We’re big fans of the Bioloid system.  We love the smart actuators and integrated sensor modules, but like many Bioloid users, we’ve lamented the lack of additional sensor inputs.  Luckily for us, Bioloid guru Jon Hylands felt the pain of the Bioloid community and created some devices to fill the void.  Thanks to Robotis’ published Dynamixel architecture, anyone who’s savvy with microcontrollers can create peripherals that will blend seamlessly with the stock Bioloid components.  Jon is as savvy as anyone, and we’re happy to be using and selling the hardware he’s created.  Anyway, here’s some cool stuff for all you Bioloid fans out there, or anyone interested in using Dynamixels in their own custom project.

USB Bus Board
	The USB Bus Board gives you virtual COM port access to the Dynamixel serial bus.  It has six connectors, but of course it supports a network of up to 254 Dynamixels.  It uses the FTDI transceiver chip, so if you’ve used other USB virtual COM port devices, there’s a good chance you already have the driver installed.  A great plug-and-play alternative to the USB2Dynamixel adapter.

Bioloid I/O Board
	This general-purpose I/O board gives your Bioloid robot the ability to connect to almost any analog (0-5 volt) sensor. It includes 6 analog inputs (10 bit resolution on each). It also includes four general digital I/O pins, and can control one or two DC motor controllers using either locked anti-phase or sign magnitude PWM.  Pretty cool.

Bioloid IMU
	In one package, you get 3 axes of acceleration measurement and 3 axes of gyroscopic measurement. It comes fully assembled, and ready to install into a stock Bioloid humanoid chest compartment.

FSR Foot Sensor Board
	Look closely at the soles of your Bioloid’s feet.  Those little round indentations were clearly designed to accept 0.2" FSR’s.  This interface board can read 4 FSR’s, enough for one foot.  The board fits neatly into the foot, and plugs into the Dynamixel network.  The kit includes the board, 4 FSR’s, and leads for the sensors.

If you have any questions, or you need advice about using these boards, go ahead and post about it in the TRC Forums.

We have some exciting news for all of you fine people who have been calling us up over the years asking why there isn't an inexpensive plug-and-play solution for controlling stepper motors from a computer.  Phidgets has just released the PhidgetStepper Unipolar 4-Motor controller!  This little board, which is retailing for just $72.74, allows you to control up to 4 unipolar stepper motors from your USB port.  Building a CNC rig?  Building a wheeled robot that will need fast, precise speed and position control?  Buy this controller.

From the official press release:

Hitec Laser 6 FM 75MHz Radio System We now sell Hitec’s Laser 6 RC Tx/Rx set.  This is the first standard R/C control set to be added to our catalog, and it’s about time.  We know that not everybody needs or wants to build autonomous robots, and we’re cool with that.  The kit includes the 6-channel Laser 6 transmitter, HFD-08RD 8-channel receiver, and two HS-322 servos.  This set offers a great solution for no hassle, plug-and-play control of servos and DC motor controllers. The Robonova 1 humanoid can easily be adapted to work with this controller, too.  RC inputs on the Robonova are interpreted as analog values, which can be used to trigger and alter motion sequences in a wide variety of ways.  Fun stuff!

	SoftPot Linear Membrane Potentiometer - 100mm These touch-sensitive linear potentiometers are really cool.  The resistance varies linearly depending on where pressure is applied to the sensor.  The pinout is just like any other 3-pin potentiometer, and the pins have a breadboard-friendly pitch of 0.1", so integrating it into your project is a snap.

	Resistive Flex Sensor 4.5" These resistive flex sensors are made of one resistive element, which varies from 9 kOhm when straight to 22 kOhm when flexed 180 degrees.  You can use them for monitoring joint angles, as electronic "whiskers," or any other application that calls for a simple, inexpensive flex feedback.

PIR Motion Sensor For a while now, we’ve been looking for a cheap, simple motion sensor to satisfy the needs of our home automation customers.  Well, it looks like we’ve found it.  This little sensor is about 1" wide, only consumes a few milliamps, and presents a simple digital output.  The sensor outputs 5V when there is no motion, then when it senses something, the output drops to zero.

