Rochester Tabletop Robotics League

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  Resources
This page contains links to suppliers used by the group in the past with good results. It is not a exhaustive list. If you have a supplier you like to use and think it should be included drop me a line on the mailing list and I will try and add it.
Parts
Design / build information
Magazines

Parts
Parts are broken down into local and mail order lists. If you thinking of placing a order to one of the mail order suppliers please let the list know. I typically have a few items that are not worth a order on their own but keep on a list for the next order to go out. That way you can split the shipping and handling charges.

Local
Radio shack
 No where what they used to have but still stock a little bit of all the basics.
Wireb's basement
 Just the parts I have sorted and put away. If your looking for something particular drop me a message on the email list and I may have it.
Menard's,
home depot,
Fleet farm,
Ace hardware
 All have a ok selection of bar and sheet metal stock (steel and aluminum). Also do not forget about the plumbing sections its amazing what you can build out of PVC plumbing parts. Fleet farm's bolts by the pound is a great source for larger fasteners. Ace has just about any weird nut screw or bolt you may need but you pay a premium for that selection.
Walmart,
Target,
toy stores
 Great resources for beginner bots. All have good stock of small inexpensive motorized cars and tanks that make a good beginner bot. Also don't overlook legos or other construction toys for bot building materials.


Mail order
Digikey
 Based up in the cities good stock of electronic parts and ground shipping usually arrive in a day.
Mouser
 Another electronics distributer has a good stock of parallax micros and parts
Online metals
 Good source for metal stock and plastics.

Design / build information
Links to design and build information useful to beginners.

Google sketchup
 Free basic cad software useful for mechanical design and planning. Note sketchup has issues with very small dimensions (less that 0.01") If you run into issues and your using small dimensions try multiplying all your dimensions by 10 or 100.
Walmart special
 My build log of turning a $10 walmart RC car into a tethered robot for ball gathering as cheaply as possible.

Magazines
Links to magazines that focus on robotic competitions and related topics.

Servo
 Nuts and volts robotic focused spin off. Covers lots of robotics topics from starter bots to advanced combat. I have quite a few back issues if anyone wants to take a look at them drop a note to wireb on the mailing list.