Bøger af John Blankenship

In order to intelligently handle a wide variety of generic tasks, a robot's hardware configuration must include a diverse selection of sensors and I/O capabilities. In the past, building such a robot has been a daunting task reserved for only those with significant knowledge and skill of both electronics and low-level microcontroller programming. Now, for the price of an interface board alone, hobbyists can have a complete hardware/software solution in the form of a 24-pin IC preprogrammed with the RobotBASIC Robot Operating System (RROS). The RROS will not only provide the physical interface needed for many motors and sensors, it will also provide the software required to seamlessly interface with all supported devices using the high-level RobotBASIC simulator-based commands and functions. This means that the RROS not only makes it easier than ever before to build a robot, it makes it easier to program one too. Imagine being able to simply connect a compass to the RROS chip and then immediately determine your robot's orientation with a single programming command such as angle = rCompass(). Imagine connecting infrared or ultrasonic sensors directly to the RROS chip and being able to determine where obstacles are that might block your robot's path using rBumper() and rFeel(). Controlling your robot is just as easy as acquiring its sensory information. When commands like rForward and rTurn are used, your robot won't just respond, it will respond intelligently, automatically ramping up and down when speeds are changed and using compass readings and wheel encoder counts when possible and appropriate. And these examples don't begin to describe the power of the RROS. Read on to find the real power.... of simplicity. NOTE: A PDF of this book may be downloaded FREE from RobotBASIC.org. It is provided in paperback for the convenience of our users.

This attention-getting two-seater was engineered to be built from ONE bicycle, some PVC pipe, and a few miscellaneous parts using typical hand tools many people already have. Use this detailed account of my successes and failures to help you design your own bike. You can spend thousands on a four-wheel commercial bike or you can have the fun of building your own. Sure, you can find plans on the Internet, but the ones I found often required two identical bikes and expensive customized parts from a machine shop (and they still cost more than this book). I will show you how I made mine from a single bicycle I picked up at a yard sale for $10. You'll find many design and construction hints and suggestions along with 38 full-color pictures to guide you. If you are even thinking about attempting such a project, this book is for you.

Section 1 is dedicated to providing the background material most people will need. You will learn how pickup placement and dimensions, inductance, resistance, capacitance, and types of magnets all affect how a pickup sounds. Furthermore, you will seen how different switching configurations of pickup wiring can also alter the sound. Finally, you'll get a brief overview of soldering, switches, potentiometers, etc. to make sure you are ready to mod.Section 2 will ease into the modification process by utilizing easy projects that are typical of what most people do - they just replace old pickups with new ones. Such mods are relatively uncomplicated compared to projects later in the book and are certainly a good place to start if you have never modified your guitar before.Section 3 changes things up by demonstrating how you can get totally new sounds from the pickups you already have, just by changing how they are electrically wired together. You will discover new and seldom used, wiring configurations that can alter your guitar's tone.Section 4 really gets things going with projects where you change both the pickups and the wiring configurations to produce dramatic new sounds while maintaining all of the old ones.Section 5 will create some new, custom, one-of-a-kind pickups - without even winding a coil. These are truly the exotic mods that can make your guitar unique and special.

Not long ago, it was very difficult to build a hobby robot capable of interesting behaviors because you had to design and build nearly everything yourself. Today, robotics can be a fantastic hobby for nearly anyone because technology has advanced to the point that most of the complicated things you need can be purchased for reasonable prices. Unfortunately, even if you purchase the required sensors and motor controllers you still need to interface them with a microcontroller and write complicated drivers to handle all the communication, timing, and interrupts before you can even start building robot applications. At least you did until now. The RobotBASIC Robot Operating System (RROS) provides the hardware interface and all the low-level software needed for a variety of sensors and motors in a single 24-pin chip available from www.RobotBASIC.org. Since the chip does all the hard work for you, experienced hobbyists can build interesting robots in a couple of hours and even those with no background in programming or electronics can do far more than they ever imagined in a couple of days. The purpose of this book is to take a novice hobbyist on a step-by-step journey that teaches robot-programming by building low-cost robots capable of roaming a cluttered room, hugging a wall, and following a line. In the end, these individual behaviors will be combined to demonstrate how robots can handle a reasonably complex task without human intervention. If you have an interest in robotics this book can help you discover the joy of building and programming your own robot with projects you can actually complete.

There are many books and webpages that suggest ways of increasing the speed of a Pinewood Derby. But, how do you know which techniques really work or when your continuing efforts have become unproductive? For example, nearly everyone knows that polishing the axels can improve your car's speed, but how can you determine if additional polishing will be beneficial? After a little thought, the answer should be obvious. You can't really evaluate the effectiveness of your modifications unless you can measure your car's speed throughout the alteration process. This book shows you how to construct a low-cost, PC-based timer so you can truly maximize your car's performance. You won't just learn what to do, though. You will also learn enough about electricity and programming to truly understand how everything works in case you want to improve or expand upon the timer itself.

The decisions you make when you are young can dramatically change your life. Unfortunately, most people don't know their options, let alone the consequences of acting on those options. Saving just $6 each month, for example, can increase your retirement wealth by nearly $70,000. Changing the way you buy your cars can add a MILLION dollars to your retirement nest egg. Most books that offer financial advice tell you what to do. Tthis book doesl not. Only you can decide what is right for you. This book will teach you about financial decisions by exploring the consequences associated with the choices available to you. As you learn to predict the ramifications of your decisions, you will be able to make the choices that are best for you. Understanding your choices and their consequences puts you in charge of your life. Not understanding them leaves your financial future to chance. The choice is yours! Visit www.ConsequencesTheBook.com for More Information.

The essential robot resource for the NEW robotics hobbyists who want to learn how to program and control their robots rather than building them from the ground up.

In The Starting Five, we look at five components of leadership including integrity, coachability, work ethic, mental toughness, and a presence that sets a tone. After years of careful evaluation, we determined that learning and developing these five traits will increase your influence as a team leader. The book will frame those traits around one central question... Does it make the team better? Honest self-examination is the best way to shrink the gap between where you are and where you want to be as a leader. The book is written in an engaging story format that allows discussion between the coach and the team leaders to help explain these concepts in a way that allows for practical application with immediate results.

We need to reclaim some of the wildness that is deep within us. We need to reinvent ourselves for the 21st century, according to the author, John Blankenship, who many years ago began a quest in search of the true mountaineer essence. In the course of his journey, the writer takes us back through history and culture, exploring mythology, religion, and literature-takes us on a voyage of self-discovery. Gracefully written and stylishly revealing, Songs of the Whippoorwill (Volume III) charts a new course for the Appalachian spirit, one that has been waiting to emerge since the days of our fathers.

During his storied career as a feature writer and photographer, award-winning journalist John Blankenship met with the famous and infamous, the proud and the humble, the glamorous and the plain. With every interview, the writer learned something new about human nature and about himself-about pride and independence, loyalty and steadfastness, honesty and integrity. These snapshots from a reporter's notebook offer a compelling look at the resilient folk of Appalachia from the 1980s to the present. The author's detailed feature stories and personal reflections bring into focus the larger than life characters who helped mold our times for the better, even when facing seemingly insurmountable odds in one of our nation's most challenging economic regions. These meetings will hold you spellbound and keep you turning pages as you explore the writer's fascinating experiences.