Haven’t watched the whole video yet - but the explosion of the first tractor was quite impressive.
Not to get too far down yet another rabbit hole - but I’m thoroughly enjoying this season of BattleBots. While you could argue that they’re not really robots since they’re entirely remote controlled (or almost entirely - Chomp has been working on introducing some AI). A large part of the appeal is how destructive they are.
/K
@thomascoyle11859,
Have you tried the Jetson Nano on a GoPiGo chassis, using the GoPiGo controller and libraries?
Theoretically, (i.e. “Theoretically”), it should be doable. And, “theoretically” bees and wasps can’t fly. . .
If you have been able to do that, what did you do and how did you accomplish it? I have a first-generation Jetson Nano and I’d like to try and duplicate that if possible.
Thanks!
Jim
Maybe it’s me, but watching a clever and sophisticated piece of equipment go to rack-and-ruin maximizes the “cringe meter” for me as I can’t stand seeing perfectly wonderful technology deliberately destroyed.
I can understand that.
/K
That was amazing - would never have guessed that it could just jump out that way.
/K
They do this in Europe too. . . .
Here are some absolute BEAST “tractors”, some with 12, even 18 cylinders and even some “jet” propelled tractors!
I guess that just proves there are rednecks in every culture 
And I say that affectionately - I grew up in a very redneck area of Arkansas.
/K
I just stumbled across the first episode of BattleBots Collegiate from 2010 (apparently full season never aired). Andrea Suarez (now the captain of Team Witch Doctor, my favorite bot) has a nice interview about getting started in robotics in high school. They had an interview with her HS principal (just after 25:00 in if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, although I think you should at least watch the fight just before). This nun explains why she had a combat robot team at her all girls high school - about how it wasn’t about destruction but about applying yourself, and the life lessons of coming back from a loss and making the robot (and yourself by analogy) more resilient. Worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8p77zh0Ajc
/K
THREE hearts - this is such a KILLER analogy!
In this particular context - that of an all-girls high school, (or any school for that matter), using the battle-bot paradigm as a life lesson on “bouncing back” is TOTALLY RIGHTEOUS!
I absolutely have to get @cleoqc in to see this. Maybe she can send this off to her friends that need some inspiration.
P.S.
I haven’t watched it yet - got taxes to do! Will watch later.
I’m not into battlebots much, but my high school (also a Catholic nun-based all-girls school) has placed first in robotics competition.
Go girls! 
Here’s something interesting I saw today.
It’s an automatic coffee kiosk that uses robotic actuators to make coffee. (Robo-Coffee)
As you can see, the actuators that handle the cups and such use Raspberry Pi-4 boards as their controllers.
Interesting!
That’s wild. You said you “saw” it, so I’m guessing you didn’t try it out. I was wondering if the coffee was any good.
/K
I can get badly made coffee-machine coffee for much less. I can get well made coffee for much less too.
And the bottom line? I’m not a big fan of coffee as it bothers my stomach.
Even the freshly ground and freshly brewed coffee we have at home isn’t one of my favorites. 
In a different mall there was a (rather cute) robotic ice-cream machine that basically served soft-serve ice-cream in a tiny cup that was the size of what used to be marketed by Dixie Cup as their “bathroom cup”, (a few fluid ounces), for 100 rubles. Not only was it about 1/3 the size of any reasonable serving of ice-cream for that price, the ice-cream really wasn’t all that good either.
Since “once burnt, twice shy”, I decided to not try the tiny “Dixie-cup” sized cups of robot-brewed coffee for the same 100 rubles. One hint about the quality of the coffee is the long line of people waiting for their cup in the picture. Other coffee kiosks in the same mall, (with real people, serving reasonably-sized servings), are always busy.
Sorry about that. . .
Good point. But I would have been tempted to spend the 100 ₽ just for the experience.
/K
I did that with the ice-cream. Actually I did it three times. . . (the two granddaughters were with me).
However I’m not sufficiently fond of coffee to want to try it. I can think of better and less expensive ways to upset my stomach.
