Quoting Russell McMahon : > Commendable attitude BUT it depends on what you want to achieve and > the time scale. > If you want something flying AND controlled in a timescale of months > then chances are that first time round copying a proven design will be > most useful. You can always do the next one from scratch. > > The thrill of doing it all one self is great. > > BUT you have to decide how much weighting to give the potential for > not managing to get anything flying at all, or not getting good > control. > > Russell > -- Russell, The purpose of our group is to learn to design and build robotics-related projects. Add my general attitude of being far more thrilled about designing/engineering vs. having, and this is why we're doing it this way. I'm doing this is because I used to mentor a high-school robotics club (FIRST FRC competitions) until the school principal killed the program, as he felt it would distract students from studying for the FCAT (an aptitude test that only evaluates the school and determines the principal's salary). A few students kept urging me to intervene or do some type of robotics/engineering, so I've made them interns -- helping me design/engineer/build some automation machines I need for work (PnP and 3D printer are in the works), with some non-work-related projects thrown in (tri-rotor copter and segway are on the list). I'm funding it all, so building multiples of anything is not appealing. Time is not critical for some projects like this. For a 3D printer for example, you'd better believe I'll be looking at other designs for proven extruder/head mechanisms. FWIW, I built a kit-car (Shelby Cobra), then re-engineered and re-designed major parts (engine, suspension, etc) over the years. But in 16+ years since it's been drivable, I've only put ~5,500 miles on it. Last time I got it out was in March 09. Perhaps it's because I'm holding out until I move to a place where everyone doesn't drive like idiots. But in major part, it's really just me, and my engineers are somewhat like that -- we want to see OUR designs come to life, rather than say, building a puzzle and watching it. Cheers, -Neil. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist