circuit for debugging purposes it’s ok.
It did look more troublesome in the other views, but I did not wanted to waste time exploring it at the time :)
Picaxe 28x1 is available
In my Fritzing version (normal download from the Fritzing site) the Picaxe 28x1 is available. It’s in the Picaxe part list.
Re: tread/tracks
What would happen if you were to slot the tracks in one or more places along their length? Basically, removing material, and, rib strength to cut down on ultimate traction.
Well, regarding your – '
Well, regarding your – ’ “time of motor on” into distance travelled or angle turned. ’ – that’s one of the good things of wheel encoders, you keep score of distances & speeds through counting the wheel rotations ( /time for velocities). Anyhow considering the problems you describe in the wake of that with the tracks traction and whatnot, there are still some engineering grips you’ll have to deal with. Alas I cannot be any help, as it is my own b4short is barely holding it together, so my “finish line” for it will be to make it somewhat efficient at avoiding obstacles. After that I’ll try and follow your footsteps and carefully plan a developing/testing robotic plattaform.
P.S. - I failed so miserable at trying to make the wheel opto-encoders for b4short that for the time being I gave up on them, at least for b4short.
good question
i think its the very fact its rubber that is the problem - id have to remove so much that i couldnt guarantee the track would remain on the wheel
you really aint having much luck
picaxe28x1 lacks enough inputs to go in that direction (which actually makes me happy) - the timing thing was only to give it a rough idea of what it was doing - akira is designed to evolve as time goes by, starting with cheap stuff i can discard and moving on to better things
Re: light for magnifier
Some 3d printer builds are adding light rings near the extruder. The light rings are sold on eBay. They are LED rings meant for installation around automobile headlights. You may find a size that would work. Then, you would only need to run 12v to it.