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Show HN: I'm a robot tech enthusiast and this is my robot website

195 points by zerzeru 8y ago

codeduck 8y ago
NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Which browser/OS ? Does it still do that ? Working fine right now for me.
- zerzeru 8y ago
  I applied successful for a ssl certificate :( any idea why this is happening? the https version of the website works
  - giancarlostoro 8y ago
    They might be running a browser with outdated hardcoded certs. I noticed in older versions of Ubuntu SSL is broken for Midori on most sites including google.com so they might have the same issue.
tjaad 8y ago
Cool site. I'd wish you had a Twitter account or newsletter so I can follow you!
- kkshetty 8y ago
  +1 on the Twitter account idea. Ditched my FB account a long time ago. Perhaps you could use one of those social media tools to automatically cross-post to Twitter?
- zerzeru 8y ago
  it's a good feedback.. thanks :) for now please use the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/personalhomerobots https://www.facebook.com/personalhomerobots
- jsilence 8y ago
  The site does have a RSS feed at /feed.
almostarockstar 8y ago
Please don't ask to show me notifications as soon as I load your site. Nobody wants your notifications.
- zerzeru 8y ago
  I disabled them . thanks for your feedback :)
  - hutzlibu 8y ago
    I would add a button, like "keep me updated", where people who want them, can turn them on.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  I've added One Signal to my blog and enabled the icon mode (which doesn't ask for notifications but gives you an icon you can press). A surprising number of people did subscribe.
- quickthrower2 8y ago
  I’d be happier if browsers didn’t ask. Instead it’s a default no, and you have to go into settings to enable it.
johnchristopher 8y ago
Nice logo :).
johnchristopher 8y ago
Nice project. You may benefit from an about page or a profile page to get to know you and why you set up the website.
- KineticLensman 8y ago
  There is an 'About' at the bottom but all this seems to do is to return to the top of the page - it doesn't seem to have any profile info. Also, why not have an 'about' link on the header bar?
thekhatribharat 8y ago
I think a YouTube channel where you tinker with these kits and offer detailed reviews could be more useful. Something like Unbox Therapy, for personal robots. :)
- zerzeru 8y ago
  nice idea :)))!
emilfihlman 8y ago
Your site css is a bit broken. The tagline "The World is ready for the robot revolution" is hidden underneath the header bar when on top (on Surface Pro 3).
- KineticLensman 8y ago
  For me (Opera on Windows 10 with Privacy Badger and uMatrix) the site seems to have mostly loaded okay. > The tagline "The World is ready for the robot revolution" is hidden underneath the header bar For me the top of the tagline is partially obscured but there is enough visible for it to be readable. Still needs fixing. The 'Scroll Down' button. Hmmmm. It should perhaps be called 'Hide header' since this is the main effect. Once you've clicked it, you have to use the normal scroll bar anyway.
raesene9 8y ago
cool site. In this line, one thing I've been looking for, but unable to find a good option for, is a robot which you can control over a wi-fi network which has a camera on it and it can roll round your house. So my use case is to check up on my cats when I'm away. I've not seen a load of good options for this...
- jsilence 8y ago
  Ever thought about pitting one of those tiny cameras on your cats and make them upload the pictures to the cloud? That way would not have to find them with the robot.
  - raesene9 8y ago
    They do have radio collars, but those only have a range of 1/4 mile or so. There are GPS equivalents but the battery life/size has never been ideal.
- candiodari 8y ago
  I did this at one point. The cats would jump on top of it, at which point your robot won't move anymore. But at least at that point you know the cats are alright. Second issue is the ground perspective sucks. My house really does look very different from 5cm over the ground instead of 2 meters. The cats can sleep on the table and I'd never be able to tell.
  - raesene9 8y ago
    yeah I was hoping for something about 1-2ft tall ideally with an adjustable camera. Still wouldn't spot all the places but could be useful.
- bibyte 8y ago
  What about a RC car with a camera ?
  - raesene9 8y ago
enriquto 8y ago
The site is empty when browsing with an ad blocker.
- onion2k 8y ago
  Sounds like your ad blocker is a bit too enthusiastic. It's fine with Privacy Badger.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  Works fine for me with uBlock Origin and Firefox's Content Blocking enabled.
