Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Gibe monies plox.

I don't have much to offer in today's update. I've been unable to buy any of the new parts for Project Earth Rover, as the only donation since the completion of Project Hampture was for $5. (Much appreciated, by the way.) Hate to go all PBS on you but this project's innately more expensive than Hampture was and it's going to be difficult to move forward without funding. Here's a list of everything I expect the project to need:

Spykee robot: $299
Mini GPS tracker: $200
Solar power kit: $289
Mifi mobile hotspot: $242
(Monthly 3G subscription rate: $60)

The good news is I've been contacted by someone who may be willing to donate a Spykee. I've also found a relatively low cost solar power solution that is sufficient for multiple rovers, and will work with the battery pack from Project Hampture.

I'm willing to pay for the shipping and anything else out of pocket that I can afford. I really love this project concept and I am giddy as fuck imagining strangers who follow this blog being able to log into the robot and pilot it around the forest clearing I've selected. But tragically, like everything else in science, it remains a distant dream until funding materializes.

15 comments:

  1. You did get my donation on Sunday, didn't you? Or was that classed as before Hampture ended?

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  2. Wait, yeah. I guess that was one day after Hampture's lake test. So that's $30 total towards Earth Rover so far. Not too bad, but there's a long way left to go.

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  3. You may also want to consider waterproofing it all. And buying a taser for the douchebag teenagers who might be wandering around in the forest and knocking down small electric devices that they may come across.

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  4. I'm actually planning to hide most of it up a tree! The solar battery pack and the mifi, anyway. In some kind of camoflaged container. The robot's dock will be in a small shelter (to protect it from rain) which will also be camoflaged, with leaves and sticks glued to the exterior. An extension cord will run from the dock/shelter up the tree to the solar battery. I should probably do a new illustration to reflect this.

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  5. You should! Hmm... Make sure you buy a brown extension cord, they do sell them. That would look best going up a tree instead of the fluorescent orange. And I suppose it makes more sense to put the solar panel and mifi in a tree, the solar panel closer to the sun and the mifi higher in the air for a btter signal.

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  6. Okay, I've edited the item list after being told that the solar power solution I'd chosen before wouldn't be sufficient to keep the rover going. I'll be using the next-cheapest kit, which is unfortunately almost twice as expensive, but sufficient for up to 15 rovers.

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  7. But I only have enough for one potion, and..

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  8. If that was on the 19th then it was my pleasure and I'll probably be sending more funds because both these projects interest me so.
    Please keep up the amazing work.

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  9. Woah, excellent. That's what I'm talkin' about.

    Should I set up priority access to the robots for donors? At least for a month or two? That seems like a no-brainer.

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  10. I should be donating some time in the near future, since I turn 18 tomorrow and can therefore get a debit card. I think a problem will be too many people wanting to use them at once, and no one ever being able to when they want to. Also, some bastard will drive it into a lake. Also, might I suggest adding a really really really long rope or string to the robot so that people always know how to get home after their exploration?

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  11. ....Or a trail of bicycle reflectors. The robot has a small LED flashlight built into the head, so the reflectors would stand out clearly at night.

    Careful with that debit card though. I appreciate the enthusiasm but don't spend more than you can afford. :p

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  12. You may want to start carefully, put it in the middle of some trees and run wire all the way around at a low height. Maybe a 20x20 or 30x30 foot space at first. I love the idea, but there would be douchebags out there who would drive it into water or something.

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  13. There's no water to drive it into. I keep hearing this but it's impossible. The site I've chosen is many, many miles from the nearest body of water.

    Driving into water is not a concern. Let's put that one to rest.

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  14. Thinking ahead on the whole griefing topic, you're going to have to put *some* kind of a douche deterrent in.
    Otherwise you'll have people doing shit like driving the robot out of mifi signal range, or crashing into trees on purpose, or purposely not re-docking.

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