Pi Tank

Story so far:
Got the tank controller board from SparkFun from here:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11561

Chassis from here:
http://www.rapidonline.com/design-technology/arexx-rp5-ch02-robot-tank-chassis-13-1194
[Great company - shipped me a whole new chassis 2 days after a motor died, no questions asked!]

Soldered the board together, using rusty soldering skills. Can you solder rust?

There was a minor problem where there were supposed to be 3 resistors of 1 size, and 4 of the other, and in fact the SparkFun kit had them round the other way...  Off to Maplins again, for quickness...  Bought a kit of several hundred assorted sizes for £8.

Extra things needed - the board above needs the male power plug.  Ordered 2 pairs from Ebay
MALE 2.1MM X 5.5MM DC POWER CONNECTORS
Free delivery in 2 days, awesome:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PK-OF-2-X-MALE-2-X-FEMALE-2-1MM-X-5-5MM-DC-POWER-CONNECTORS-for-CCTV-REPAIRS-/171468892245?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:GB:3160
 - until then, I'd made do with some spare wires soldered to the underside of the power jack: it's centre-positive, so black lead to the rear of the jack, red to the front.  

Needed rechargeable batteries - bought from Maplins, as they have a good reputation.  

Also have an Edimax USB wifi dongle:
Edimax EW-7811UN 150Mbps Wireless Nano USB Adapter - worked out of the box, unlike 2 others - that were bought from Maplins on a whim, without having researched them..  WiFi on the Pi's always been fiddly in my experience - just buy something that works!

and a Bluetooth keyboard:
QK-90015 ULTRA MINI KEYBOARD
http://cpc.farnell.com/qwerty/qk-90015/ultra-mini-keyboard-pad/dp/CS23874 - works well, but not good for gaming as it seems to be confused by multiple simultaneous key-presses.  But hey, it looks like a steam-rollered BlackBerry, so not really aimed at gamers anyway!

And a Pi, of course - the Model B.  Running NOOBS Wheezy.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/


Build instructions:
https://github.com/simonmonk/raspirobotboard/wiki
And, it works!  Basic remote control from the keyboard is fine, but I've had to start it while tethered to the screen so I can get the code running, and then disconnect it after that.  Working on finding the equivalent of the AUTOEXEC.BAT, but not fixed it yet... Finding it unexpectedly hard.

To do - 

• get the camera working, and figure out how to do both control and simultaneous camera streaming. 
• Examine range finding, and also how plotting an area would work, as well as how it would deal with partial objects - eg chairlegs, rather than walls.

Pi in the Sky

Here's the ideas (nothing original, for me, it's about the evolution):

• Pi Tank.  Preferably autonomous.  Working up to Pi Gaming, human vs AI, nerf guns anyone?  Add the range detector, and see if it can map a room.  
• Camera - time lapse and/or night sky.
• USB Robot Arm - as built from Maplins kit.
• Drones.  Add them with the rangefinder option, and you've got those cool mapping spheres from Prometheus.  Just need the scanning lasers next!

Introduction

OK, here goes...

I work in IT Support - mostly Windows PCs, some server, networking, telephony, yada yada.  No Linux what so ever.  Not deep, but broad.  

I like making things better.  Bad design should be illegal.  Poor processes are horrific.  Make a mistake once, learn something, document the fix, and don't do it again.  Kaizen is where it's at.

My son is 15, and he's a technical boy, too.  However, these days, it's hard to get your hands dirty.  It's all about the shiny.  And the fact that you can't even take the battery out of an iDevice makes me irrationally angry.  It's like buying a car with the bonnet screwed down.

So, here's the Raspberry Pi.  Bare naked circuit board, just asking for some mad idea to be thrown at it.  With a nice open-source ethos that appeals.  And, a bit of a vertical learning curve.  

OK, I've taken enough ideas and fixes from the internet over the years, and not repaid a lot (with the exception of a few thousand hours on www.experts-exchange.com).  Time for me to return the favour, with some reflections on my faltering early steps with the Pi.  Wish me luck!