If you know the name Jim Frye then you’ve been a Parallax customer for a long time. Jim’s major contribution to robotics was his company Lynxmotion, now owned by RobotShop. Lynxmotion created the first hexapod robot I’d ever seen, controlled by a BASIC Stamp. For many years, he created commercially available robot kits and was an early adopter in every respect.
Today, Jim is enjoying robotics as a hobby by creating outer space-inspired robotic artwork. He has a simple design process including brainstorming, designing, cutting, assembling, paint. After a few failed attempts with 3D software, he opted to keep the design process simple with CorelDRAW and 2D parts, using an Epilog laser cutter as the only computer-controlled tool. He attends local Hamfest for unique scrap parts like vacuum tubes, passives, variable capacitors, and knobs of all kinds. Jim also collaborated with John Olson, a creative engineer from Grants Pass, Oregon who shared all of his skills openly. At present, Jim has about 18 of these droids in process.
These robots are positionable and have LEDs, for fun. You can see all of his work on his Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/space_robots_from_outer_space/
Can you imagine what kind of scrap parts might exist in the corner of his shop? Nicely done, Jim!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
