I worked at ZDS after the Heath part of the company moved to another building, then became a separate entity. Several older techs I worked with came over from the Heathkit side, and they would receive the robots the customers built, then fix whatever they messed up , or would get paid to finish the kits for them. The wiring harness was not originally int he for m of a wring harness in the instructions, so one of the things a tech would do is upgrade the robots to an organized wiring harness.
Its been a while since I powered him up, I am planning to start working on him again with more videos later in the year, intermittant connections are a continued problem I keep having to wiggle wires and connections to get all his systems going, once you give him a few wacks he wakes up lol
HERO is the name of several educational robots sold by Heathkit during the 1980s. The Heath Company began the HERO 1 project in October 1979. The first units were available in 1982. Models included the HERO 1, HERO Jr., and HERO 2000. Heathkit... Wikipedia Release date: 1982 Units sold: 14,000(Sold over 8 years) Introductory price: Kit 1500 US$ (today $3894.31), Assembled 2500 US$ (today $6490.52) Dimensions: 20 inches high x 18 inches wide (50 cm x 45 cm)
Do you still get notified of these comments? I have a Hero 1 that tries to say "Ready", but it's like its voice loses power while saying it. The display does light up and I can enter commands, but it does nothing. It had previously been saying ready and the voice module was working, as well as others. I can't get it to do the initialization sequence either. Batteries are new, and fully charged. All fuses are good.
I’ve had that issue off an on but never nailed it down, if I let him sit for a couple weeks without running him through his homing sequence he develops all kinds of start up problems. So far the fix for me has been reseating his I/O boards and sometimes he comes to life enough where I can run him and eventually all his functions start working. His electronics are so old it could be anything 🤪
Great restoration project.👍 I wanted one of these HERO 1's so bad as a geeky computer kid in the 80's.
I worked at ZDS after the Heath part of the company moved to another building, then became a separate entity. Several older techs I worked with came over from the Heathkit side, and they would receive the robots the customers built, then fix whatever they messed up , or would get paid to finish the kits for them. The wiring harness was not originally int he for m of a wring harness in the instructions, so one of the things a tech would do is upgrade the robots to an organized wiring harness.
Its been a while since I powered him up, I am planning to start working on him again with more videos later in the year, intermittant connections are a continued problem I keep having to wiggle wires and connections to get all his systems going, once you give him a few wacks he wakes up lol
HERO is the name of several educational robots sold by Heathkit during the 1980s. The Heath Company began the HERO 1 project in October 1979. The first units were available in 1982. Models included the HERO 1, HERO Jr., and HERO 2000. Heathkit... Wikipedia
Release date: 1982
Units sold: 14,000(Sold over 8 years)
Introductory price: Kit 1500 US$ (today $3894.31), Assembled 2500 US$ (today $6490.52)
Dimensions: 20 inches high x 18 inches wide (50 cm x 45 cm)
Do you still get notified of these comments? I have a Hero 1 that tries to say "Ready", but it's like its voice loses power while saying it. The display does light up and I can enter commands, but it does nothing. It had previously been saying ready and the voice module was working, as well as others. I can't get it to do the initialization sequence either. Batteries are new, and fully charged. All fuses are good.
I’ve had that issue off an on but never nailed it down, if I let him sit for a couple weeks without running him through his homing sequence he develops all kinds of start up problems. So far the fix for me has been reseating his I/O boards and sometimes he comes to life enough where I can run him and eventually all his functions start working. His electronics are so old it could be anything 🤪
I go through sometimes and wiggle all of the connection plugs. Then he will suddenly come to life, it’s been frustrating sometimes.
Just now tried to power him up and nothing, I uploaded a video short on me smacking him on the side to work lol
@@frankycheese we found that being rough with him will sometimes make him work too lol