#hero robot

[commodorez]

Before we headed home from VCF East XX, I had to take a moment to visit Hero-1 in the Vintage Computer Federation's museum at InfoAge. Nice to see him back on the museum floor after spending way too long at my house being repaired. Live your best life, little robot.

[commodorez]

Once again, the best way to transport a vintage robot is to buckle it in. Question is, can I get through the HOV lanes with a Hero-1?

[commodorez]

Heathkit Hero-1 Replica I/O Board

I had a Hero-1's I/O board depopulated, scanned, and re-manufactured in order to revive the Hero-1 robot on display at the VCFed museum in Wall, NJ. The original boards had broken vias and stressed out traces, so we needed new ones. I figured lots of other Hero-1 owners might be in the same boat, so I decided to solve this problem for them too. I got this one assembled and installed on the museum's robot at the June workshop, and left it in their care.

Sometimes if you want vintage technology to be preserved, you gotta recreate it yourself.

[commodorez]

Heathkit Hero 2000 - the motherlode of kit robots from the 1980s.

Large Scale Systems Museum (LSSM) - mact.io - Pittsburgh, PA

[commodorez]

Heathkit Hero-1 Internal Chassis

[commodorez]

Heathkit Hero 1 I/O board

X-ray, schematics, a board that someone attempted to repair long ago with bodge wires, and my functional I/O board mounted on another robot. 

The pins that hold this board in place end up flexing the board every time its attached and detached from the robot’s side panel.  As a result, the flexing eventually damages traces to the point that they start to lose continuity, and the computer board can’t control the peripheral boards any more.  I’m desoldering all of the components off that board to send it away for scanning and replication, so that new boards can be made to replace the ones damaged like this.

[commodorez]

Banished to the basement for robot crimes.