This was our first trial of a new format meeting running from 6.30pm to 9.30pm to allow people of different ages to come and go. We had ages from six upwards and a total of 30 people attending with a gold coin collection of $24. Thanks to everyone who came and especially those who made the full 3 hours, well done!

Our next meeting is special, as it will be just before Christmas. Bring along Christmas goodies to eat and experience hands on Lego nxt robot programming. Wed 17^th December 6.30pm in the Technology Room at Science Alive. $4 per person, Limit 30 people, two per robot. Register on the email list or email richard.jones at tait.co.nz. To see if you are on the list go to: http://kiwibots.org/calendar-2.html Thanks to John Wynard at Science Alive for organising this.

We started with a DVD viewing of the Australian Robocup Junior competition held in 2007, and Jill Pears spoke about the recent Auckland Finals in which several Christchurch teams were successful. William kindly organised the A4 Back Line sheets that I brought along into a track for robots to follow.

Peter Linscott brought along one of his Tracked Robot kits programmed for tabletop challenge. It did a fine job of navigating the table. These kits are available from Peter at http://www.robokits.co.nz/

Our founder Andrew Errington has returned from his travels to Japan and promised to bring some robut related things once his luggage is unpacked.

Carl brought along a big yellow lawn mower ready to be adapted for robotic use. It could do with some of Peter Harris magic power control circuits, Peter will be back from his travels when the grass has finished growing :-)

Phil talked about the Arduino project and gave us some interesting links:

http://planet.nztech.org/ aggregates the blogs of New Zealanders

http://code.rancidbacon.com/ // It sure aint fresh meat

http://groups.google.com/group/tvic Meet like minded geeks over a meal

http://www.arduino.cc/ Simple Atmel processor board for artists and everyone else

Hanno showed his 2 wheeled balancing robot http://mydancebot.com/ performing on the table and floor and also brought along a line following car.

I showed the progress on my Micromouse. All the major design and construction is done, just the ultrasound sensor circuits to solder up and the control software to do.

Charles Manning gave us a wonderful talk about the insides of the Lego nxt and the structure of the firmware components of the Lejos project and his contribution to porting Java from the rcx to nxt platforms. Charles also gave us some tips about nxt sensors, his notes are here . Thanks Charles for a fascinating talk.