[chbot] Robotics Group meeting, Monday 19 Aug 2019, 630pm, 5 Idris Road

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Quite a few new faces this evening; welcome.

Good turnout with 27 attendees, and lots of huddles-of tech-talk. $40 + 
change (in gold, and flat-money) collected and transferred into the 
robotics loose-change jar (for later banking).

Quick reminder: equipment donations are welcome for the trading table, 
but no CRT based product, printers, toner or items that are likely to be 
a disposal burden. All sales from the trading table should go into the 
brown box on the wall, and are directly for the benefit of our host 
club, NZART Branch 05.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton

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Jimmy brought in a huge pile of heat-shrink sleeve, with free feeding 
for the group. Thank you.

Mark brought in the HOPI-9800 energy meter (made famous by BigClive). A 
reasonably inexpensive in-line meter allowing measurements of mains 
voltage, supplied current, calculated yearly energy, and power factor.

Darren gave an interesting electric-scooter demo.

Andrew brought in a micro stepper motor and gauge, which he had 3D printed.

Andy brought in an LPG powered thermo-electric generator. Peter gave an 
interesting talk on this strange device, and how the resulting DC energy 
might be used.

Graham brought in a Repco 1200A battery booster (around $240), and 
described it’s construction using super-capacitors.

William brought in his latest Sharp-Memory-LCD watch, based on an Atmel 
AT-mega-328P.

Bevin brought in another of his mechanical calculator projects. He also 
described the (real) metallic-kiwi problem at Willowbank; hopefully some 
willing robotics members will help with this project.

Cory brought in a small Cubee dancing robot to demonstrate. Just loved 
the leg-kick while dancing to some Michael Jackson !

Steven talked about adventures with a spectrometer at the University. He 
also described an interesting situation with a Lime having just changing 
vehicles.