DPRG mailing list archives: DPRG: Re: DPRG info

Fri Feb 14 17:23:46 CST 1997

At 09:41 AM 2/14/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi!  I just found your site, and I'm interested in joining your group. 
>I'm a student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and I'm
>thinkng about moving down to the Dallas Area in August.  I don't know
>much about robots, but I've weaseled a Motorola EVBU out of one of my
>professors, and I'm not sure what to do now.  It looks like the 8051 is
>a favorite among your members, but I was wondering if you could suggest
>any books on Motorola projects?  Any pointers would be appreciated.
>Thanks,
>Joe

I've got this nasty reputation for promoting the 8051.  I suppose it's
true.  However, there are several in the group that are Motorola
diehards.  I've got a couple of the Motorola Databooks, but no books
>from 3rd partys about the Motorola.  There may be some others in the
group more in-the-know about Motorola stuff that could answer better.
You may want to start out with a pre-made board, such as some from
New Micro or from Marvin Green of the SRS group.  Building your own
is usually too daunting a task and will kill your project before it
even gets started.  Shell out the $40 or so for a board, it's worth it,
and it'll save you gobs (scientific unit of measurement term) of time.
Next just try to interface to some motors and sensors, write some software
(hopefully in some easy language) and you're well on your way to being
a robotics master.  (BTW, once you learn to program in Java, you won't need 
anymore _pointers_. <grin>)  There's probably a few source code web pages
out there and other info probably on the Motorolas that you should
probably try to locate if you've got the time (WWW = World Wide Wait).

You're more than welcome to sit in on the meetings.  Membership is
$20 a year if you want to join.  Hope your move to the Dallas area
is a pleasant one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Brown       jbrown at why.net  or  jbrown at spdmail.spd.dsccc.com 
                http://users.why.net/jbrown
                http://www.dprg.org (next meeting is March 22nd) Bring robots!
Rom 3:23,24     http://users.why.net/jbrown/pcb.htm