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1980's Heathkit Hero robot teardown / modern equivalent

beacon_dave

This cropped up in discussion elsewhere on Element 14 and may be worth considering for a future show.

https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-83675#comment-96896

 

Heathkit in the 1980's produced and sold an educational/personal robot in kit form or pre-assembled called the 'Hero 1' and then later the 'Hero 1 Jr.' and the 'Hero 2000' models.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HERO_(robot)

They were much sought after by young technical enthusiasts at the time, but the pricing probably placed them more in the college/university domain.

 

If one can be obtained (around 20,000 were sold according to Wikipedia) then it may make an interesting teardown project for the show. If not, then perhaps building a modern equivalent would be an alternative idea for the show.

Parents

  • Just discovered you guys. Y’all ever get round to doing this?

     

     

     

    I have all the Hero’s. My 2000 is still brand new in the box and never been built yet. Been planning to do the build and post videos of it on the web. Life keeps getting in the way though. I also have two Hero 1’s I’m repairing. I tore one down and was planning to do a series of videos on re-assembly.

     

    Never enough time to play with all the toys. :/

     

     

     

    Oh and I scored the Heathkit alarm the Jr interfaces with in guard mode as well. I’ve never seen anyone show that off yet on YouTube so I figured I’d do that eventually as well.

     

     

    Cool site.

     

    ~necron9x11

  • in reply to necron9x11

    Hi!

    Sadly most of the current information online is ancient, the photos are from the 1980's etc., low-resolution.

    That's awesome that you have them all. A video would be great to see!. If you don't mind, some high-res photos could be uploaded here too if you're ok with that. Either in these comments, or if you create a blog post, photos can be inserted inline, and they can be huge (up to 10MB in size) so that it becomes a nice resource of detailed information on the Hero's. I think many people would find that helpful, and might even have suggestions on how to upgrade parts of it.

    This link shows how to insert pictures and videos (these can be inserted as youtube links, and they will appear as inline videos too) into either the comments, or in a blog post (the editor tools are the same):

    Using Editor Tools for Blog Posts

    This website has a lot of engineering information, so lots to explore, and if you need help with repairs or enhancements, or just general engineering discussions, usually someone will always respond.

    Here's my crude robot attempt:

    Building an XMOS and Raspberry Pi Robot XMP-2

    There were a lot more projects here, there was a competition a few months ago:

    Robots with Wheels

Reply
  • in reply to necron9x11

    Hi!

    Sadly most of the current information online is ancient, the photos are from the 1980's etc., low-resolution.

    That's awesome that you have them all. A video would be great to see!. If you don't mind, some high-res photos could be uploaded here too if you're ok with that. Either in these comments, or if you create a blog post, photos can be inserted inline, and they can be huge (up to 10MB in size) so that it becomes a nice resource of detailed information on the Hero's. I think many people would find that helpful, and might even have suggestions on how to upgrade parts of it.

    This link shows how to insert pictures and videos (these can be inserted as youtube links, and they will appear as inline videos too) into either the comments, or in a blog post (the editor tools are the same):

    Using Editor Tools for Blog Posts

    This website has a lot of engineering information, so lots to explore, and if you need help with repairs or enhancements, or just general engineering discussions, usually someone will always respond.

    Here's my crude robot attempt:

    Building an XMOS and Raspberry Pi Robot XMP-2

    There were a lot more projects here, there was a competition a few months ago:

    Robots with Wheels

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