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Rogue Blue BOE Robot Kit

The Rogue Blue BOT kit is essentially aimed at robotics enthusiasts that have tried Parallax's BOE-Bot kit, but want a bigger chassis. As you can tell from the picture below, the Rogue Blue has plenty of room for additional sensors and material.

Construction

The Rogue Blue comes unassembled in a series of re-sealable bags with the components grouped together in a very logical fashion. This makes it very easy to isolate the components you need for each step of construction.

Furthermore, the kit comes with all the necessary tools (a screwdriver set and a hex key), and even a small bag of spare parts in case you lose any. Therefore, from a construction point of view, you can do very little wrong. The servos are all pre-modified, and the chassis has all points pre-drilled. It actually took me less than 30 minutes to build the Rogue Blue from scratch.

At the end of it all, I had a very sturdy chassis suitable for most hobby robotics projects.

Operation

For those familiar with Parallax equipment, the Rogue Blue is identical to them all, since it uses Parallax's Board of Education. Essentially, the robot consists of a programmable chip (Stamp II), and a breadboard (essentially, a prototyping area for electronic components). You wire up the breadboard, then program the chip in Parallax's development software, tokenize and then download your program via a serial connection.

Performance

The first problem I faced once I'd completed the robot was deciding what to do with it. As it stood, I had built a robot with a Stamp II chip, two servos and a breadboard. Unfortunately, Rogue Blue comes with no components beyond some jumper wires. This means that if you don't own a BOE-Bot, or at least a couple of electrical components, there are fairly severe limitations as to what you can do with the robot.

Thankfully, I do have a BOE-Bot and could use all of the parts, as well as all the pertinent Parallax documentation to build a variety of things out of the Rogue Blue base. For example, I hooked up a very effective light-following robot within 15 minutes, and a obstacle avoiding robot in about 10 minutes. It should be noted that, ironically, the BOE-Bot kit didn't come with enough jumper wires to complete many of the projects listed, and the Rogue Blue didn't have any sensors. The combination of the two means you have more than enough components and jumper wires to make whatever you want.

It is also worth pointing out that the Rogue Blue kit definitely gives you more 'bot for your buck, so people without a BOE-Bot should definitely consider purchasing a Rogue Bot instead, then purchase a few additional components for a few more dollars. Secondly, for BOE-Bot owners, the robot is available as a 'chassis-only' kit which costs half the price (£99).

Aside: Board of Education Revision B.

Evaluating the Rogue Blue allowed me to look at the Revision B version of Parallax's Board of Education. It has been rewired, removing the need for that huge 3300uF capacitor. Most importantly, though, there are direct servo connections, freeing up vital breadboard space.

Conclusion

As a stand-alone kit, the Rogue Blue kit needs additional components to unlock its full potential, but as a replacement kit to BOE-bot kit or as a platform for further development, the Rogue Blue is hard to fault.

9.3

Price: £199.99

Liked: Excellent build, decent chassis, all tools supplied

Disliked: Lack of sensors if you don't already own a BOE-bot kit.

Website: http://www.active-robots.com/

Submitted: 29/09/2003

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