[sudo-discuss] robot works!

[Jake]

the robot finally works.  Jenny got us a three-phase power converter and 
that's all it took!  people have been steering it around using the 
training pendant all night.  It makes a squealing noise while it's on.

http:spaz.org/~jake/robot/pix
http:spaz.org/~jake/robot/video/VID_20140905_214843.mp4

it has a serial port.  we are going to need to RTFM a bit to learn how to 
actually control it, for example from a program on a real computer.

it can move much faster than we are able to steer it with the control 
pendant.  But for now it moves pretty slow, even on "fast" mode.

here are all the PDFs i have found so far.  I believe there is enough 
information in here to be able to communicate with the thing over the 
serial port.  If you want any help actually connecting serial to it, 
please let me know.

I would like to plug it into a serial port on the 3d printing computer, 
and then people will be able to talk to the robot from their laptop using 
socat or whatever program they run on that computer.  Let me know if 
you're interested in doing that.  But first read the manuals, and put 
whatever you find on the wiki page so the rest of us know where to start.

http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/

-jake