Arduino Serial USB Adapter Board This breadboard-friendly adapter converts USB to TTL-level serial, appearing as a virtual COM port on your computer.  It was designed for programming and communicating with the Arduino Stamp, but it also works as a generic serial interface.

Sparkfun Jumper Wires F/F (Set of 10) Do you need to connect some pins to some other pins?  Well, then you need some female-to-female jumpers.  They’re good for wiring up sensors whose pinouts don’t match the connections on your microcontroller or interface board.

Now, go buy some stuff, build something cool, then tell us all about it in the forums!

You may have noticed that the bulk of the products in this update are SparkFun products.  They’re really cool people to work with, they produce and procure a ton of cool and useful stuff, and we keep adding more of it to our catalog, in our quest to bring you the finest products all under one roof.  To see all of the SparkFun products that we sell, follow this link to our SparkFun category.

UPDATE: You can also, any time you want, see the 27 most recent products to be added to our catalog.  Bookmark it.  You know you want to.

We've been adding new products to the catalog like crazy lately, so we figured now would be a good time to make sure you knew about some of them.  To start you off, here’s a cool way to add GPS to computer-controlled robot:

Lassen iQ GPS Receiver This is a USB-interfaced GPS receiver.  The kit includes a Trimble Lassen IQ Receiver, an interface board created by SparkFun, and everything else you need to tap into the GPS network.

And here are some Bluetooth modules so you can get rid of all those wires and tethers you keep tripping over:

Parallax EmbeddedBlue Transceiver AppMod This Bluetooth module from Parallax was designed for easy integration into any Basic Stamp 2 project.  It works great with the Board of Educationn, BOE Bot, or SumoBot mini sumo robot.  We also offer the Microsoft Robotics Studio-compatible BOE Bot kit, which includes the EmbeddedBlue module.

BlueSMiRF Silver The BlueSMiRF is a very simple to use Bluetooth modem.  It acts as a serial bridge, and it’s practically a drop-in replacement for any wired connection.  Works great with any microcontroller system, including Arduino and Basic Stamp.

RooTooth This little jobber is a Bluetooth Wireless adapter for the iRobot Roomba robotic vacuum.  Use it to control your Roomba from your computer, cell phone, PDA, or whatever Bluetooth device you happen to be using.  Chase your pets, stage Roomba sumo matches, set up synchronized Roomba dance routines… Or you could just vacuum the floor.  Whatever floats your boat, man.

Bluetooth USB Module A simple, cheapo USB Bluetooth adapter.  There isn’t much more that needs to be said.  Use it to connect your computer to all of your other Bluetooth gizmos.

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned for another big update next week!

Phidgets has just introduced the PhidgetInterfaceKit 0/0/8 I/O board, which gives you USB control over 8 Double-Pole Double-Throw (DPDT) relays.  The relays can’t handle quite as much juice as those on the 0/0/4, but you get a whole bunch of them!  The relays are DPDT, so you can control 2 separate circuits with each relay.  And now, just for fun, here’s a DPDT diagram:

You get eight of these.

Just like the rest of the Phidgets line, this device can easily be used with any of the mainstream programming languages, thanks to some very friendly API’s.  Still not excited?  Read this excerpt from the press release:

Now go buy a Phidget 0/0/8, and start switching!

OR, you can check out the entire Phidgets Phamily.

We’ve just added a bunch of Spark Fun products to our catalog!  We are now proud resellers of the massively popular Arduino, and a bunch of other cool stuff!

NEW STUFF:

Arduino Diecimila USB IO Board

Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP). The open-source IDE can be downloaded for free (currently for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux).

Price: $34.95

Arduino ProtoShield Kit

Riding on the waves of the very popular Arduino USB board is this small prototyping shield. The Protoshield mates with the Arduino USB board and gives the user a small soldering area, two general LEDs, access to a BlueSMiRF socket, a general pushbutton switch, and most important of all - the Arduino reset switch is brought to the top level.