I do like coffee, so there’s the difference.
I enjoyed the list that came with the unedited version I got in my email in-box. I get email notifications of replies. Hadn’t thought it through, but makes sense that one would get the original.
Makes for a sort of back channel. Someone can post a reply, and then immediately edit it. In theory someone could be looking at the thread for that minute or so, but unlikely. So pretty much everyone else sees the edited thread, and only those who are getting the email get the original version. Of course I think anyone can ask to subscribe to a thread, so DM-ing is a better way to truly send a private message. And there is the issue that if I make a mistake initially, or realize the tone doesn’t represent what I intended, then it’s too late unless the recipient reads the thread as well (which I always do anyway).
In this case the use was perfect - a bit of humor for those regulars following the thread right now, and nothing that might be interpreted out of context in the future.
/K
PS - agree with the list. I don’t have direct experience with #2, but understand that’s why dash-cams are so common there.
PPS - being intentionally vague so people wonder what was on the list 
PPPS - just to be clear, it was totally rated G and innocuous. I didn’t want anyone to think @jimrh had posted something offensive.
In case anyone is interested, it was a list of ways to upset my stomach, which included things like “driving in Russia” (#2), arguing with my wife, accidentally dd’ing over the only copy of something, etc. - that I ultimately decided didn’t add value to the posting so I removed it.
More’s the pity that e-mails are sent so quickly. There’s no intent or desire to create a communications channel on “the down low” - that’s what PM’s are for.
In my case, as it’s a known fact that my social skills are abysmal at best and as I have a chronic case of “foot-in-mouth” disease, (also known as “Athlete’s Tongue”)[1], I have a tendency to edit rather frequently. Especially since the “preview pane” doesn’t show bizarre formatting problems that viewing full screen does - or trying to compose something on a smartphone that’s too smart for its own good and the auto-correction makes a mess of a perfectly good sentence. . . (and so on. . .)
Well, whatever. . .
The real bottom line - which has absolutely nothing to do with what I was originally talking about - is that even the best, most carefully brewed coffee is not something I’m particularly fond of.
However, a robotic coffee kiosk that uses Raspberry Pi-4’s IS something I find interesting. 
It’s like my relationship with television. I absolutely HATE television in general as I consider it insipid and mindless. However, I think the technology is absolutely fascinating.
[1] Athlete’s Tongue
What you get when you have “Athlete’s Foot”, and your foot spends WAY too much time in your mouth.
P.S.
I don’t know if this is true for people who are not the author of the post, but when I click on the “edited” pencil icon at the top of the post it shows me the post’s edit history, just in case anyone is interested in what was edited.
In this case, the “original, un-edited” version was this:
That’s a new one on me - it’s funny.
I also just learned that - I can see your edit history as well, so it isn’t just the author. Good to know.
I think I’m the one with my foot in my mouth at this point. I was just trying to give you credit for what I thought was a funny list, and noticed the email vs. forum difference. But I clearly made too much of it (esp. since everyone can see the edit history). I thought about editing my post, but realized it was futile. Ah well - I’ve learned another thing not to do…
/K
PS - now what if it was a TV run by a Raspberry Pi 4 
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.
You can plug in a Roku dongle or install one of the dozen-or-so “media center editions” for the Pi. Though I haven’t researched it too thoroughly, I am sure there are also TV front-end adapters that can be used with the Pi.
If you don’t want to go that route, just fire up YouTube and pick your own poison. That’s my preferred route as I can choose what I want to watch instead of having someone else choose for me - and I can make it relevant to MY interests.
Don’t sweat it, we all chew a bit of toenail periodically.
And don’t worry about editing a post. You will notice that a lot of my posts have a relatively long edit history - either from my smartphone changing “list” into “let’s” or “lost”, or noticing a spelling error after-the-fact, or finally remembering the word I wanted to use, or (etc.). . .
I’d rather edit for clarity or content than leave a post dangling sideways.
