Eh, I was at my local radio shack the other day, and notice this niffty kit, they had components like Ultrasonic and touch sensors. Has anyone tried to use these on the RoboNova-1? do you think its possiable? since we have while before Hitech release thiers?
Here’t the link to thier addons
The Ultrasonic Sensor is a Daventech SRF-04, and the switches are just on/off switches, so you should be able to use them.
Kenny
Its just a SRF-04 in a case??
All VEX stuff is on sale right now for half price…$15 for a srf-04 is not bad!
Take another look at it before you purchase it.
It’s a bit clunky because of the durable casing.
It might be too big for your biped.
Oh, and the touch sensors…
phidgetsusa.com/ has a bunch of .2" FSR’s for 6 bucks each.
Those are variable resistors, which are much better than ordinary on-off touch sensors.
With them, you can tell whether or not something is being touched, as well as how hard it’s being touched.
I’ve been working with 8 of them in a Wheatstone’s bridge (two voltage dividers in parallel) to balance my biped, and they’re quite precise.
Is the VEX line still on sale in your area? It seems only the power kit is on sale here. Everything else is back to its retail price. I sold all my stuff soon after Christmas and bought the RN-1, but seeing it go on sale when it did, bought it all again… everything but the programming kit (which was out of stock). BTW anyone know where I can find a copy of the software? I could probably make my own level converter. …or better yet, if it’s still on sale in your area, I’d be willing to pay you to pick one up and send it to me. 
But yes, like kenny said, the ultrasonic sensor is basically an FSR-04 in a plastic case (I’ll post some pics of the guts when I get a chance). It has a label on it stating not to remove the plastic casing because it may not work correctly. I don’t know about that though… I suppose it’s there to help “collect” the pulse waves? I don’t know, but it looks like the case has a simple bevel around each opening… pretty simple to replicate in any material using a countersink bit. Regardless, Nick’s right - it is a bit clunky for a bi-ped (maybe fix it atop the head?). (Oh, and the female pins would need to be converted over to male before being able to plug it into the RN-1.)
…and the variable touch sensors are the way to go. If needs be, they can be used as simple on/off as well. The Lego touch sensors also had variable resistors… a great benefit when programming. It’s surprising that VEX didn’t come out w/ any… well, not too surprising I guess. 
Nick, do you have four on each foot? … wait, you sid you had eight… so I’ll answer my own question with a yes… sorry. 
Oh crap I’m tired… night
yeah its all on sale till the 30th I believe.
its on sale on the website also so i dont know how it isnt on sale in every store.
radioshack.com/search/index. … origkw=vex
I should probably pick up some more stuff then since its on sale :-p
It’s all on sale till the beginning of June, on the site.
I think there might still be a set on sale at the shack in my local mall.
If I get out to the mall this weekend, I’ll let you know.
