By Andrew Liszewski
Without a big fat defense contract from the government, how is the average consumer supposed to go about creating their own wise-cracking, sequel-spawning, remake-coming robot sidekick? Since Heathkit never sold a complete Johnny 5 kit, you’ll have to slowly piece together your own. And you can start with this robotic arm available from RED5 for about $60.
While it comes partly disassembled (oh no!) you can put it together without having to do any soldering or wiring. It’s powered by 5 electric motors that allow it to lift a whopping 100g and the arm features a 120 degree wrist pivot, a 300 degree elbow motion and a 180 degree base motion. And if I remember correctly, if you want it to develop some level of sentient intelligence, you’ll need to use it outside during a storm and hope for the best. Just be aware that a lightning strike doesn’t always guarantee it will develop a soul. It sure hasn’t worked for me.
[ Robot Arm ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]
I orderd one right away (i’m a real sucker for robot arms this wil be my third) to bad it cant hook up with my pc or phone (trough IR) and control it that way and make all kind of cool sugarclumb stacking programs. stil pretty need though
I have one of the old ones of these from when I was a kid. It ran off of one motor and gears moved the different joints. Noisy too.
FYI — Johnny 5 is alive and well… well actually there are 3 of them and I worked with one last Summer at the Iowa state fair http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUBa9zSHb5w