[Dprglist] Robotics in Costa Rica

[Eric Yundt]

Hey, DPRG!

I just noticed I got unsubscribed from the list when it got moved back in
2016...  Jajaja... Yeah, I was not paying much attention, but I did have a
filter popping all the messages in a special folder so I could go back and
read them later.  ;-)   Anyway, I resubscribed and read through all the
list archives, so I'm pretty much up-to-date.  For you newbies, I used to
be with the DPRG back before we 1st started Roboramas in the Infomart and
RBNO's in Barry's garage.  Glad to see those traditions live on!  For the
rest of you old farts that I recognize, long time no see!

Anyway, I've been hanging out in Central America for the past 10-15 years
or so, mostly in Costa Rica.  No such thing as Tanner's or even Frys or
Microcenter around here. Pretty much Amazon doesn't ship down here either.
I suppose I'd have to take a plane to Miami to find such wonders of modern
convenience.  Keeping up with Robotics has been tough!  jajaja.  What
brings me back sniffing around here is that now I've got a couple of
youngun's that are 5, 6, and 7 years old and even though we've got them in
a nice private school, there is not near the focus on STEM that I'd like to
see.  So, for this year in preparation for our upcoming Science Fair,
rather than do some pedestrian alka-seltzer volcano eruption sort of thing
(we live on the side of an active volcano, so as you might imagine this
type of project is popular!) I convinced everyone that we are going to
build a Robot!  ;-)

As I type this we've got a few hundred USD worth of Robot parts winging
their way down to Costa Rica via freight forwarder and if we don't have any
problems with customs next week, soon I expect to have a bunch of stuff we
can use to make: "Rayo Pinky-Pie 7.0".  Of course the 1st step in Robot
building is to come up with a good name for the soon to be hatched
Robot...  jajaja.  "Rayo" our 7 year boy came up with in honor of Rayo
McQueen -- the red race-car in the Cars movie, and "Pinky-Pie" because
that's what the 2 girls (5 & 6) wanted to name it.  "7.0" is just because
every time our 7 year old drew a picture of what Rayo Pinky-Pie should look
like, he drew a "7" on it.  I wasn't sure if he was trying to draw a
lightening bolt for Rayo McQueen or a 7 because he is 7 years old.  Either
way, we all like version "7.0" so that it is.

Rather than make this even longer than it already is (I don't get to talk
tech with anyone down here, much less in English!) I figured I'd just say
hello and start another thread on our Robot build.  We'll probably only
have a week or 2 once we get our parts to actually build a Robot and teach
it to do some tricks AND learn how to explain it all to the Science Fair
judges.  But our little ones are smarter than the average bear and I think
we'll do quite well (I expect 1st place) in the Science Fair this year.
I've got a lot of boning up to do on Arduinos, LiPos, Pololus, and other
such whatnots that didn't exist back in the early/mid '90's when I was DPRG
prez.

As was said by Clay back in May, "We'll be BAAHCK!"   jajaja.  After we get
our feet wet and are past this Science Fair, I expect we'll plan to compete
in the next Roborama.  Maybe via satellite uplink?  Just kidding, we've got
the Internet, iPhones, and VoIP in my part of the jungle.  We can live
broadcast our contest runs for the whole world to see if you wish.  We
ought to get a +bonus for running RoboColumbus on the Monkey Trail.  It is
kind of hard to find a large flatish area like Avondale park down here
unless we head out to the beaches...  but I could set something up on the
farm out back if the cows don't mind.

This is going to be FUN!!!  ;-)

¡Pura Vida!

--
Eric Yundt (of Little YaTu, JEB.00b, Toddler & BOTBones fame)
A proud member of the newly formed Team Rayo Pinky-Pie 7.0
on the edge of the Guanacaste Jungle, Costa Rica
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