- mnw21cam 8y ago
  It's also empty when viewed with javascript turned off.
dawie 8y ago
Drop the ads. It takes away from an awesome site
- zerzeru 8y ago
  I'm seriously thinking about it :)
  - jcims 8y ago
    You could look at doing sponsored spots, kind of like digg, so the content flows and the site won't just be a pure drain on the pocketbook.
- quickthrower2 8y ago
  I get an shall I say tasteless ad. I’d never put Adsense on a site. It can wreck your brand and reduce trust.
nkg 8y ago
Great idea. I hope to see more content soon.
sharpshadow 8y ago
If humanity fails today this would be a throwback how far we came.
ChlorophZek 8y ago
Really nice website, you deserve more attention!
msadowski 8y ago
That's very cool! Would love to see more examples in the future and maybe some examples that are somewhat in between the consumer and pro market. I've been trying to find a 4 wheel skid steering robot with a decent payload capacity for sensor testing and they are surprisingly rare.
kissgyorgy 8y ago
The most advanced, most functional is Vector: https://www.anki.com/en-us/vector https://www.anki.com/en-us/vector There is a Python SDK available for it so you can fully control every aspect of Vector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTIp2tHwgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTIp2tHwgs
- jackhack 8y ago
  For those considering this purchase: proceed with great caution and be sure your seller has a return/refund policy! Perhaps the new Vector 'bot (which appears to be almost identical in all aspects as Anki's first revision of this bot, Cozmo) works fine but I won't risk $250 to find out. ("fool me once...") You see, Cozmo was plagued with hardware issues ("connection lost") making it unusable. My suspicion is a battery unable to satisfy the current draw, or a voltage regulator not up to the task, causing a brownout and CPU crash. By the way, no user-servicable parts, and Anki will not sell a replacement battery. I bought mine for me and my kids to play around with programming -- it was a total waste of money. I could never get it running for more than a few minutes at a time, and startup might require a half-hour of attempts (replace on charger, move arm to boot up, reboot, connect to cozmo network, connect app, cozmo wakes up ... and crashed after a couple seconds.) Once it does connect it may run for 20 minutes or 2 minutes before quitting suddenly. And, while running, it's great! Cute as can be. But product reviews (amazon, etc.) are full of this complaint so many others have experienced it.
  - ASalazarMX 8y ago
    Even if it worked flawlessly, I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a remote-controlled mobile camera with microphone, even if it's cute as hell. I want my robots offline.
nullandvoid 8y ago
Very cool site! Looking at the home section it still looks like we have a while to go till our robot overlords can replace us around the home - but it's none the less interesting seeing bots like "Kuri" taking a non-conventional approach to how I considered house robots to head ( I.E Just follows you around - can play music etc it's more of a companion than anything else but still looks neat ) Off topic as well but I like how you are dealing with the criticism / suggestions on the site even when rather direct ( removing notifications etc by the time I just arrived! )
- zerzeru 8y ago
  thanks, I would like to get more quality robots content.. Working on it! To tell the truth the most potential ( aside Kuri Project) I saw on the open source OTTO series of DIY robots. Regarding the comments .. i'm learning a lot from this discussion tread and I'm very happy to receive feedback :)
kasbah 8y ago
Nice site, subscribed to the RSS feed. Would love if you reviewed the HariFun style quad-ped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pos9pE8xwU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pos9pE8xwU
kerbalspacepro 8y ago
I honestly don't get it. What of these robots are functional? There is a "Toys" heading but... they all look like toys? Every single one?
inetknght 8y ago
I am also a robot tech enthusiast but I haven't yet built robots. I want to. Great site
bzbz 8y ago
Not to be pessimistic, but you’ve been hoodwinked if you think this is a “personal site” without financial incentive. This looks like just the type of website that people make to cash out with referral codes to amazon (or in this case, banggood).
rick22 8y ago
I don't understand why a Robot with basic movement and limited set of actions like picking an object is not popular. The idea is to make apps for them like mobile apps that will do specific jobs like keeping the room tidy or washing dishes. Is building a robot really hard than it looks (without software included) ?

