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Asked — Edited

Is The Robot Hobby For Everyone?


Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Various programming skills at different levels of the robot
Graphics and design
3D modeling
Computer competency
Network competency
Brain storming and problem solving
Decent communication skills.
Ability to work with others.
No fear of learning new things









United Kingdom

United Kingdom








Sometimes you get the best light from the burning bridge. :)






Ron R
United Kingdom








david cohran

no wonder there's is nothing in belgium.
i notest alot off problems when downloading robot programs.
missing commands,connection errors.also bad tutorials or incomplete.
and the web page ask for it,strange.so david sounds to you averyone chould have that knowledge before starting building robots.then the robot sites has to stop,



with a risk of that he/che breaks his robot.

ps richard r my appolegies for being rude last days.





thats why the promise.i will post like example the wire only.
@nomad My advice is for you to go back and review the basics (I do all the time).... I think you keep trying to move forward but can't because you keep forgetting stuff you learned earlier.... An example is... you can't build a house if you keep forgetting how to use basic tools.... Likewise, you can't do much with ez robot if you unable to get your new ezbs connected to your network.... Another thing is learning how to find information.... As mentioned, I don't have official education in some of these disciplines, but I know how to use google and I know how to read.... When I don't know or understand something I look it up.... If I am still stuck I will post here, but what's important to take from this is I always try to figure out things on my own first and only ask here as a last resort.... You learn more if you do it yourself....

as for how to find info,your absolute correct.am not good at that.
am not going forwart,i see whats comming and go from there.
i can use the Engenius cause i wrote it all down.
indeed you learn more if i do it myself.but it takes so long time.
thismorning was 7 am.
I am going to tell you about a couple of things that happened in the past that were very difficult on me, but I feel that I did the right thing.

My father-in-law's girlfriend was a truck driver. She got injured doing this and the company paid for her education. At the time, network engineers were in high demand and were making really good money. Someone told her to go to school and get Cisco certified. She saw the dollar signs in her eyes, and even though she had no basic computer knowledge, enrolled in Cisco classes. Her first semester she came to me and it was obvious that she wasn't grasping simple IP address routing or how to calculate subnets. Her dreams were to be a network engineer. Her mind couldn't understand the basics. I told her that she was not made to be a network engineer and that no matter how hard she tried, or how much money she spent of the companies money, she would never be a network engineer. She just couldn't do it. She got mad and told me she would prove me wrong. She failed out the next semester. Now she is a dog groomer.

My step-son had thoughts of getting his comp-sci degree. I told him that I would pay for one programming class and if he still wanted to get his comp-sci degree, great. He had never programmed anything except for scripts in his life. We enrolled him in a class in C at a community college. He got about the first 3 classes and homework assignments pretty well. On the 4th assignment it was like he forgot everything that he had learned on the first three and didn't come to me for any help. By the 6th assignment he was totally lost because he didn't understand the 4th or 5th assignment and came to me for help. We started over on the first assignment and worked our way through the 6th assignment tying everything in and he had a pretty good understanding. By the 8th assignment he was totally lost again. We got him through the class with a lot of help from me. He made a D in the class. I told him programming wasn't for him and he agreed. He is now in school to be a computer graphics artist and he loves it.

Both of these people had big hearts for what they wanted to become. Both thought that they could handle it. I looked at both of them from the outside and knew that neither would be able to handle the path that they were going down. I didn't do this to be mean, but to help.

In my job, I can interview someone for 5 minutes and have a really good feeling about if they will be able to handle the job or not. This makes some people mad. They don't feel like I have given enough of my time for them to prove to me that they can handle the job. Those of us who have been programmers for a long time understand and it is absolutely not an elitist thing at all. We don't think we are in a class of society that is above everyone else or anything like that. It is simply that we have been around enough people struggling to make it in the programming field and failing miserably that it is easy to see in people. I know that this is the same in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, system networking, server management, system design and every other job that has the name engineer either correctly or incorrectly attached to it.

People are all wired differently. Everyone has something that they are good at doing. Everyone has something that they are passionate about. If these two things don't align, then your not going to be really successful at it. I am not going to get theological here, but pushing and pushing in the wrong direction isn't going to make it happen. This doesn't mean that it is going to be easy to do if you do have these two things working together, but it is so much easier than if you don't.

This isn't written to any one person specifically. It is written to make people think. I would love to learn to play the guitar. I couldn't ever get it down. My brain didn't work in that way. I think it would be awesome to do, but my brain doesn't work fast enough with my club hands to even get close to playing the correct notes. I have all of the respect in the world for people who can. I don't play the piano but am fascinated by people who can. I understand that my mind and fingers don't work well enough together to make this happen. It isn't what I will ever be successful at and thus not what will ultimately make me happy.
my attention is not to become a programmer,this is just to be beasy what,
ones was a big thing for me.and it stil is,but i have to remember its not for me.
i cant have kids cause off fysical problems who cant be solved.
so no famely,and thats the biggest thing you live for.now am 52 old.
retired low on money.no wifi.so for me is robot to keep me alert as much,
is possible.and if something is working am the happiest man.
david you have the wrong name,we chould call you chost in the machiene.
i have alot off mental problems,so for me again i still be able to find something.
we have to work with the brain we have.if i didn had a roommate or pc.
i would be in a institution where there is nothing but waiting till you die.
you cant get any lower life then mine,i dare not to think what my life would be without robots or pc
In all honesty Patrick, this was originally started mainly for the person that Anthony was dealing with (who's thread got removed). It was apparent that he wouldn't be successful because he had no willingness to learn, but would rather try to bash someone for his poor choices. It got me thinking though (after reading the article from Maker Magazine) about how much was involved in this hobby.

I never said that you wanted to be a programmer. I was using a couple of examples from my past to show people who tried going down a path that was not going to work for them and I tried to help them realize this.

I have helped you a lot in the past. I understand your situation. I can't do it now simply because of all of the things that I have going on. There is quite simply no time. There are a lot of other people here who have offered to help you out. I am letting that happen because you are in good hands with them. I don't have the time to do this and would not be able to give the level of effort required.

If you would like to go back and read my posts, you will see that it is written not to a specific person, but to get people to think about what they are doing. I figured that some would take offence to what I had said but, so did my mother-in-law. Ultimately I was just trying to help her realize that she was on the wrong path. If you feel that this might be you, and you thought about it, my purpose was completed.
i thought that you didn have time with all the work you have and at you home to.
but averything is ok .

ps nao is back online.
@nomad... Since you have trouble remembering things why don't you make notes on stuff? We keep helping you with the same problems over and over.... David especially.... Why don't you write down things that you learn... step by step and keep them somewhere?... For instance you now have your Nao back up and running, right? Do you remember how you did it? If not maybe you should have written down notes on exactly what you did to accomplish this?... Then next time you can read your notes and not have to ask again how to get Nao online.... Same for connecting your ezbs to your network.... Write down the steps needed (even take pictures) so when you buy a new ezb you again, won't have to ask for help to get it connected to your network... Does this make sense?

yes indeed.i can use the engenius,its written down.