The Spykee Security Robot

Posted: October 10th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: Tech | Tags: built your own robot, control robot, hacks, robot, skypee, spykee, spykeeworld, wifi, wifi robot | 4 Comments »

20100222-Update:
I found a site with some resources of people that have hacked their Spykee’s already.
Check it out here.

So I was browsing the web last weekend while hanging out with some friends, and came across something spectacular.  On woot.com (A site I check daily) there was a deal for the “Spykee Robot”.  A Wifi-enabled robot that you can control from a PC.  It has a webcam for a “head” and you can control it from their software locally on your wifi, or over the public internet.  Plus it has an auto-docking feature to dock to it’s charging bay if it is parked or within 2 yards of it. It sparked my interest because it was geared as a “security” robot.  So I could leave this at my place and have it email me pictures if there was any movement, or if I left my lights on/iron plugged in/etc.  My friend Mike also wanted one, so I placed the order that day for 2.

Friday evening I received both boxes in the mail via FedEx (undamaged too!) and decided to build them first thing Saturday morning.  I brough the new purchase over to my friend’s house and we began the build.

I’m not going to review the features or anything, there are plenty of other sites that have done that already.  But not many with good pictures on the build or videos.  Also, the demo videos are hilarious.

Manufacturer Site:
SpykeeWorld

Good site for tech specs:
Hacked Gadgets – Spykee-meccano-Robot

Here is the box:

Packaging:

Supposedly over 200 parts that you can use:

Instructions were decent…until you got to the base assembly.  Which is why I went and tore it all down a few times in the time-lapse and just built from my imagination.

Overall it was pretty fun.  The purpose of the post was to introduce people to it (I got it for $99 off of Woot.com), but it is pretty sweet.  My plans are to write a web interface for it so you can publish the webcam to your webpage and queue people up to control it for a specified duration.  Should be interesting.

If you need help with the point-to-point, Wifi-configuration, or questions, I can help.  Leave a Comment.
Techno Deck Rave – Freak the Neighbor’s (Dog) Out:

First Person POV from another Robot ..box push:

A picture taken from my Robot to Mike’s:

The Final Build Pics of the Customized Designs:
Mike’s

Mine:

Time Lapse of the build (With a DJ G-regg Mix):

So now when I travel on business, I can see what’s going on with my place. 

Cheers
-Gregg

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Linux Server Key Exchange – Automated

Posted: October 10th, 2009 | Author: jwiltse | Filed under: Tech | No Comments »

http://code.google.com/p/trustbuilder-linux-bash

Trustbuilder is a simple bash script that runs on one host, and automates the very common and tedious process of exchanging encryption keys with another host. This is often done for linux and unix servers to allow scripts to login to a remote servers using ssh authentication, without requiring a user to enter a password. I.E., this sets up unattended server-to-server authentication for you. There is no error handling in this script, and this type of key exchange may be considered an insecure practice by some institutions. Use at your own risk.

Enjoy
-GRW
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