Because voting for club officers was to occur at this meeting, attendees were asked to sign in as current members (those 32 people present at last month’s meeting at which the current club by-laws were adopted), new members (those who have attended PARTS meetings in the past, but who weren’t at the October meeting), or guests (first-time attendees or those not ready or eligible to join.) There were 20 current members and 9 new members present (all eligible to vote) and 24 visitors (most from ITT, and not eligible to vote.)

There were no new nominations from the floor. Pete Skeggs (running for President), Warren Leach (running for Vice President) and Doug Arnold (running for Secretary) each spoke briefly about their associations with the club and their plans if elected. Dana Weesner (running for Treasurer) was not present. Ballots were distributed to all members eligible to vote; completed ballots were delivered in a metal ammo box decorated with pastel stickers to a group of volunteers who counted the votes. All four candidates were unanimously elected to their respective offices. With elections completed, the show and tell session of the meeting began.

• Daryl showed his evaluation platform for his Japan-class robot. He plans to build a 4-wheel drive robot using drill motors with double-reduction planetary gear drives and a vacuum system for improved traction. He briefly demonstrated his Japan-class robot in a mini-sumo ring against his mini-sumo robot, Goliath.
• John showed his Mark II mini-sumo robot with RTV gasket material on the wheels for improved traction. He is also tinkering with using drill motors for propulsion.
• Tim said that he has been experimenting with telemetry modules from Digi-Key for one-way transmission of vision data.
• Pete showed his micro-sumo robot with a PIC controller. He also showed his mini-sumo robot that has been changed from OOPIC control to his new micro controller. This new controller will support both sonar and infrared sensors. He also showed a toy RC Mission robot with 2 geared motors that appears to be easily hacked. He showed a discontinued 200 mHz color touch-screen computer available from Tiger Direct that could be turned into a nice robotic control system. He also reminded everyone of the First Lego League competition at Wilsonville high school on December 1st, and asked anyone who could volunteer to see him following the meeting.
• Steve announced that he has a 10x24” Logan metal lathe for sale. At 800 pounds, it’s not suitable for apartment-dwellers, but the lathe, a 3-jaw scroll chuck, a 4-jaw independent chuck, faceplates and some tooling can be had for $2000 (only $2.25 a pound!) Delivery to your garage in the Portland area is included. Steve’s email is vulcan@dsl-only.net.
• Larry showed his progress on robotic soccer. He built a linear CDS sensor that he placed on the film plane of Polaroid camera after he removed the sonar unit. With good lighting, the sensors could detect a red Whiffle ball on green carpet at a distance of two feet. He has been using 339 comparators, but is changing to an 877 chip.
• Justin has been working on a telemetry system for his electric car controller. The Parallax BS2-P40 chip powers his controller.
• Perry is working on a research project at Oregon Graduate Institute to provide video control for a mobile robotics platform. The control will use serial communication, and he’s working on ways to adaptively adjust the video resolution when data transmission bottlenecks are present.
• Tim announced that he is selling surface-mount LEDs. Tim’s email is tjlcw@home.net.
• Eric said that he is still working on his walking robot. He showed a servo modification that places the control horns closer together allowing wider wheels to be used for mini-sumos. He also alerted the group to miniature stepper motors that he bought from All Electronics, and said that he is hacking the controller from his Bio Bug.
• Mark said that he had a limited number of CD’s with QuickTime movies of the May robotics competition at OMSI. In a post-meeting conversation, Warren indicated that he would provide a link to these movies on the OMSI web site from the PARTS web page.
• Stu said that he has been experimenting with pneumatic and hydraulic controls, and has found some $97 cartridge-style relief valves capable of controlling 0-300 psi. He also showed a sample Quick Circuit engraved circuit board, and said that the engraving bit needs a spindle speed greater than 10,000 rpm due to its small diameter. He also said that he will be selling an X-Y table, and will post details on the PARTS discussion group.
• Tim announced that the mini-sumo Mk III group would meet immediately after the PARTS meeting.
• Rick had another batch of free bootloader boards and DB9 breakout boards to distribute.
• Karl said that he will be taking his robot colony to the science expo in March, and has been working on a photo bot based on the X10 camera.
• Robert indicated that he monitors the PARTS discussion group and drove here from Yakima to attend our meeting.
• Cory showed a light-seeking robot platform based on a model railroad flat car, and driven by an “outrigger” dc gearmotor. His robot currently has 3 CDS sensors, and he plans to add PIR and temperature sensors in the future. He is looking for a commutator system to replace his homemade (brass strips) unit.
• Allen indicated that he is interested in photovoltaic robots.
• One of the Southern Oregon Robotics Club members (sorry, I didn’t catch your name) showed his line-following robot based on the Parallax BS2 and the Board of Education.
• Dan showed his tracked bot. He has added a “head”, and is using a Handy Board add-on to provide speech and run servos. Dan had programmed the right arm to “salute” and grab. Dan also discussed casting materials available from Smooth-On in a $20 evaluation kit. He also showed a spring force gauge designed and built by a SORC member to measure robot pushing capabilities and traction. He intends to put construction details for the gauge on the http://www.1sorc.org/ web page.
• Bob said that his son is interested in Lego League robotics, and they’re searching out robotics clubs.
• Jana showed her modified VW bug peddle car in which she has added an electric motor and helicopter servo controls for steering. She intends for the car to operate autonomously.
• Mark showed Maxwell, explained that he has been improving Maxwell’s mobility, and described various aspects of its operation. He mentioned that free speech software is downloadable from MicroSoft.
• In his first official appointment, Pete appointed Tim Rohaly to head the mini-sumo Mk III committee.

The date of the next PARTS meeting will be December 8th instead of December 1st to avoid a conflict with the ORTOP First Lego League competition in Wilsonville.