Price: $16.95

USB Weather Board

Are you an aspiring meteorologist?  This USB weather station can immediately tell what the current pressure, humidity, and temperature is. Graphed over time you can watch weather fronts move in and the rain come down.

Price: $124.95

Compass Module with Tilt Compensation - OS5000-S

The OS5000-S is an extremely small form factor (1×1â€? square) three axis, tilt compensated digital compass. The flexible design allows customers to use RS232 Serial connection for system integration. The OS5000-S provides precise heading, roll and pitch data ideal for rapid attitude measurement. The compass offers an easy to use ASCII interface which includes hard-iron calibration and simple data configuration for your application.

Price: $269.95

Accelerometer Breakout Board - ADXL210AE +/-10g

Breakout board for the Analog Devices accelerometers in the E8 package. The ADXL is a solid state MEMS accelerometer with digital PWM or Analog output. The ADXL can measure both static and dynamic acceleration. This means the ADXL is suited well for sensing tilt (used in many Glove / Air Mouse applications) and for sensing brute acceleration (rocketry and general motion sensing applications).

Price: $39.95

Triple Output LED RGB

Ever hear of a thing called RGB? Red, Green, Blue? How about an RGB LED? These 5mm units have four pins - Cathode is the longest pin. One for each color and a common cathode. Use this one LED for three status indicators or pulse width modulate all three and get mixed colors!

Price: $1.95

Serial Accelerometer Tri-Axis v5 - Dongle

The SerAccel v5 is a 3 axis accelerometer up to +/-6g with a simple serial interface.

Your Price: $74.95

Gyro Breakout Board - MLX90609 - 150 degree/sec

This is a simple breakout board for the Melexis gyroscope featuring both analog and digital (SPI) interfaces. Designed for dead reckoning navigation applications, the MLX90609-E2 is a 150 degree/s max rate gyro with low drift and programmable bandwidth, this gyro is perfect for digital stabilization and control.

Your Price: $59.95

Gyro Breakout Board - MLX90609 - 300 degree/sec

This is a simple breakout board for the Melexis gyroscope featuring both analog and digital (SPI) interfaces. Designed for dead reckoning navigation applications, the MLX90609-R2 is a 300 degree/s max rate gyro with low drift and programmable bandwidth, this gyro is perfect for digital stabilization and control.

Your Price: $59.95

EasyDriver v3 Stepper Motor Driver

EasyDriver v3 is a simple to use stepper motor driver, compatible with anything that can output a digital 0 to 5V pulse. The EasyDriver requires a 7V to 30V supply to power the motor, and has an on board voltage regulator for the digital interface. Connect a 4-wire stepper motor and a microcontroller and you’ve got precision motor control!

Price: $14.95

Triple Axis Accelerometer Breakout - MMA7260Q

Breakout board for the 3 axis MMA7260Q accelerometer from Freescale. With a low power shut-down mode, high sensitivity output with selectable ranges (+/- 1.5, 2, 4, and 6g), this sensor is one of the very first to market with three accelerometers sensors built onto a single IC!  Board comes fully assembled and tested with external filters installed.

Price: $39.95

Triple Axis Accelerometer Breakout - LIS3LV02DQ

Breakout board for the 3 axis LIS3LV02DQ accelerometer from ST Micro. With a digital interface (SPI or I2C), the user only has to initiate commands to get 1mg resolution! Independent channels can be shut off, the sensor can be powered down, even an interrupt threshold can be set and used to awaken the sensor from power down! Selectable ranges are available for +/-2g and 6g. This sensor is one of the first with triple axis and an easy to use digital interface. Board comes fully assembled and tested with external decoupling caps.

Price: $43.95

Stepper Motor

This is a simple, but very powerful stepper motor.

