Dennis L Hitzeman's world of science and technology
 
 

April

Posted at April 29, 2011 by

Here is a list of robotics resources that I use regularly when building robots or reading about robotics. This list is hardly exclusive, but it gives a flavor of the kinds of resources I use.

  • Hack-a-Day: A weblog dedicated to a daily dose of things built, hacked, and made.
  • Jameco Electronics: A great source for all things electronic.
  • Make Magazine: In my opinion, the ultimate resource for all things buildable, hackable, and makable. The Make blog is amazing and a must read for anyone interested in that sort of thing.
  • The Maker Shed: The companion store to Make Magazine, featuring basic electronics skill-building kits, Ardiuno microcontrollers, and Jameco electronics.
  • Midwest Surplus Electronics: An old school surplus electronics store located in Fairborn, Ohio. They have a good selection of stuff at reasonable prices, and I have used them several times in a pinch when I could not wait for mail order delivery. Once upon a time, I built test equipment for a suite of military communications gear I helped prototype and build with parts from this place.
  • Parallax: Creators of the Basic Stamp, Basic Stamp 2, and Propeller microcontrollers and the Boe-bot.
  • Pololu: One of my favorite robotics companies. I especially like their motor and servo controllers.
  • Radio Shack: At the risk of starting a flame war, the fact is Radio Shack is still the go to place for last minute electronics items. Plus, they’ve recently started to re-embrace the do-it-yourself community, so I have to give them at least a little credit. In the interest of full disclosure, I worked as a manager at Radio Shack way back when it was still owned by the Tandy family. They’ve fallen a long way since then, but I think they still have a chance.
  • Robot Magazine: Robot Magazine is probably the best, most widely distributed hobby robotics magazine out there, and it has done a lot to help bring the hobby robotics idea to lots of people’s minds.
  • Vex Robotics: I started with Vex back when they still sold it at Radio Shack, mostly because I did not have the capacity to manufacture parts myself at the time. I stick with Vex because it continues to offer a wide selection of standardized components that I find useful for prototyping.
  • Wired Magazine: While not technically a robot magazine, Wired’s excellent reporting on technology, building, hacking, and making provide a constant source of inspiration to people pursuing those things.
 
 

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