Starter Sets: Electronic Bricks, Online Manual available

[TerryKing]

Shipping:

I'm still learning about different countries.

Have you had things sent to Russia (from ebay seller, perhaps) by "Hong Kong Airmail Registered" ?? What was your experience??

Anyone else??

[odjiri]

Yes Terry, I've received some goods from China (Guanzhou-Moscow) via DHL  and also with EMS (is a Russian postal service), from a small Chinese factory. It was no problem. Ems is much cheaper. Also I regularly send documents to S.Korea via EMS - normally successfully, too.
The time of delivery can be longer rather than DHL (for ex., 7 days instead of 1 day with DHL), but the price is really an issue.
with EMS you can check status of your delivery on their web site, so for me it's quite ok.  

[TerryKing]

OK, I'll do some checking on shipping...

Please tell me a street, city and country and postal code (does not have to be exact) so I can research...

Regards, Terry King

terry@yourduino.com

[odjiri]

Hello, Terry! Sorry for being out for such a long time.

Here is the information about mail and posting in Russia with EMS : http://www.ems.com.cn/

And also I found one very useful link http://taobaofocus.com/order/shipping-fees-from-china

It seems that using AIR MAIL  (China post) is the chipest one, DHL is most expensive one.

[odjiri]

Terry, would you please tell me, if you know.

I am very interested in PicoCricket sets ( http://www.picocricket.com/whatisit.html ) and PicoBoard of these sets ( http://www.picocricket.com/picoboard.html , http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10311 )
, but the PicoCricket sets are expensive. Is it possible to create sensors analogous to PicoCricket sensors with Picoboard or analogous devices? Sorry if my question looks silly, I am new to electronics.

[oscarcar]

I like your kits. Very nice.

Within a year I'd like to get familiar enough with the electronics that I could start an Arduino robotics/anything
club for kids. Your kits seem like a good thing to offer the kids who want to take one home to work on.

[TerryKing]

Hi Oscar,

By that time we will definitely have even more Educational material and Courseware that you can use.

For now, take a look at a few things:

What Can I DO with an Arduino: http://yourduino.com/whatcanido.htm

A Quick Start with Arduino:  http://yourduino.com/get-an-arduino.htm

How to Get Started With your Arduino:  http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/GettingStarted-Software

I am working with a couple of teachers now on Course materials for young people...

Any suggestions or pointers appreciated!

[fkeel]

Let's try to figure out what would be a "really low-cost robotics starter set" with 2 motors, Arduino compatible controller, and a few sensors.

Does it have to be arduino? Cheapest robot I can think of would be using two small motors and two photoresistors and either make it run towards or away from light. You can probably get the cost of that down to around 2$ :-) (hm - you might want to throw in some potentiometes to adjust sensitivity, and some transistors for voltage regulation... shouldnt be such a hard task :-) ..)

[liuzengqiang]

Let's try to figure out what would be a "really low-cost robotics starter set" with 2 motors, Arduino compatible controller, and a few sensors.

Does it have to be arduino? Cheapest robot I can think of would be using two small motors and two photoresistors and either make it run towards or away from light. You can probably get the cost of that down to around 2$ :-) (hm - you might want to throw in some potentiometes to adjust sensitivity, and some transistors for voltage regulation... shouldnt be such a hard task :-) ..)

Certainly without arduino a kit can be cheap. But once that purpose is done, there won't be room for much improvement, like a robot that goes towards light, and after getting bored, starts to stalk the cat. That needs a little brain of a microcontroller. If I built a robot, I would want it to ultimately stalk a pet, cat being my top choice, they are so curious 

[fkeel]

now that might be a fun robot...

it reminds me of: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/polar-bears-destroy-robot-spy-cams-show-no-remorse-video/

wonder how long it would take the cat to do the same. but yeah, a cat sensing robot might be an awesome toy to build.

*

still, simplest robot I can think of has two sensors, or one sensor mounted on a servo, and a differential drive using two continuous servos. Add an arduino for upwards compatibility to later stalk cat or mailman.

[liuzengqiang]

Add an arduino for upwards compatibility to later stalk cat or mailman.

I have thought about making a mailbox robot to sing and offer the mail man a gift card around X-mas. I just didn't get a house yet

[fkeel]

for the record:

I ordered some equipment from Terry's store. It arrived within 10 days (dont remember exactly, slightly more than a week I think.). Everything in the package was exactly as described.

I am satisfied and will order again.

p.

[joseph_m]

I was in China in 1992 I doubt that things have changed on how to do business but you need quanchi ( pinyin might not be correct but it means importance as in mayo quanchi- it's not important).  You get that by taking the guy that silkscreens the boards out to eat giving him presents and things like that.  When I was there if you wanted to ship by train you had to grease the palms of the people that work on the train.  It's like a village on the train.  But if you pass out enough stuff and do something nice for them they repay in kind.  My friend in BeiJing was so happy it only took him a year to get a telephone installed in his house.  Every week he would show up at the phone company with gifts for people. You don't want to bribe them with money, that's tacky.  But a nice meal out or some gift for them or their kids helps a lot.  Things have been working like that for thousands of years.  Just flow with it.

The thing I would really like to see is an easy way to connect lego nxt sensors and motors to the arduino.  Here is a link to Mindstorms software and hardware development info.
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/support/files/default.aspx

I am going to be teaching a class to young boys so I suspect that we will be buying a number of your kits.