[Gghc-discuss] Proposed initial purchase - too much?

[Erich Heine]

HI all,

I think maybe there this is moving too fast with too much money spent for my
comfort. I am concerned that we may not have enough for future development
and building of the full swarm if we spend half now.  I also would like to
understand what is really entailed in making our own solution rather than
just buying one. Basically, with this path of exploration having different
results than expected, I feel we would be well served to look a bit more
deeply at the options. I would like to propose this plan:

1. Buy:

*  3 arduinos
* 3 XBee sheilds
* 2 XBee Explorer USB
* 5 XBee radios

This will give us a good base. Our software guys can start writing code so
that base stations can talk to arduinos, and testing ZigBee meshes with the
arduinos. I'm pretty sure this will give those guys at least a week's worth
of productive work.

2. Design:

 The robot maybe can use some more polishing on the design. Buying all the
parts to make a robot is a pretty expensive proposition at this point.
Perhaps instead we can sit down together with a whiteboard, the internet and
a good understanding of electronics, and figure out what it takes to
minimally get something put together by next weekend.

This also gives us good starting point for serious development work next
weekend. I would like to have a working robot to run software by Monday,
4/11. That would give us a great working reference to build the rest of the
swarm from.

Overall I think this approach, while slower, gives us a better chance to
explore our options and get our "hands dirty" with the electronics.

What does the group think?

Regards,
Erich

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 6:30 PM, Jonathan Manton <jmanton at illinois.edu>wrote:

> If you want to find different suppliers and alternative parts, go right
> ahead.  I tried to figure out how to use the least number of suppliers (to
> minimize the cost of 2-day shipping), and only go with suppliers that had
> stock and I'd either worked with before or seem to have a good reputation.
>  Saving $3 on a cable, then having to pay $8 shipping doesn't save you much.
>
> Keep in mind though that if we're going to have anything to work with this
> weekend, then we need to get this thing ordered tonight.  If we wait until
> tomorrow, then you're talking one-day shipping, which is a Bad Thing from a
> cost perspective, and wipes out any potential savings.  If we don't have
> stuff to start doing thing with this weekend, well, we essentially lose a
> full week (at least from me), as I don't have much time during the week to
> do anything on this stuff.
>
>
>
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