Here is an update to my 2010 list. I think I did pretty good but some items rolled over to 2011…
I will work on putting together a list of my to-do items for 2011 soon.
Just suggestions for 2011
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I think something that would attract more users to the Servo erector set would be to build a retail box of just that a advanced servo erector “set” include the SCC-32 with a option to upgrade to that nice new arc-32, Then include 6 high toque mid range servos and a bunch of random brackets, tubes, and hubs. Call the box a Starter pack and shoot for around a sub 500 price tag and I think you will have something that can go head to toe with most kits out there. throw in a few projects that can be done with the kit and so forth.
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Carry a larger array of batteries, I mean li-ion packs and cells as well as a few others with a few nice 70-100dollar chargers to keep them up, also think about carrying dean plugs. we need more power for are batter sucking brat bipeds and arms, we need lighter more energy density packs
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The arc-32 is nice. Are you to retire the scc-32? also I think a Archer type biped made by Zenta would be nice in a kit form. Maybe as a option for the biped scout.
Some good battery monitor/UBEC/cut offs specifically designed for the ABB/SSC32/ARC32 would be nice.
Yes, something with ajustable cutoffs so can be used on many different config (LiPo)
Appreciate the feedback. Keep it coming. 
The market might be right for an Arduino based SSC-32 Shield. Same logic, code, different form factor.
Alan KM6VV
It’s been suggested before. Just haven’t had the time to put something together.
I have stayed out of the LiPo market due to the liability. There are so many who sell them for $0.50 profit it’s hard to compete.
We are planning a 3DOF quadruped full kit. This will take several months. Then we will look at altering the Scout to be more like Zenta’s biped. May not have the COG shifting part, but I’m not sure yet.
The SSC-32 has a lot of hardware and software out there. It would be too large a job to replace it with ARC-32. Besides it still has a place in robotics. Bot Board II/Atom Pro 28 and SSC-32 is still a very powerful robotics solution. Arc-32 and SSC-32 is a major I/O robot control solution as well. They will co-exist.
Someone was working on this exact same thing. The project has lost momentum so I’m not sure if it’s still going to happen.
Hi Jim,
You did good on the todo list!
Any news on the A-Pod kit?
Xan
Jim,
I’d like to see a longer ASB-11 offset bracket. I’ll compare the ASB-11 to the ASB-09 and would like to see the longer one be like the ASB-10 is to the ASB-09 as far as length goes.
8-Dale
Thanks Dale, I will give it some thought.
Bring back the old grippers!!! (see my thread on it 
)
Bring back a variety of grippers, ones that involve only a single mini/micro servo to operate…
2" Jaw, 4" Jaw, and 6" Jaw!!!
Funny thing these grippers… In the very beginning I used a standard size servo with a flexible push rod it was finicky to get set up, but after that it worked pretty well. It could never grip very tightly, but it was very light.
Customers kept complaining “why don’t you just put a micro servo on the gripper to open and close it?” So I did so. Then the complaints were “it’s too easy to break the gears in the little micro servo!”
So I converted to the Robix Gripper because it used a standard size servo. It was heavier, but the new AL5 series with stronger servos and stronger aluminum frame made it work ok.
So the new one I’m designing looks like the gripper we used with the HS-85 to open and close, but it uses the HS-225 which is a mini servo with metal gears. I hope the 3rd time is a charm. lol
I don’t know about a 6" gripper opening though. 
I can smell the burnt servo case from here.
LOL
My ultimate wish for an Arduino compatible robot controller would be an Arduino Mega 2560 setup with 3 pin headers, plus separate headers for I2C, SPI, and all UARTS. This would not have to be a competitor for the ARC-32. It would just push the Arduino technology more into the robotics space. A controller like this could bring a lot more people into robotics using a somewhat easer to manage, not to mention Open Source, development environment. It would be sort of like a super RoboDuino.
Even if somebody just created a robotics shield with the above specifications for the Arduino Mega 1280/2560 (only differences are memory and flash sizes), it should be a big boost for bringing people into robotics.
8-Dale
I’m a bit unfamiliar with the Arduino micro, what are the advantages/disadvantages of this micro versus say the Atom Pro 28 or the Pro 40 (ARC-32)?
