rhutchin@BONNIE.ICS.UCI.EDU (01/07/91)
A few years ago, my Dad and I got one these babies, hoping to put it together and have countless hours of fun with the thing. Unfortunately, after we finished building it, it didn't work, so piece by peice, I have sent the robot to Heath for testing, and sure enough, all my peices work great (or so they say). Anyway, when I power it up, the "voice" light sticks on and it does not write to the terminal (I have it hooked up to my Mac II). I'm sure the connection is good because I get a little startup and shutdown "noise" on my terminal, which is usually a couple of characters. Does anybody have experience with this robot. I'm no electrical engineer, and I don't have access to $100,000 oscilloscopes, but I am pretty technically oriented if anyone has some advice. Richard B. Hutchings Dept ofInfo and Comp Sci, UC Irvine
hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) (01/08/91)
In article <9101061917.aa18056@BONNIE.ICS.UCI.EDU> rhutchin@BONNIE.ICS.UCI.EDU writes: }... I'm sure the connection }is good because I get a little startup and shutdown "noise" on my terminal, }which is usually a couple of characters. Are the characters sensible/expected? If not, look for baud rate and/or parity problems. Hook it up to a standard, dumb terminal if you can, just to avoid confusing more than one issue at a time. (Apologies to K&R (-: ). }Does anybody have experience with this robot. ... Heath took it off the market almost two years ago, allegedly because of mechanical problems with the arm. That's all I know. -- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@ttidca.tti.com) Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp(+)TTI Illegitimis non 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. (213) 450-9111, x2483 Carborundum Santa Monica, CA 90405 {csun | philabs | psivax}!ttidca!hollombe
ANDQC@CUNYVM.BITNET (Andrew A. Beveridge) (01/08/91)
In article <22453@ttidca.TTI.COM>, hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) says: > >In article <9101061917.aa18056@BONNIE.ICS.UCI.EDU> rhutchin@BONNIE.ICS.UCI.EDU >writes: > >}Does anybody have experience with this robot. ... > >Heath took it off the market almost two years ago, allegedly because of >mechanical problems with the arm. That's all I know. > I just talked to Heath mail order yesterday, and they no longer sell robots of any kind. Anybody know anything about this? Do others sell HERO sort of robots? Any comments? ------- Andrew A. Beveridge Department of Sociology Queens College and Graduate Center City University of New York 209 Kissena Hall Flushing, NY 11367 718-520-7093
dtroup@carroll1.cc.edu (David C. Troup) (01/09/91)
In article <22453@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) writes: > >Heath took it off the market almost two years ago, allegedly because of >mechanical problems with the arm. That's all I know. > Our HERO has had lots of arm problems, and we're working on a new arm now. Ive seen about 5 arms come and go with our little robot. When it doesn work, it's quite nice to work with, even when the 360 sonar gives funny readings. :-) -- David C. Troup is dtroup@carroll1.cc.edu| | | Visual | ________________________________________|414.524.6811| 2600 |Technology | |____________|____________|___________| "Things like polyester, pants and shoes, don't make it easy to remember."
adnan@screech.rice.edu (Sarmad Adnan) (01/09/91)
If it does, then it has passed the self test. Now you need a null modem
cable. to connect. and make sure you setup the correct baud rate on the
hero keypad.
After that you need to punch "RESET" "RS232" "BASIC" if all is well
the terminal will give you an indication of HERO-2000 basic being
ready.
If you have specific questions send me Email.
-adnan
.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sarmad Adnan (adnan@rice.edu)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~roybalm@tramp.colorado.edu (ROYBAL MICHAEL) (01/22/91)
Okay, I read about many people who had Hero 2000's and said they did not know if they were still begin sold or what. Anyhow, it appeared that no one kne w where they could be found, or parts for that matter. I was reading a magazine and I found the following: Radio-Electronics: January 1991(page 19 of the RE shopper in the middle) HERO 2000 ROBOT ARM & BASE - $399.95 HERO 2000 ROBOT ARM KIT - $179.95 HERO 2000 "B" KIT - $ 49.95(this is the misc parts) The company is called Mendelson Electronics Inc. and can be reached at 1-800-422-3525 I recommend you purchase a copy of the magazine(or go to the library) and read the information that they give you(about what comes with the kits). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Roybal Internet: roybalm@tramp.colorado.edu
smith@wookie.dec.com (Willie Smith) (01/22/91)
In article <1991Jan22.011154.19417@csn.org>, roybalm@tramp.colorado.edu (ROYBAL MICHAEL) writes... > > Radio-Electronics: January 1991(page 19 of the RE shopper in the middle) > HERO 2000 ROBOT ARM & BASE - $399.95 > HERO 2000 ROBOT ARM KIT - $179.95 > HERO 2000 "B" KIT - $ 49.95(this is the misc parts) > > The company is called Mendelson Electronics Inc. and can be reached at > > 1-800-422-3525 I have the Heath robot arm and base I got from Heathkit shortly before they dropped them, and while I got a good price (at the time), it was almost twice as much as you can now get them surplus. While this isn't a "real, industrial quality" arm, it's quite well designed, and is a real bargain at $400. I'm planning on using mine on my Lunar Teleoperations vehicle, but if you wanted to play with a robot arm without getting a toy, this is the one. It's got 6 degrees of freedom, a microprocessor for each axis, and a Z-80 (running an interpreted BASIC) to oversee them all. We had it opening beer bottles, so it can't be all that bad! You can program it from a pendant or talk to it thru an RS-232 line. It's not quick, but it's got good repeatability (each axis is programmable down to 0.1 degrees), and a variable-force gripper. Willie Smith smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com smith%sndpit.enet.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com {Usenet!Backbone}!decwrl!sndpit.enet.dec.com!smith