195 points by zerzeru 8y ago

codeduck 8y ago

NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

johnchristopher 8y ago
Which browser/OS ? Does it still do that ? Working fine right now for me.
zerzeru 8y ago
I applied successful for a ssl certificate :( any idea why this is happening? the https version of the website works
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  They might be running a browser with outdated hardcoded certs. I noticed in older versions of Ubuntu SSL is broken for Midori on most sites including google.com so they might have the same issue.

tjaad 8y ago

Cool site. I'd wish you had a Twitter account or newsletter so I can follow you!

kkshetty 8y ago
+1 on the Twitter account idea. Ditched my FB account a long time ago. Perhaps you could use one of those social media tools to automatically cross-post to Twitter?
zerzeru 8y ago
it's a good feedback.. thanks :) for now please use the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/personalhomerobots https://www.facebook.com/personalhomerobots
jsilence 8y ago
The site does have a RSS feed at /feed.

almostarockstar 8y ago

Please don't ask to show me notifications as soon as I load your site. Nobody wants your notifications.

zerzeru 8y ago
I disabled them . thanks for your feedback :)
- hutzlibu 8y ago
  I would add a button, like "keep me updated", where people who want them, can turn them on.
StavrosK 8y ago
I've added One Signal to my blog and enabled the icon mode (which doesn't ask for notifications but gives you an icon you can press). A surprising number of people did subscribe.
quickthrower2 8y ago
I’d be happier if browsers didn’t ask. Instead it’s a default no, and you have to go into settings to enable it.

johnchristopher 8y ago

Nice logo :).

johnchristopher 8y ago

Nice project. You may benefit from an about page or a profile page to get to know you and why you set up the website.

KineticLensman 8y ago
There is an 'About' at the bottom but all this seems to do is to return to the top of the page - it doesn't seem to have any profile info. Also, why not have an 'about' link on the header bar?

thekhatribharat 8y ago

I think a YouTube channel where you tinker with these kits and offer detailed reviews could be more useful. Something like Unbox Therapy, for personal robots. :)

zerzeru 8y ago
nice idea :)))!

emilfihlman 8y ago

Your site css is a bit broken. The tagline "The World is ready for the robot revolution" is hidden underneath the header bar when on top (on Surface Pro 3).

KineticLensman 8y ago
For me (Opera on Windows 10 with Privacy Badger and uMatrix) the site seems to have mostly loaded okay. > The tagline "The World is ready for the robot revolution" is hidden underneath the header bar For me the top of the tagline is partially obscured but there is enough visible for it to be readable. Still needs fixing. The 'Scroll Down' button. Hmmmm. It should perhaps be called 'Hide header' since this is the main effect. Once you've clicked it, you have to use the normal scroll bar anyway.

raesene9 8y ago

cool site. In this line, one thing I've been looking for, but unable to find a good option for, is a robot which you can control over a wi-fi network which has a camera on it and it can roll round your house. So my use case is to check up on my cats when I'm away. I've not seen a load of good options for this...

jsilence 8y ago
Ever thought about pitting one of those tiny cameras on your cats and make them upload the pictures to the cloud? That way would not have to find them with the robot.
- raesene9 8y ago
  They do have radio collars, but those only have a range of 1/4 mile or so. There are GPS equivalents but the battery life/size has never been ideal.
candiodari 8y ago
I did this at one point. The cats would jump on top of it, at which point your robot won't move anymore. But at least at that point you know the cats are alright. Second issue is the ground perspective sucks. My house really does look very different from 5cm over the ground instead of 2 meters. The cats can sleep on the table and I'd never be able to tell.
- raesene9 8y ago
  yeah I was hoping for something about 1-2ft tall ideally with an adjustable camera. Still wouldn't spot all the places but could be useful.
bibyte 8y ago
What about a RC car with a camera ?
- raesene9 8y ago

enriquto 8y ago

The site is empty when browsing with an ad blocker.

