Nuts and Volts - August 2008

PERSONAL ROBOTICS

■ PHOTO 10. Bob Comers robot made from PVC pipe and recycled “kiddie car”

motors and wheels.

■ PHOTO 11. Sami Graner interacts with a “Biomechanical” by “Professor

Conrad” (a.k.a., Marvin Niebuhr).

■ PHOTO 12. The Ping Pong Printer with its new ball-feed hopper by Rick Abbot.

version of “show and tell.” You would think this free-form method of (non? dis?) organization would lead to chaos, but every Dorkbot I’ve attended has run surprisingly smooth.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, but there isn’t a Dorkbot scheduled in your city, you can start your own Dorkbot. All you need to do is send an email to Douglas Repetto (his email address is on the main Dorkbot.org website). He’ll set you up with a mailing list and a link on the main site, and you’re off! If there is a Dorkbot near you, you should make a point of at least attending if not signing up to present something. What better way to meet folks than to stand up before a small crowd of other tech geeks just like yourself and talk about your project?

I’d like to close this month by thanking everyone who has sent in an entry for the Workbench Design Challenge (see the Resources section for a link to the contest details on the Nuts & Volts web forum). I look forward to handing out the prizes! And, if you happen to find yourself at

■ PHOTO 13. Edwin Wise and his homebrew Tesla coil.

■ PHOTO 14. Gray Mack with his balloon-based light sequencing system.

Dorkbot Austin, look around for me there.

Otherwise, you can always reach me via email at vern@txis.com if you have any questions or comments. NV

I’d like to say a special thank you and goodbye to one of the founders of Dorkbot Austin, David Nunez. A good friend and long time collaborator with The Robot Group, we wish him Favorable Chance and Deity Velocity in his endeavors out east!