www.RobotsAndComputers.com

Hero
item #ET-18 by Heathkit

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Begun in 1979 and released in 1982 as an educational tool by Heath, a division of Zenith, I got my first glimpse of this fantastic piece of engineering on the Mr. Wizard's World television show on Nickelodeon. From that moment, I have dreamed of owning one of these.

I understand from my research on the internet that, when Heathkit ended support for the Hero robots, the remaining stock and all rights were sold to a company called Mobile Ed Productions. Inventory, documentation and rights were then sold to Robert Doerr of RobotsWanted.com in 2002. I am, therefore, unable to obtain either owner or technical manuals for these robots in downloadable format. In the future, I hope to be able to offer this service to you for free. In the meantime, any documents will have to come through him or eBay...

If you have any documentation not copywritten by Heath / Zenith or any old advertisements that you would like to share, please email me so that we can add them to this site. Of course it goes without saying that you should also contact me it you have any of the Hero family robots (working or not) that you would like to part with. I would REALLY love to find a kit!

Year Released: 1982
Original Price: starting at $1000 for basic kit up to $2200 fully assembled

Features:
   fully programmable on-board computer
   capacity for over 1000 programming steps
   built-in breadboard for experiments and interface circuits
   six digit 7-segment LED display
   350° rotating head
   seven independant stepper motors
   three wheeled drive (one front powered DC motor with two rear caster)
   200 to 5000 Hz sound sensor
   visible light spectrum (plus infrared) light detector
   ultrasonic motion detector with 15 foot range
   sonar ranging system with 4 inch to 8 foot range
   4-year calendar clock counting seconds, minutes, hours, day/week, day/month, month/year
   17-key hexidecimal keypad
   "Teaching Pendant" to control or program motor and arm movements
   cassette I/O port for program storage

Technical Specifications:
CPU: Motorola 6808 @ 3.59 / 4.00 MHz
Memory: 8K ROM / 4K RAM (two 6116 static RAM ICs) on-board

Power Supply:
   4 x 6v 4 Ahr gel cell batteries - 2 each in series for two 12vdc supplies
   +27vdc 1.75 amp off-board battery charger

Dimensions: 20" high x 18" diameter
Weight: 39 lbs. (17.6 kg) with accessories

Available Options:
   5-axis robot arm (ET-18-1)
   speech module (ET-18-2)
   remote control - 75.43 MHz or 75.67 MHz (ET-18-35 or ET-18-36 respectively)
   demo ROM (ET-18-4)
   monitor ROM listing (ET-18-5)
   memory expansion board (ET-18-6)
   Auto Mode ROM - for autonomous motion (ET-18-7)
   BASIC ROM (ET-18-9)
   RS-232 serial interface (ET-18-10)
   Demo cassette (ET-18-11)

All information and specifications listed here are taken from TAB Books' "The Personal Robot Book" by Texe Marrs - ISBN # 0-8306-1896-1