Here’s a trip down memory lane… The very first robot I made as a kid! 80’s Retro Chic! 😛

Check out that state-of-the-art dot-matrix printed label on his front!! And I designed that logo too. 😀

COR – Cassette Operated Robot (Even the name sounds 80s.)

Haha. Yup!! So retro!!

His lunchbox head could sit into the body like this!

What’s in the body?

Uh-huh! Nothing, but a remote controlled car! 😛

Here’s a close up of the head. (I was too lazy to clean the dust off…)

The elastic straps used to hold a tape recorder, it’s no longer there. I probably had to give it back to my Dad or something.

The white box there is a buzzer that was placed next to the tape recorder’s microphone.

Out of the other hole, a phono plug came out which plugged into the cassette recorder’s earphone plug.

There are 2 buttons. I think one button operated the buzzer and the other operated the remote inside (without the buzzer).

What’s inside the lunch box?

Yeah, baby! Good old sticky-taping the wires together! None of the nasty solder stuff. 😛

And a hacked remote control for the car!! The car was very rudimentary remote controlled car, one that was operated with a single button. If you let go of the button, it would go backwards-turn (spin backwards in a circle), and if you pressed the button, it would go forward.

So, what did this thing do???

You could drive it around, record its motions onto the tape recorder and play them back.

I had hacked the remote control so that when a loud sound was playing from the tape recorder’s headphone socket, it would trigger the remote button. So, the car would move in a backwards circle when no sound was coming out of the tape, and would go forward when a loud sound came out of the tape.

Then with the buttons on the lunchbox, I the could trigger the buzzer!

So, I would start recording on the tape recorder, drive the car around using the buzzer (yes, it was loud and annoying), then I could play back the tape to have the car repeat the motion that I recorded.

Ta-Da!! A robot that could record its motions onto an audio cassette and play it back!

To hack the remote, I think I just randomly connected the headphone wires into points until I found a place that would trigger the button! I don’t think I knew what I was doing at all. Kid-style hacking! 😛

Very basic, but it was my first bot. And I still have him. Just goes to show, everyone has to start somewhere! 😀