NashuaRobotBuilders | NRB / March2015Meeting

This month's group meeting contained a number of great discussions including:

Attendee introductions
Basics of laser cutting by Chris Nichols of Creation Station
Presentation of available robot kits and resources
Demonstration of the group's new Wiki page.
Brief discussion on robot competitions and challenges.
Member show and tell

[Matt A.] [3/15/2015 21:11] Hi Skye. It was good to meet you at the March meeting. Would you have a recommendation for free CAD software capable of producing a .step file? I believe .step are typical files required for CNC instructions?

[Skye] [4/19/2015] Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Aster having tried a number of CADD programs I have picked TurboCad Deluxe. If you are careful in changing the default facet size when creating curved surfaces, the .step files it generates are adequate for printing.

[Matt A.] [3/15/2015 21:28] Hi all. I've been looking at the Arcbotics Sparki kit. It was mentioned that the kit was often purchased with an Arduido controller. From the Sparki specs, I don't notice any microcontroller mentioned. It essentially seems recommended to purchase with an Arduido controller. Do all the included sensors connect to the Arduido? It seems funny that they wouldn't already be connected to something. Would a Raspberry Pi be an acceptable alternative to an Arduido? Thanks!

[Jay F.] [3/16/2015 06:58] Hi Matt - It would be great to carry on pure discussions via the email group (you might get more timely responses - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nashuarobotbuilders). The Sparki has an Arduino compatible processor on board, and they have a Sparki version of the Arduino IDE to support it. You don't need another processor, at least not right away.