roboDNA Dashboard Designer 2007 Beta

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

A new commercial product supporting NXT drive-by-wire was brought to our attention by Lou Morris from roboDNA.com. The software package “roboDNA Dashboard Designer 2007 Beta” (final version will cost $89 for non-commercial use) allows users to easily and interactively build impressive dashboards (i.e. user interfaces) to control and monitor NXT robots (as well as other robotic platforms).

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Posted in news, software | 38 Comments »

Meet the NXTMECH

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

Forum member, SickBrick, has posted information about his newest LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot called NXTMECH — a biped using two intelligent bricks and six (thanks Edwin) motors. Very cool. Pictures and video available!

I was never really a fan of chicken walkers, but hey, they’re a lot easier to build than humanoid bipeds.

the mechanics are pretty simple. The motor is pretty much directly connected to the joint at the hips. at the knees they’re connected to one gear and at the ankle its a worm gear with some gear reduction. and then somehow just get them nxt bricks on there - which i should modify so you can add the rechargeable batteries. but its ok.

programming on the other hand, is nothing short of a college level trial and error, mathematics and physics set of equations. getting it to walk will take me some time. on one of my videos, i got it to stand up and the other to lean left and right..without falling over. (which has happened many times already)

Posted in video, projects | 6 Comments »

Next Bytes Code 1.0.1 b11 Available

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

John Hansen has released an updated NBC beta.

This beta release has a number of additional macros in NXTDefs.h for simplifying several aspects of programming the NXT.

NBC allows users to program the LEGO Mindstorms NXT using textual code with assembly language syntax.  A few new tutorials are now available, as well.

Posted in development, news | 1 Comment »

LEGO Mindstorms NXT Education Software

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

Anthony Dhanendran from Computeract!ve reviews the LEGO Mindstorms NXT education kit.

Good points
* Great way to learn about basic engineering and programming
* Plenty of fun
* Easy to program

Bad points
* Can be complicated for younger children
* An expensive toy

Overall
If you can justify the cost, Lego Mindstorms NXT is an extremely fun and educationally minded toy.

Posted in news, reviews | No Comments »