I know, thermometers are cheaper

Arduino based temperature indication on my server rack.  Later replaced with a little color strip. 

Board of Education

I got the paralax BOE arduino version.  Nice little kit.  Boy scouts use 'em. 

Then it got real.

Gort

Heres the first pieces.  Turtle frame, fanless linux box. 

Built up the base controller. Arduino uno and motor control board.  Also power regulators.  

Set up two sla batts and power distribution and monitoring.  One batt is for the computer. 

Next, linux mint and the Kinect!

Then some sonar and ir

Build up, add wireless kb and touchscreen. 

Added encoder w some actbotics hw. 

More buildout. 

360 planar lidar.  Interface built using Processing. 

So, now to teach him to follow, seek, and do. SLAM. Oh yea, he has a parallax laser rangefinder and a compass.  Obviously wifi, vnc. 

Ok, I know you can get cheaper compasess

Arduino Mega, compass, LCD. All from Adafruit. 

robot arm

next I built an arduino united controlled arm. For interface,  I used Labview.

 

Moby. Probably my best overall to date.

Started with good old rover base. 

Mega and motor controller

Then switched to omniwheels.  Can move in any direction, rotating all the while, if you like. 

Sonar on a servo. 

And bluetooth.  Really nice autonomous open path seeker. Can be commanded via bluetooth as well. 

Tweak hexapod

Just a fun storebought kit.

IR follower.