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From: smith@wookie.dec.com (Willie Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Hero 2000
Message-ID: <736@sousa.enet.dec.com>
Date: 22 Jan 91 03:21:05 GMT
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Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
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In article <1991Jan22.011154.19417@csn.org>, roybalm@tramp.colorado.edu (ROYBAL MICHAEL) writes...
> 
>	Radio-Electronics: January 1991(page 19 of the RE shopper in the middle)
>		HERO 2000 ROBOT ARM & BASE - $399.95
>		HERO 2000 ROBOT ARM KIT    - $179.95
>		HERO 2000 "B" KIT          - $ 49.95(this is the misc parts)
> 
>	The company is called Mendelson Electronics Inc. and can be reached at
> 
>				1-800-422-3525

I have the Heath robot arm and base I got from Heathkit shortly before they 
dropped them, and while I got a good price (at the time), it was almost 
twice as much as you can now get them surplus.  While this isn't a "real, 
industrial quality" arm, it's quite well designed, and is a real bargain at 
$400.  I'm planning on using mine on my Lunar Teleoperations vehicle, but 
if you wanted to play with a robot arm without getting a toy, this is the 
one.  It's got 6 degrees of freedom, a microprocessor for each axis, and a 
Z-80 (running an interpreted BASIC) to oversee them all.  We had it opening 
beer bottles, so it can't be all that bad!  You can program it from a 
pendant or talk to it thru an RS-232 line.  It's not quick, but it's got 
good repeatability (each axis is programmable down to 0.1 degrees), and a 
variable-force gripper.

Willie Smith
smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com
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