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an old artical i saw years ago

D

Dennis1959

New Member
Joined
May 14, 2010
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6
Location
Kittry ME.
i saw a news paper clip about a C64 runing a radio shack armatron.

the shifters were replaced with relays and the C64 or vic20 was able to control the armatron via a basic program.

just wondering if anyone remembers this?
 
I remember a project in Transactor magazine involving an Armatron and a 64, but I don't remember what issue. My collection of Transactors vanished a very long time ago so I can't look up the issue anymore. I'm pretty sure it did include a Basic program to control it.
 
I seem to recall, that the original radioshack armitron, had clutches engaged by the joysticks, that moved the arm around, so it wasn't the easiest to interface.

The system I remember seeing, was a series of solenoids attached to the joysticks, to move the arm..

There was a later armitron, that was on a mobile base, controlled with a push button remote control.
Way easier to control, but no wheres near as cool as the original "industrial looking" armitron,

I wanted one of those armitrons so bad when I was a kid.. And those TOMY robots.. omnibot?

Edit: Found this site for armitron mods..

http://www.phoenixgarage.org/show_article/93

Transactor Mag (Vic20): http://www.phoenixgarage.org/show_article/98
 
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yes i remember that article because i actually built it...for my final project at DeVry...it used 6 dc 12v motors mounted on either side with shafts connecting to gear blocks mounted inside , the program was written in Basic and drove a four into 16 decoder which drove 12 transistors to either operate the motors in forward and reverse ...the thing did work for a short time but i kept blowing the transistors, I later switched to relays to handle the power but the signals coming from the Vic were pulsed and the relays couldnt see the signal ,so i came up with condensors to hold the 1's and 0's but by then i graduated and went back to my old job as a motorcycle mechanic ..It was the coolest project of the school at the time though. :p LOL .. I still have it sitting in my basement and I still have the magazine article
 
While it's not exactly the same, I found a few products that appear to be modern updates to the Armatron. Not quite the retro-industrial coolness of the originals, but they have a USB interface with software that can be purchased separately:

OWI Robotic Arm Edge (Amazon)
OWI USB Interface for Robotic Arm (Amazon)

While I have absolutely no practical use for these, I'm really tempted to buy them just for fun. Does anyone have any experience with these?
 
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