The Future of NXTasy Challenges

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

With the coming deadline of our first NXTasy challenge (December 1st, if anyone has forgotten), we would like to hear your opinions regarding the future of these challenges. We had very little participation so far (if anyone is waiting ’til the last day - don’t wait! You may still be surprised by others who do the same and have no time to improve your robots), which raises the question if we should go on with the second NXTasy challenge (which was meant to be a programming-only challenge using Tribot). I thank again HiTechnic for contributing a Compass sensor for the winner, and mindsensors.com who promised 5 discount coupons for the top 5.

Any comment/suggestion/remark will be welcome as comments to this post or by email to challenge@nxtasy.org

Posted in nxtasy | 44 Comments »

Building Knowledge With LEGO

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006

A local news site features a closer look at a FIRST LEGO League team competing in a tournament at James Madison University this Saturday.

In some respects, Chase Conley’s LEGO robot looked like any other creature built by an imaginative child.

Gray, black and yellow LEGO pieces clasped together to form what resembled an Army tank.

But this robot wasn’t a toy.

At about 6 inches long and 4 inches tall, the robot had an arm that extended from its right side and ended in pinchers. It had sensors that responded to light and touch, and in its middle sat an NXT controller, the brains of the operation.

The robot was programmed to perform a very specific set of missions.

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Dynamic Block Update

Monday, November 13th, 2006

As one of the LEGO Mindstorms Community Partner’s (MCP), we sometimes get wind of new things in the pipeline from LEGO. Well, for those of you who are fans of NXT-G a new feature is expected out shortly - Dynamic Block Update. Details are sketchy right now, but it will likely come via software update for NXT-G. More:

Description

Windows/Mac

The Dynamic Block Update allows the MINDSTORMS NXT Software to import new blocks to the Complete palette. These blocks include the Mini Blocks, the Legacy Blocks, 3rd party sensor blocks or any other blocks developed using the LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.

Expect to see details on the LEGO Mindstorms site within the next few days.

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News You Can Use

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

The LEGO Mindstorms NXT community is growing! It’s wonderful to see new sites with great content popping up left and right.

We work hard to dig up stories that we think you’ll enjoy. See something you like on nxtasy.org? Feel free to post it on your own blog or website. We are all for viral news as it is an excellent way to spread the word on the latest and greatest thing to hit our community. All we ask is that you make sure you link to our original post.

If you’re new to blogging and unsure of how to format it, here are a few ways to do it:

- Include the link in the body of your post:

Just saw this great robot on nxtasy.org!

- Or just add a line at the end:

[Via nxtasy.org]

Thanks! And keep up the good work!

Rachel
nxtasy.org Editor

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RoboRealm Machine Vision for NXT

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

The talented folks at RoboRealm have added a module that provides machine vision capabilities to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT. This free software allows you to control your robots from a PC over a Bluetooth connection, and with a wireless camera, a digitizer, and a little VBScript, gives you the ability to incorporate machine vision to do some pretty cool things.

To demonstrate, RoboRealm hooked up a wireless camera to a TriBot and programmed it to use machine vision to help find a blue ball, pick it up, and move it to an orange cone. Take a look at the videos below to see the robot in action. A comprehensive tutorial is also available to get you started.

Video of robot view:

Video of 3rd-person perspective:

Posted in video, development, news, software, hacking | 25 Comments »

MS Robotics Studio November 2006 CTP Released

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

Microsoft Robotics Studio sees an updated community technology preview for November. This release brings new security support, visual programming language improvements, simulation improvements (like the new wireframe view), a new deployment tool, and service improvments.

While you will see some significant new features in this preview, from here we will be winding down and focused on finalizing what we have for version 1. If you encounter any significant issues after installing this latest preview, please post something to us in our newsgroup. Feature requests are still welcome, but we may save these for our next release.

Posted in development, news, software | No Comments »

NXT Mobile Application Now Available!

Monday, November 6th, 2006

A few weeks ago, nxtasy.org reported that a new download would be surfacing soon from the LEGO site for interfacing your mobile device with the Mindstorms NXT. Well, the time has come! The NXT Mobile Application is now here!

Here’s a brief summary of basic operation:

Remote Control
This enables you to control two motors on the NXT. Use the joystick/command wheel on your phone to go forward, backwards, stop – or you can choose to control one motor at the time. If your NXT model have wheels (like the Tribot) it will be much like a remote controlled car.

Program Control
This mode enables you to control any of the programs on your NXT. First select the program you want to control and then you can send command messages to your NXT by pressing the numeric keys on your phone. What the NXT does when you press the keys depends entirely on your program.

Collected Data
If the NXT can make your phone take photos, this is where you can find them. Have you made a program that sends data to your phone, this is where you can find it as well, for instance be readings from the sensors.

Posted in news, software | 18 Comments »

Razix’s NXT Director Updated

Monday, November 6th, 2006

NXT Director, a remote control application for Palm OS mobile devices, has been recently updated with new features.

Per Razix:

More functions added. Telemetry of sound, light and touch sensors now online. More to come when I have some time. This addition ate up my whole weekend!

Posted in development, news, software | No Comments »

NXT in TIME

Monday, November 6th, 2006

The LEGO Mindstorms NXT makes it to TIME Magazine this week in a brief review — probably due to its popularity this holiday season.

I’ll never forget that Christmas morning in 1984 when I got the mother of all Lego sets, the medieval castle, and how happy I was snapping the colored pieces together to build it higher and higher. So it was a special treat for me to open up the latest iteration of the Lego franchise, a sophisticated system of sensors, motors and computer controllers called Lego Mindstorms NXT.

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BrickFest PDX 2007

Monday, November 6th, 2006

A few years ago, the first BrickFest outside of the Washington, D.C. area was held in Portland, OR.  Due to popular demand, it looks like another is in the works to be held March 30 - April 1! 

In the spirit of the positive feedback we have received we are thinking of this event sort of like a “reunion”; we feel that the family or class reunion best captures the hullabaloo of last time, that we would like to extend to all AFOLs! In addition to several classrooms for sessions at the Oregon Convention Center we have 30,000 square feet of exhibit hall, so there is plenty of SPACE for exhibits and other activities.  

Keep your eyes open for more information about registration and public day.

Miss out on this year’s BrickFest?  See some of nxtasy.org’s coverage and videos!

[via BrickFest]

Posted in general, news, events | No Comments »

Shifting Gears: A NXT Vehicle with a Transmission

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

This creation is really more about modelling cars than about robotics. One NXT motor drives the car, a second NXT motor steers it, and a third controls the transmission. Apart from the NXT brick, the motors, and the touch sensor, the parts are not from the NXT kit. Most of the parts are from Lego set 8421, a large Technic crane. The full description of this vehicle contains a video and many more images. Don’t miss the video!

Posted in projects | 44 Comments »