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| Preface | |
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| Welcome Robot Inventor! | |
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| Four Disciplines | |
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| Anatomy of a Homemade Robot | |
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| Building Up | |
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| Onward and Upward | |
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| Where to Obtain Tools and Parts | |
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| Ordering Free Information | |
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| Discovering Hidden Messages | |
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| Saving Money | |
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| Safety | |
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| Benefiting from Age and Experience | |
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| Following Instructions | |
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| Donning Safety Glasses | |
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| Wearing Other Safety Clothes | |
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| Insuring Adequate Ventilation | |
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| Storing Properly | |
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| Washing Before Eating | |
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| Avoiding Nasty Elements | |
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| Shocking | |
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| Steering Clear of Dangerous Robots | |
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| Sizing Up Motors | |
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| Lighting Up | |
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| Staying Rested and Level-Headed | |
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| Digital Multimeter | |
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| Must-Have Features | |
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| Nice-To-Have Features | |
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| Optional Features | |
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| AC Features | |
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| Obtaining Hook Probe Adaptors | |
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| Comparing Basic Multimeter Ads | |
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| Proceeding Without a Meter | |
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| Numbers and Units | |
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| Choosing the Metric System | |
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| Reducing Powers of a Thousand | |
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| Abbreviating Units | |
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| Too Little | |
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| Base Subjects Covered | |
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| Robot Line-Following | |
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| Defining the Course Conditions | |
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| Picking the Robot's Size | |
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| Seeing Sandwich | |
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| Building Up | |
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| Nine-Volt Batteries | |
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| Testing Battery Voltage | |
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| 9 V Battery Characteristics | |
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| 9 V Battery Recommendations | |
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| Battery Brand Names | |
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| Using 9 V Batteries In Robots | |
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| Powering Forward | |
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| Clips and Test Leads | |
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| The Gators Are Hungry Tonight | |
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| Obtaining Hook Clips | |
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| Testing Jumpers | |
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| Discovering Unintended Connections | |
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| Plumbing with Jumpers | |
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| Resistors | |
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| Limiting Power With Resistors | |
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| Obtaining a Resistor Variety Pack | |
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| Understanding Size and Tolerance | |
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| Cut It Out | |
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| Resistance and Ohms | |
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| Measuring Resistance | |
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| Labeling and Storing | |
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| Resisting the Temptation to Skip Ahead | |
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| LEDs | |
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| Learning About LED Attributes | |
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| Extreme Close Up of an LED | |
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| Identifying Multicolor LEDs | |
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| Testing an LED | |
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| Variety Pack | |
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| Brightening Your Way | |
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| Power Oh! Building and Testing a Power Indicator Circuit | |
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| Introducing the Parts List | |
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| Reading a Schematic | |
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| Building the Power Indicator Circuit | |
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| Understanding the Roles of Each Component | |
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| Measuring the Power Indicator Circuit | |
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| Measuring Current Flow | |
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| Circuit Summary | |
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| Solderless Prototyping | |
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| Needing a Better Way | |
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| Solderless Breadboards | |
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| Solderless Breadboard Wire | |
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| Making Your Own Jumper Wire | |
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| Making the Connection | |
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| Solderless Breadboard Setup | |
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| Considering Power Sources | |
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| Choosing a Power Switch | |
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| Connecting Power Buses | |
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| Installing a Power Indicator LED | |
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| Demystifying the Robot's Power Switch | |
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| Ready For More | |
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| Variable Resistors | |
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| Potentiometers | |
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| Variable Brightness LED Circuit | |
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| Brightness Balancing Circuit | |
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| Cadmium-Sulfide Photoresistors | |
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| Light-Controlled Circuit | |
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| Balanced Brightness-Sensing Circuit | |
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| Comparators | |
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| Voltage Comparator | |
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| Brightness Comparator Circuit | |
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| Adding Headlights | |
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| Appreciating a Simple Mind | |
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| Transistor Switches | |
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| Defining Negative Power | |
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| Testing Bipolar Transistors with a Multimeter | |
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| Bipolar Transistor Test Circuits | |
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| Brightness Comparator Circuit with Transistors | |
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| Summarizing PNP and NPN Transistors | |
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| DC Motors | |
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| How DC Motors Work | |
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| Simple DC Motor Circuit | |
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| Primary Characteristics of DC Motors | |
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| DC Gearhead Motors | |
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| Moving Forward | |
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| Adding Gearhead Motors | |
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| Selecting Gearhead Motors | |
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| Adding Motors to the Brightness Comparator Circuit | |
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| Completing the Electronics | |
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| Wheels | |
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| Anatomy of a Wheel | |
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| Characteristics of Robot Wheels | |
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| Wheel Choice for Sandwich | |
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| Cleaning Tires | |
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| Rolling Along | |
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| Coupler | |
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| Tubing | |
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| Measuring and Cutting the Tubing | |
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| LEGO Cross Axles | |
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| Gluing the Coupler Together | |
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| Adding a Setscrew to the Coupler | |
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| Admiring the Coupler | |
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| Soldering Equipment | |
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| Solder Wire | |
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| Flux | |
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| Soldering Iron | |
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| Soldering Stand | |
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| Soldering Sponge | |
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| Helping-Hand Tool | |
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| Desoldering Vacuum Tools | |
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| Steps of a Typical Soldering Session | |
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| Get Ready to Solder | |
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| Soldering and Connecting | |
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| Putting Together the Motors and Switches | |
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| Soldering Experience | |
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| The Motherboard | |
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| The Line-Following Circuit | |
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| Testing the Robot's Electronics | |
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| Holding Your Breath | |
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| Body Building | |
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| Approaching Robot Bodies | |
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| Transforming the Sandwich Container | |
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| Ready to Roll | |
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| Launching the Line-Follower | |
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| Correcting and Tweaking | |
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| The Maiden Voyage | |
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| Potential Improvements | |
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| Final Bow | |
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| Encore | |
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| Robot Components | |
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| Everyday Challenges | |
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| Contests | |
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| The Great Wide Open | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Magical Ohm's Law | |
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| Things I've Accidentally Destroyed While Writing This Book | |
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| Voltage's Real Name | |
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| Index | |