Dave Curtis
From HBRC WIki
Dave is an HBRC member, and regularly brings along his daughter Shiloh (age 8) with her robots. Dave co-hosts the KidSIG with Brandon Blodget and Mike Thompson.
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Current projects
CAN4Bots
CAN4Bots is a protocol for modular robotics, using the HBRC bus and the CAN protocol. CAN4Bots is a close cousin to RoboBrick2, but using a CAN controller for media access and framing instead of a USART as in RoboBricks2. As of today (27-Jan08) I have a backlog of 1 fabbed boards to check out, and 2 more designs just about net-list clean, and 3 rev A boards checked out. I've designed a couple of previous boards to prototype CAN4Bots.
Toaster oven soldering
I've done some surface mount soldering using a toaster oven. Currently, I'm experimenting with solder stencils laser-cut from drafting mylar at the TechShop.
My tool kit
AVR microcontrollers, avr-gcc & avr-libc, gEDA.
Kids and robots
Along with Mike Thompson and Brandon Blodget, Dave co-hosts the KidSIG. KidSIG meets on SIG night from 6:30-8:00. The KidSIG consists primarily of kids running robots. We bring robots for the kids to run, and kids (and others) can bring their own robots to show and/or share.
Technical Information
Dave's drill rack
I went through the exercise of comparing the "free" drill racks and the design rules from APCircuits, PCBExpress, and Olimex and came up with Dave's common drill rack that includes the associated minimum pad size. I've also used this same library with BatchPCB.
TQ2-L2 latching relays
In completing check-out on a power supply module I discovered some subtleties in the use of NAIS (Panasonic) TQ2-L2 dual-coil latching relays that are not readily apparent from the data sheet. I've documented these tidbits in Using TQ2-L2 relays
Non-Robotics interests
I hold an Extra Class Amateur Radio license, call sign N6NZ, am a member and former officer of the Northern California Contest Club, and participate regularly in radio sport events.
Last update: 22-Jan-08
