A new arrival...

Greetings all; A new arrival joined us tonight, but it looks like he is suffering from a very rough life. A HERO-1, who was fished out of the dumpster (EEK!) a couple of years ago, and rattled around someone's desk ever since as a curiosity. Fortunately, I have a friend who was able to rescue him from this rather unpleasant fate. At first glance, he is in rather sad shape. One of the metal side panels and both of the plastic panels are missing, there are some cracks in the head plastics, the blue foam bar for the sonars is gone, a couple of keycaps from his keypad are missing, and the arm plastics are badly damaged. Mechanically though he seems fairly complete. Some bent metal here and there but nothing too serious, and the wrist is going to need some help. Batterys are completely shot, no charger or teaching pendant, tho I have all that with my other HERO-1. And besides, I've been looking for an excuse to build a 'control console' for Science Fair demos. (big buttons and icons) Electronics look to be in fair condition, I've noted a couple of (common) ICs are missing, and in my first quick look I noted a small junction board mounted on the bottom plate just inside of the back door marked 'Interface board' that puzzled me... Until I pulled the head plastic and found that what I had first thought to be a 'bike flag' (really, a red triangular flag that says "HERO" on a stiff wire), was actually the antenna for the RF remote receiver unit! No apparent options other than the arm (and speech board). Have not checked ROM versions yet... He will need a thorough check out before I consider powering him up. But... all in all, I think he might even make it back to life in time for our next scheduled Science Fair appearance in February. (one can always hope) ...And then there were three! Mayhaps he will join us at VCF IV. B^} -jim --- jimw(a)computergarage.org The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174