Heathkit Reincarnates the Hero Robot

DeviceGuru writes "Heathkit, which produced and sold mobile robots aimed at hobbyists and students back in the 1980s, is about to reenter the educational robot business. Heathkit's new HE-RObot incorporates an onboard computer running Windows XP Professional on a Core 2 Duo Processor. It stands 21 inches tall, weighs 55 pounds, and has a built-in 80 GB hard drive, IR sensors, bright LED headlights, and lots of space for custom project circuitry." As robots go, it also looks very much like certain models of SGI workstation. Now I'll need to update my 1980 Christmas wishlist -- it's probably lost between pages of Popular Mechanics.

Heathkit in name only

[Anonymous Coward]

The awesome thing about Heathkits was that it was just some components you soldered together. You could understand each piece of it, and then see how they get put together into something that actually worked. (I still use my Heathkit stereo receiver at home.) There was no magic black box. I've never seen a permanently broken Heathkit: if you can build it from scratch, you can fix it. Anything else electronic tends to just get thrown away, because there's no way for us mortals to know how to go about fixing it.

Now it's a PC running Windows XP. It's a blue PC on wheels. It doesn't even look like you get to assemble it. It's "Heathkit" in name only.

Re:Heathkit in name only

[cjsm]

Well, I think the cool thing about this, to some people (not necessarily me) is that its a PC in a Robot. Assuming you can also use this as a regular PC, this might have appeal as a novel gaming PC or whatever.

But like others, I'm surprised Heathkit is still around. I built a Vox Combo Organ from scratch that Heathkit offered in kit form back in the day. Wasn't very reliable, though. Some of the springs on the keys broke off after I had pounded on it for a year or two. Not Heathkit's fault, since they were just supplying the standard Vox components.

Depress yourself further...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

http://www.heathkit.com/ [heathkit.com]

Re:Obligatory Windows Put Down, with a twist...

[Stanislav_J]

So it runs XP, which with the release of Vista is now supposed to be really not that bad...

Kinda OT, but...did you ever stop to think that maybe the whole Vista mess was a calculated debacle to make XP look better? I mean, people used to fuss and cuss at XP all the time, and now when Vista comes stumbling along, XP suddenly seems (comparatively) wonderful. (Kinda like how Americans have become so obese, that even I with my 30-40 extra pounds feel like an anorexic model when I look at the other hogs at the buffet trough.) Maybe this whole Vista thing was a decoy to actually sell more copies of XP and make us more complacent and satisfied with it? Vista = New Coke and XP = Classic Coke? Or am I attributing too much wisdom and business savvy to the MS overlords?

Re:Heathkit has a NEW group of "core users" now

[Y-Crate]

Growing up in the '80s and '90s, I saw that half of my Dad's electronic equipment had been custom-built from Heathkit plans, and I longed for the day when I could finally get into the action and start ordering kits myself.

Thanks to Heathkit, that day will never come.

I really can't believe that no one has stepped up to replace them. You would think that there would be a decent-sized market out there.

Alternative

[Tablizer]

I like the approach that Evolution Robotics took: use your existing laptop as the brain and control panel of the robot. Their robots are basically Erector-Set-like stands that hold a laptop and have sensors. Pretty cool idea.

RB5X robot kit

[oaklybonn]

For a vintage kit from the same era, you might want to check out:

http://www.rbrobotics.com/ [rbrobotics.com]

The kit was about $1000 for chasis and boards. Lots of discrete components here, lots of hackability. All that its lacking is a time machine so I can actually get a chance to work on the one I bought two years ago...