Appendix A
RBB Online Support

Books have only so many pages, and a topic like robotics is ever evolving. To augment your reading experience, be sure to visit the RBB Online Support site, at:

www.robotoid.com

You’ll Find …

My First Robot lessons—fully illustrated A–Z guide on constructing your first motorized robot, the expandable and easy-to-build RBB-Bot.

Expanded parts source for all the projects—including online sources, with part numbers and direct links to the products (when available). Just click and you’re there.

Program listings for all the projects—just copy and paste, or better yet, download the program files for immediate use.

Book updates—changes, corrections, enhancements, alternative approaches.

ArdBot construction and programming project—complete plans for building the ArdBot Arduino-based robot. For intermediate robot builders.

Free bonus chapters—stuff that just couldn’t fit in this new edition (at least not without chopping down a lot of extra trees).

Plan templates drawn to scale—of over a dozen robot projects and parts. Just download the PDF and print.

Resizable and printable encoder disc templates—pick the one you like and make copies with your ink-jet or laser printer.

Video tutorials—on everything from using shop tools to programming your bot.

Animated teaching tools—learn electronics and robotics with colorful animated guides.

Plus, free articles, expanded projects, news, reviews, and more.

Backup Support Site

Basic support material including all source code for Robot Builder’s Bonanza may also be found at the following Web page, should the main robotoid.com site be unavailable:

www.mhprofessional.com/rbb4

Sources for Special Parts, Web Sites

Mentioned now and then in this book are special parts and Web sites for improving your robot-building experiences. You can find some of these sites in Appendix B, “Internet Parts Sources,” but you’ll find many more on the RBB Online Support site. They’re categorized, with a brief summary for the most important sites on the list.

Among the source listings:

Plastic and metal brackets

Free and low-cost CAD programs

Motor upgrades for Tamiya gearbox motor kits

Hard-to-find electronic parts (with sources and catalog numbers)

Web sites for experimenting with sound, music, and voice

Resources for machine and robotic vision

Where to buy surplus parts at a bargain price

The Internet’s best self-study and teaching sites on electronics and related topics

The Internet’s best blogs on robots

Robotics user groups, forums, and competitions