Author Archives: Aaron Ramsey

IR solder reflow trials and tribulations

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Aaron Ramsey

As you may have seen in some of my older posts, I occasionally pull out my Puhui T-962A IR reflow oven for assembling PCBs. We had some small boards at work to put together so rather than farm it out … Continue reading →

Posted in PCB | 2 Comments

New Picaxe40x2 Boards assembled

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

Spent a bit of time last weekend putting together my new Picaxe40X2 PCBs. I ran into major problems with the PCBs…. the solder simply wouldn’t stick to the pads. I fired off an email to iTeadstudio to see if maybe … Continue reading →

Posted in PCB, PICAXE, Robot | 2 Comments

Knockoff Wii remote for robotics?

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

Well, I kept seeing super cheap Wii remotes on Ebay. Obviously these things aren’t the real deal, but perhaps they work well enough for some robot projects? I couldn’t resist so I picked up 2 of them for just under … Continue reading →

Posted in Firefighting, Wii | Leave a comment

New PicAxe PCBs arrived

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

Received some new PCBs today from iTeadStudio. I did these boards using their new colour pcb and 100% test service. This is the first time I’ve done blue boards with iTeadStudio. They look fantastic. I’m a convert I think… no … Continue reading →

Posted in PCB, PICAXE, Robot | 2 Comments

Who says LiPo batteries are dangerous?

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

Had a bit of fun with some LiPo batteries today. I had an opportunity to purposely burn up some LiPo cells today to see if a simply aluminum enclosure can contain the heat generated when they let loose. I had … Continue reading →

Posted in LiPo | 5 Comments

Cancellation of CNRG hits the news

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

Wow, this was a bit unexpected. I was pinged by Ashley Burke from the CBC about a piece on the cancellation of the Canadian National Robot Games (CNRG) on Thursday last week. Early Friday I did a quick interview with … Continue reading →

Posted in CNRG, MiniSumo, Robot, Robot Games | 2 Comments

Starting to put stuff together for CNRG

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

Starting to put my new minisumo and firefighter designs together. I put together a small flame sensor using IR phototransistors. I’ll need to either print or CNC a lid for it. The idea is that the 11 sensors give a … Continue reading →

Posted in CNRG, Firefighting, MiniSumo, PCB, Robot, Robot Games | 5 Comments

Finally back working on the Reprap

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

After sitting on the backburner for most of the summer, it was time to get back to my Prusa Mendel Reprap build. It stalled when I went to mount my Arcol hotend to the chassis…. I needed to build a … Continue reading →

Posted in RepRap | Leave a comment

Lazy summer and a sumo sneak peak

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

I’m out visiting relatives in Saskatchewan so progress on robots and posts on this blog have suffered a bit. I’m starting to think about the CNRG robot games in November which are coming like a freight train. Any robots that … Continue reading →

Posted in CNC, MiniSumo, Robot Games | 1 Comment

Videos from the CNRG/Ottawa Robot Games 2011

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Aaron Ramsey

I finally finished uploading all the CNRG/ORE Robot Games videos to Youtube! Time Lapse of the entire event: MiniSumo Line Racing Part 1 Line Racing Part 1 Line Following Levels 1 and 2 Line Following Level 3 Line Following Level … Continue reading →

Posted in Line Following, LineORE, Maze Solving, MiniSumo, Robot, Robot Games, SumoORE | Leave a comment