I really wish I’d taken the time to challenge Insight UK and /or Logitech over the sale of goods act, but the fact that the replacement part was only £8.90 from Farnell won me over. After it arrived, a Google for PCB repairs in Sussex found R and G Technology in Worthing. A quick email and a phone call later, and I went round the same day to have the part replaced. I gave the board and the replacement IC to David, and waited for 10 minutes while he removed the blown IC and put the new one in, all for £25. I’d definitely recommend them if you’re in a similar situation.

After taking it home and connecting the control pod it works perfectly. That cost me £35 compared to buying a new surround sound system. Yey for taking things apart!

This is not an entirely happy story though, as literally as soon as my 5.1 system started working again, my big TV died. But that’s another rant..

It’s been many years since I’ve done any soldering, and to be fair I was never that good at it, so it was good to have an expert on hand to show how it’s done.

Mitch had a few kits with him for sale, I bought a Mignonette game kit to help me practice my soldering, and a Brain Machine kit that I’ll put together soon. I had a go on one of the pre-built Brain Machines, and they are very strange..

More photos on Flickr.

Via Trossen Robotics blog and @robotbrighton

Found on the Wired blog. Brighton so needs one of these!

The Wii Nunchuck is connected to my Arduino using I2C.

For now, the webcam is just a standard webcam with the housing removed, and connected via USB.

It uses  hacked up code from here and here.

(If you want to make something like this, Making Things Talk is an outstanding book.)

Here’s a sample video:

[update]: Hello Hack a Day people!

[update]: As Dokument says, here’s an almost identical setup created long before I did this.

[update]: If you don’t want to cut the end off your Wii Nunchuck, you can buy one of these.

Check out the video on the post, there’s some pretty amazing stuff there, even if several of the robots are several years old.

I’m also currently obsessing over Hexapods.  Six-legged insectile robots, take a look:

I quite like the idea of this RC Helicopter / Hexapod hybrid:

You can buy kits from Lynxmotion but they’re not cheap. I already have some of the parts needed, so perhaps I’ll buy bits over time..

I’ve not come close to exceeding the capacity of my Arduino Diecimila, so perhaps I’ll wait a while until getting this, but.. I want! 

Cool Components are selling them for £49 + VAT

Creating the Shopper 13 game sparked my enthusiasm, and I’ve been gathering new parts to experiment with:

In addition to that, I’ve also got a Wii Nunchuck hooked up to my Arduino which I’m currently controlling Flash and Servos via the accelerometer and analog joystick. Oh, and a Laser.. and some Papervision too. When I’ve got something interesting, I’ll post it. Hopefully that’ll be in the next few days

Well I have to start building my robot army somewhere..

Here’s a photo I took a while back:

It was a brilliant project to work on, and one of the most fun things I’ve done for a while. Everyone involved was fantastic, and the exhibition itself looks superb. The game is now installed on a row of consoles and is open to the public. The controls are made from arcade-quality components, and uses a Mini-Pac to talk to the PC via USB.

Here’s a very brief clip of it on BBC News 24 (00:30):

If you’re in the area, do go and check out the exhibition, it’s great!

Love the dead HDDs being put to good use. And the spectrum. and … etc.

[Via chewingpixels.com]