NXT Poker Machine
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
In an effort to learn more about NeXT Byte Codes I developed a simple poker machine for the NXT Brick. The program gives you one hundred dollars to start and lets you alter bets with the bricks buttons. Winning combinations are 4 of a kind, 3 of a kind, 2 pair and straights (straights must appear in order). My original idea was to create an old leaver style of poker machine and I will release it if people seem interested. This project helped me to further understand the implementation of subroutines, threads, graphical syscall and array handling with NeXT Byte Codes. I would encourage learners of NeXT Byte Codes to develop their own poker machine, it is very worth while.
I am providing a NXT Poker Machine file with the program and graphics so you can have a look, I will also provide the source code to people that are interested.
Posted in development, projects, knowledge | 37 Comments »
LEGO Mindstorms NXT — The Mayan Adventure
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
Our good buddy Jim Kelly over at The NXT Step has announced availability of his new book ‘LEGO Mindstorms NXT — The Mayan Adventure’. Buy the book now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!
LEGO Mindstorms NXT: The Mayan Adventure presents a multipart fictional story as the premise for introducing and detailing a unique robot. The story’s main character, Max, is on an archaeological expedition with his uncle in the jungles of Guatemala to investigate a newly discovered Mayan pyramid. During the expedition, the team encounters various problems. And each problem is solved with the help of a unique robot that Max creates.
Following each chapter in which a new problem is introduced is a “theory” chapter that discusses the concepts and provides the programming knowledge you need for creating the robot. The robot “solution” chapter ultimately follows. Over the course of the book, you’ll follow along as Max and the expedition team use the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit to overcome obstacles and move deeper into the Mayan pyramid.
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NXT-G Blocks from Steve Hassenplug
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
Steve Hassenplug has posted in our forums that he has uploaded several NXT-G blocks that he created with the LabVIEW Toolkit. You can find these blocks on the Team Hassenplug site. Make sure you have the Dynamic Block update installed.
Line Following block
This block should be placed in a loop, and will cause drive the motors at the speed specified, so the robot can follow the edge of a line, with a single light sensor. My tests show this single block will execute about 2 to 3 times as fast as the same code in NXT-G.Display Number block
I made this block as a debugging tool. It combines several blocks that (due to program limitations) can not be compiled into a My Block. The block takes a line number, a caption, and a number as input. The Caption and Number are displayed on the given line on the screen. This block requires the “Display Performance” block be installed, in order to work.Simple Array block
The array block is a repackaged sub-block. It will allow you to Clear the array, Add values, and Get values given the index.Acceleration Sensor block
This is the first block I made. The Configuration panel is not complete. It works with one of the prototype acceleration sensors from Hi-Technic. It has outputs for X, Y & Z. It can not be used as a loop block condition, because I didn’t finish that part.
Posted in development, news | 28 Comments »
A Tale of Two TriBots
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
My local LEGO educational distributor (Robotec Technologies) asked me to create an interesting NXT demonstration for an NIDays exhibition. The end product was a 2 NXT demonstration using slightly modified TriBots which communicate via Bluetooth (BT) and using a combination of ultrasound (US), motor encoders and two HiTechnic compass sensors. The first TriBot finds and captures aluminum can, and then sends a message to the other TriBot, which in turn finds it, aligns the two iteratively by measuring azimuths using compass, and finally pass the can between the two. All programming was done using NXT-G.
A video of the whole process can be found here on YouTube. I’ll put more details and programs on NXTLOG soon.
Posted in personal, video, projects, news | 3 Comments »
Brickworld 2007 Announced
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
A new AFoL event has been scheduled for next year in Chicago.
Here are the early details:
BrickJournal™, BrickStructures™, Team Hassenplug, Team Possible, Team B-squared and Fun Time Technologies have joined forces and are pleased to announce Brickworld ‘07 to be held in Chicago. Brickworld™ is a chance to showcase your creations right here in the Central Midwest. Chicago being the third largest city in the U.S. naturally has a great deal to offer - including 3 Lego outlets. We are strategically placing the Brickworld location in the suburb of Wheeling, IL just 30 minutes northwest of downtown Chicago. Wheeling is conveniently located close to the expressway servicing O’hare Airport and is also half way between the 2 Lego outlets at Woodfield Mall and Northbrook Mall, each 15 minutes away. The 3rd Lego store is located downtown Chicago 30 minutes away.
The event will be held at the brand new 5 star Westin Hotel & Convention Center. The main ballroom offers 15,000 sq/ft and an additional 15,000 sq/ft around the ballrooms peripheral for small group sessions, competitions, demonstrations, The Great Build (more about that later), marketplace, etc.
BrickWorld ‘07 will be held from June 21st - 24th 2007. We are excited to bring this show to the public during a time of year when school is out and sunshine & good weather are in. The convention area will be open for setup the afternoon of June 21st for early birds. We will have a closed AFOL exhibitor day on Friday and public exhibition on Saturday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 24th. This June weekend is reserved at the site for the next 3 years, reinforcing this event as the one event not to miss!
Want to have an exhibit on display and/or interested in attending? Please visit http://www.brickworld.us/ for more updates as they become available.
Posted in news, events | 28 Comments »