PiWars 2024: The Challenges and Their Challenges
There are seven challenges at the in-person event for PiWars 2024, each with their own problems to solve. They are split in to three categories: Autonomous only, Autonomous/Remote, Remote Only. For the second of those, if you are in the Advanced/Professional category you have to attempt the challenge autonomously. State of the Onion NE-Five exists […]
NE-Five Mk4 – It’s All About That Base…
An update on the design of NE-Five Mk4
NE-Five (Re)design, Lessons Learned
One common questions I get asked about NE-Five is “is it open source” and I always give the answer “mostly…”, there’s a reason for that. The code has been available for a long while, along with a basic simulation that you can run in Gazebo, but the CAD model has never been shared. That’s becuase […]
Making the RedBoard Work on the Raspberry Pi 5
I’ve been using Red Robotics excellent RedBoard for years now, and while upgrading NE-Five to use a Raspberry Pi 5 I discovered breaking changes which means the available libraries wont work. Basically, the way that GPIO works on the Raspberry Pi 5 is different as it uses its shiny new RP1 chip to wrangle its […]
Installing RedBoard+ Library on Ubuntu
Macfeegle Prime is heading back to PiWars! A lot has happened in that time, ignoring the whole *gestures broadly at the world*, a lot has moved on in software terms. We now have Ubuntu 20.04 for the Pi, ROS Noetic has been released for it, and Approximate Engineering has rewritten the RedBoard+ library from scratch. […]
How Not To Build A Robot
I’ve gained a lot of experience over the last few months with regards to Fusion 360, 3d printing, electronics and more besides. I thought I’d share some of those lessons. As Complex As You Make It The most important lesson, as with any project, is to have an idea of what you’re building from the […]
