Our‘buggies’ work has come to a halt at the moment, as the old ‘electronics club’ didn’t run over the winter due to time not being available.  This work was inspired by the Toyota Technology Challenge (click logo above for details)  This involves building a self-propelled vehicle that can negotiate it’s way through an obstacle course by using a programmable controller.

For a youtube video of last year’s winning vehicle

click the graphic.

We use programmeable microcomputers - PICs - as our main component in our electronics projects. Click on the link on the left for a good overview of what these components are and what they can do.

Click  HERE  to go to the ‘basic electronics’ tutorial section - which is only partly complete at present.

Raspberry Pi out now!

Shortly we should be receiving some of the new ‘computer on a credit card’ systems. These are the latest advances in computing, providing everything you need for a decent PC - except keyboard, mouse and monitor - on a credit card sized miniature circuit board.

Watch this space or try this link to New Hamshire Public Radio to see what the fuss is all about,

The idea is to get students coding their own systems, and creating their own applications.

As these devices are not compatible with the ‘Windows’ operating system, the students will need to learn how to work with a Linux variant. For a basic introduction go here.

From September 2012, the old ‘electronics club’ will be re-formed as a General Engineering and Electronics Klub - GEEKs  

Members will help each other on projects of their own choosing in the field of PIC controlled robots, programming and networking. We have about 10 oldish PC s that we can make our own network with. This will include doing all of the cabling and stuff.  Click  HERE  for a preview of the club.