There are probably many others with far more experience with Arduinos than I have, but I will give my 2 cents worth… Arduino are simply a standard Atmel Atmegaxxx chip with some some stand pin layout and libraries.
Arduinos and Arduino Megas are nice as they sell a ton of them. You can buy an official Arduino UNO (AtMega 328) for about $30, which gives you 6 Analog pins and 14 digital pins. You typically program them using the Arduino IDE, with more or less a variation of the GCC C compiler. Using Arduinos with the IDE is slightly different than using most C programs as the main function has been replaced but if you know C, it is no big deal. An advantage of Arduinos is that they are open source and there is a ton of people who support them and you can find lots of support libraries for them. Arduino Megas (AtMega 1280 and Atmega 2560) are nice as they have lots of memory and they also have 4 UARTS, which is great if you are interfacing to things like SSC-32, Serial LCD, XBee, BT… The Atmegas that used in Arduinos are 8 bit processors, so your application is math intensive that could hurt. However I did port the Phoenix code over to first the Arduino Megas as later to simple Arduinos and I think it works pretty well. More details in the thread: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6730
The Arduino platform defined a standard layout of external pins, which allow people to build daughter boards for them. Most of these are in theory designed such that you stack additional board on them. In the Arduino world these are called shields. There are a reasonable number of shields out there, that do things like, support XBees, Add Servos, … All of the standard pins on an Arduino board are in tall female plugs. These are great for prototyping as you can simply jamb your prototype wire into them, but these boards do not make it easy to plug things lie servos into them. They don’t provide any 3 pin servo headers nor any power bus or the like. There are a few shields Thai help with this, but many people resort to using breadboards or the like.
Basic Atom Pros are based on the Rinses H8 processors. The Bap28 has the H8/3694 processor and the Arc32/Bap38 has the H8/3687 processor. The H8 processors are 16 bit processors that do 32 bit math, so they handle more complex math more easily than the 8 bit Atmega processors. The BB2/Bap28 or the Arc32 platform have power buses building and come configured to make it simple to plug in servos ore the like. Basic Programs that run on Baps are interpreted versus the programs that run on the Arduino which are compiled. I have not done any speed testings to find out the differences. The Bap28 has 1 hardware UART (P14/P15) and the Bap40/Arc32 has 2 (SIN/SOUT, P14/15). However on both platforms (BAP/Arduino) you can support additional serial devices using software serial code. I am glad the Baps serial code now works with SSC-32 at 115200. So far my Arduino UNO also appears to talk OK to the SSC-32 at 115200 and it does not appear to be as susceptible to problems if any interrupts are enabled. An added plus is that the majority of the Arduino code does not care if I am using hardware or software serial to talk to the SSC-32, that is only the object definition and init code cares, the rest simply calls the print/write functions… The Arduinos software serial library also support sync input, which is nice.
I like and try to support both platforms. My personal preference is to program in C/C++ over Basic, but the Baps are nice chips and I do like the underlying H8 processors.
Sorry for the ramblings, hopefully I answered the question
Kurt
Very thorough explanation Kurt!
I did also find it useful, not much rambling if you ask me…
I really like the Arduinos because they make it real easy and quick to get down to concentrating on the application (the libraries). You can always write your own libraries of common routines easily - I have. I keep hoping and wishing for somebody to make a robotics friendly version of an Arduino Mega 2560. 
Arduinos are programmed using an Open Source and multi-platform IDE (Windows, Mac, and Linux). The Arduinos are not something Lynxmotion should be ignoring, if for no other reason than the wealth of support it has and availability of libraries for most anything. I do not care for closed source environments, but will resort to them if I find something REALLY interesting, like the pre-production Propeller board (I know Lynxmotion will do it right), for instance - something we can do multi-tasking easily with. The only single tasking boards I am interested in are the ARC-32, since it can be programmed in C, and an Atmega based robotics board.
8-Dale
I agree with you… In the works we currently have;
A shield for the mega that will bolt up to our bots. We will make a mega board of our own after we finish the other microcontroller projects we are working on now.
A Botboarduino Jr. the has our 3" x 2.3" footprint but retains the Arduino shield connectors.