Our first birthday!  Seems just like yesterday, HaHa was just a twinkle in Dave’s eye.  Check out this video of us enjoying some inkjet-printed confection.

This video is in response to the one posted here, where a Mr. Riley Porter moves a 35 pound dumbbell with his CNC.  We decided to try to trump his CNC’s weight-moving ability by pushing our machine to lift and move first 45, then 55 and finally 65 pounds!  We wanted to continue with the weight increases, but did not have a safe way to attach more weight to the Z-axis assembly.  Our CNC build is turning out to be quite the beast.  Now all it needs is a catchy name…

The CNC machine’s construction has advanced to the point where we can begin to cut items.  Being a bunch of teenagers trapped in adult bodies, someone decided that we should cut a throwing star from sheet aluminum.  One copy of CamBam and 6 minutes later and the star was ready to be cut!  After a few adjustments and a bit snapped in half from being dragged through the metal too fast, the cutting was underway.  The star took about 10 minutes to cut and was an excellent first attempt at metal production.  The next step is to use the CNC to cut more precise parts for itself and help bring about the Robot Armageddon.   Special thanks to our newest sponsor, CamBam, for supplying us with a free copy of their most excellent software.  Note: The soundtrack to this video may change at any time as we are experimenting with YouTube’s AudioSwap feature.

Very quick video documenting our Robonova’s first steps, warts and all…  A bit rough since he has yet to be properly calibrated or balanced and his battery pack is still hanging off of his back.

HaHa member bsom acquired a Robonova-1 bi-ped robot kit for his day job and brought it to the space for us to assemble, configure and generally play with.  So far, the robot is about 85% done, requiring its wires to be properly tucked and its motors to be centered.  Then we can dig in and learn some hardcore RoboBasic.   Videos of the finished bot will be posted once he is up and running.

[View with PicLens]

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A while ago, HaHa member bsom introduced us to non-Newtonian fluids and the idea of using cornstarch and water in conjunction with a speaker/amp and function generator to produce what he called a “Cornstarch Monster.”  The video below is an excellent representation of what can be done with this simple yet captivating recipe.

Also, keep an eye on our new YouTube Channel, available here, for more videos, tutorials and technology dissections.