Features:

• Step Angle (degrees) :1.8
• 2 Phase
• Rated Voltage : 15.4V
• Rated Current : 0.28A
• Holding Torque : 2.4kg*cm
• Detent Torque : 120g*cm

Price: $14.95

There you have it, folks.  If you like what you see, click the links, read some manuals and spec sheets, and buy things.  As always: if you have questions, feel free to drop us an email, post in the forums, or if it’s an emergency and your leg is going to fall off if you don’t find out what the difference between an accelerometer and a gyro is RIGHT NOW, give us a call.

Here at Trossen Robotics, we like modularity.  It's been part of our philosophy from day 1.  So needless to say, when we first discovered IB Technology's series of modular RFID reader/writer boards, we knew we had to have them.  IB Technology is a British company, with limited distribution and relatively little promotion  in North America.  We'd like to change that, so we are proud to announce that we are now carrying this fine line of RFID products!

What's so special about IB Technology?

• Modularity:  Start with the "Universal Socket Board," which has built-in antennas for both 125 kHz and 13.56 MHz, and add whichever reader/writer module is necessary for the protocol(s) you'll be using.  You can also add external antennas if you need to increase range or reliability.
• Affordability: IB Technology's RFID products are affordable, fitting in to the same price range as the rest of the RFID readers we sell.
• Flexibility/Versatility: The ability to use one base board and swap out reader modules is great for prototyping, when you may have to evaluate a number of different formats to decide which is best for the system you're designing. 

After the fold: A rundown of the available hardware, and what it can do.

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This is exactly why we don’t run around at CES with cameras. Actual news bloggers like Veronica do a pretty good job of it already and also manage to look good doing it. While I, on the other hand, would look like a frigtard that somehow snuck in through the back docks. Thus we leave it to the professionals

More link love for Veronica: Veronica highlights robots at CES.

PS: Nice joke about the models slipped in at the opening

First off, happy new year from the Trossen Robotics crew!  We hope you had a fun and safe holiday season.  And now… on to today's article.

We last reported on the RoboPhilo when it was unveiled at the iHobby Expo.  We had a good time talking to the RoboBrothers team and messing around with their new bot, and we've really been looking forward to getting the RoboPhilo in our shop.  Well, the time has come!  We received our first RoboPhilo shipment last week, and we've been itching to show them off.  So, like a kid at Christmas, we tore open the boxes and examined all the fun bits inside.  The following is a rundown of the major parts that come with the kit and some important features that we think you should be aware of.

We have both the kit version and the ready-to-walk version, but we took more pictures of the kit because… well because everybody's already seen pictures of the assembled robot and we just like kits better.  This guy comes in some pretty swank packaging, complete with a window so you can see everything inside.  As usual, the pictures link to larger versions.

Front.

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The immensely popular Surveyor SRV-1 has just received some major upgrades!  The tracked base remains unchanged, but the electronics have gotten a complete overhaul.  Wi-Fi has replaced the slow and sometimes unreliable ZigBee wireless link, the camera can now grab video at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024, an Analog Devices Blackfin processor has replaced the comparatively puny ARM7 processor, and they've even added laser pointers for distance sensing.

Wi-Fi:

The SRV-1 now benefits from the extended range and faster data rates of Wi-Fi.  All you need is an 802.11 b/g wireless LAN card and you're ready to start spying on the neighbors.

Camera:

Speaking of spying on your neighbors, this 1.3 Megapixel camera is roughly on par with most cell phone cameras, with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024.  Unlike your cell phone camera, this one’s going to be riding on tank treads.

Main Processor:

Here it is, fully assembled.  The red board on top carries the 1000MIPS 500MHz Analog Devices Blackfin BF537 processor.  [Editor’s note: When I was 17, I built my first computer around the 500MHz Pentium, which was the top of the line at the time.  Now you can get all that power on a circuit board that’s smaller than a playing card.  Crazy, huh?]

Lasers:

Fact: lasers make anything cooler.  The new SRV-1 uses two parallel lasers as a low-cost range-finding system.  Try not to blind your friends/family members/pets.

Links:

Purchase the new and improved SRV-1

More information (Manufacturer’s site)