[chbot] CHCH Robotics Group, meeting notes, 19 Dec 2016

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Good turnout, with 23 attendees and $20 collected and transferred to 
BR05 account. Quite a considerable balance is in the donation box.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton

=============

William brought in some photo’s of his Compaq ‘luggable’ PC, with 
network connectivity, using 10base2 (coax)

Corey brought in some home made ‘embedded Xmas trees’, along with a 
commercial version manufactured by FutureInTech, with some help from his 
father (Mark B), and Ivo. These have been distributed to some local 
schools as soldering and programming projects.

Robin Gilks brought in the 6kW ‘home made’ 48V inverter, with 230VAC 
output. This has been quite a project, involving new-found skills such 
as stripping (many) large current transformers, and building a huge, new 
toroidal core. A suitable winder was built using a modified bicycle 
wheel frame, and a lot on ingenuity.

Andy G brought in a small PSU module with 5-36V in and 1.25 to 32V out 
buck converter. Unit can generate constant voltage or constant current. 
Also included is a status LCD, controlled by and STM8 processor. USB 
type A socket is provided to allow 5V charging, and a Perspex enclosure. 
Yours for NZ$14 landed. Quite amazing.

Jeffery Irons brought in the latest hardware for his 
low-cost-model-vehicle. The latest incarnation is a PI-bot, with six 
wheels, and a mass of computational power…

Volker demonstrated his LED clock, along with 
ambient-light-controlled-brightness, and network interface. He also 
brought in a standalone PC in a small black box. Model number is J1900, 
is 2GHz dual core hyperthreaded CPU, 4G RAM, 128G SSD, also has a quad 
NIC, so is suitable as a firewall. His has also installed a SATA hard 
drive, for use as a cache.