onion2k 8y ago
Sounds like your ad blocker is a bit too enthusiastic. It's fine with Privacy Badger.
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
Works fine for me with uBlock Origin and Firefox's Content Blocking enabled.
mnw21cam 8y ago
It's also empty when viewed with javascript turned off.

dawie 8y ago

Drop the ads. It takes away from an awesome site

zerzeru 8y ago
I'm seriously thinking about it :)
- jcims 8y ago
  You could look at doing sponsored spots, kind of like digg, so the content flows and the site won't just be a pure drain on the pocketbook.
quickthrower2 8y ago
I get an shall I say tasteless ad. I’d never put Adsense on a site. It can wreck your brand and reduce trust.

nkg 8y ago

Great idea. I hope to see more content soon.

sharpshadow 8y ago

If humanity fails today this would be a throwback how far we came.

ChlorophZek 8y ago

Really nice website, you deserve more attention!

msadowski 8y ago

That's very cool! Would love to see more examples in the future and maybe some examples that are somewhat in between the consumer and pro market. I've been trying to find a 4 wheel skid steering robot with a decent payload capacity for sensor testing and they are surprisingly rare.

kissgyorgy 8y ago

The most advanced, most functional is Vector: https://www.anki.com/en-us/vector https://www.anki.com/en-us/vector There is a Python SDK available for it so you can fully control every aspect of Vector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTIp2tHwgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTIp2tHwgs

jackhack 8y ago
For those considering this purchase: proceed with great caution and be sure your seller has a return/refund policy! Perhaps the new Vector 'bot (which appears to be almost identical in all aspects as Anki's first revision of this bot, Cozmo) works fine but I won't risk $250 to find out. ("fool me once...") You see, Cozmo was plagued with hardware issues ("connection lost") making it unusable. My suspicion is a battery unable to satisfy the current draw, or a voltage regulator not up to the task, causing a brownout and CPU crash. By the way, no user-servicable parts, and Anki will not sell a replacement battery. I bought mine for me and my kids to play around with programming -- it was a total waste of money. I could never get it running for more than a few minutes at a time, and startup might require a half-hour of attempts (replace on charger, move arm to boot up, reboot, connect to cozmo network, connect app, cozmo wakes up ... and crashed after a couple seconds.) Once it does connect it may run for 20 minutes or 2 minutes before quitting suddenly. And, while running, it's great! Cute as can be. But product reviews (amazon, etc.) are full of this complaint so many others have experienced it.
- ASalazarMX 8y ago
  Even if it worked flawlessly, I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a remote-controlled mobile camera with microphone, even if it's cute as hell. I want my robots offline.

nullandvoid 8y ago

Very cool site! Looking at the home section it still looks like we have a while to go till our robot overlords can replace us around the home - but it's none the less interesting seeing bots like "Kuri" taking a non-conventional approach to how I considered house robots to head ( I.E Just follows you around - can play music etc it's more of a companion than anything else but still looks neat ) Off topic as well but I like how you are dealing with the criticism / suggestions on the site even when rather direct ( removing notifications etc by the time I just arrived! )

zerzeru 8y ago
thanks, I would like to get more quality robots content.. Working on it! To tell the truth the most potential ( aside Kuri Project) I saw on the open source OTTO series of DIY robots. Regarding the comments .. i'm learning a lot from this discussion tread and I'm very happy to receive feedback :)

kasbah 8y ago

Nice site, subscribed to the RSS feed. Would love if you reviewed the HariFun style quad-ped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pos9pE8xwU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pos9pE8xwU

kerbalspacepro 8y ago

I honestly don't get it. What of these robots are functional? There is a "Toys" heading but... they all look like toys? Every single one?

inetknght 8y ago

I am also a robot tech enthusiast but I haven't yet built robots. I want to. Great site

bzbz 8y ago

Not to be pessimistic, but you’ve been hoodwinked if you think this is a “personal site” without financial incentive. This looks like just the type of website that people make to cash out with referral codes to amazon (or in this case, banggood).

rick22 8y ago

I don't understand why a Robot with basic movement and limited set of actions like picking an object is not popular. The idea is to make apps for them like mobile apps that will do specific jobs like keeping the room tidy or washing dishes. Is building a robot really hard than it looks (without software included) ?