Making Custom NXT/Technic Parts
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Saakia Bakker, a student at the Eindhoven University of Technology created some custom NXT (Technic) parts using rapid prototyping (a three-dimensional printing-like technology). This was done in the context of trying to build a Lego hovercraft, but the part-manufacturing technique itself is interesting in its own right. Check out the detailed report for more details.
Any suggestions for other really cool and useful parts?
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A Power-Functions Remote-Controlled Vehicle
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
I uploaded a video (with some stills in it) of a Power-Functions remote controlled car. It uses a dual-differential drive so that it can go straight well. (The video also shows stills of an earlier version that used a more conventional steering; but it was almost impossible to make it go straight.)
The Power-Functions parts are from the Monster Dino, which is a great fun to build but not so exciting to play with, since it moves fairly slowly and since you can’t steer it. The same is true for the alternate model, an alligator.
So I was trying to use the remote-control capability to build a vehicle that would be fast and maneuverable. The video shows the result, which is really fun to play with.
Not really NXT, but still fun!
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LEGO DigiComp II
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Brian Davis (MDP, MCP etc.) made this nice LEGO version of a “computer”. This isn’t NXT specific, but very interesting for people involved into basics of computing. Nice work Brian!
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NXT Medley
Friday, December 14th, 2007Check out these classic Christmas videos posted by the OrganFairy of him playing a medley with his modified AlphaRex.
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Challenge #3 - Part 1
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Well, instead of writing everything (a formable task considering the length) I decided to split the write-up into multiple posts. So, finally, here is the first part of the challenge 3 summery:
What did we have? eight competitors and a total of thirteen submissions. The goal, I remind, was to build a robot that moves a weight 1 meter in air. Score was given, among other factors, to the robot body/weight ratio. Due to the similarity with ants, I called these robots ‘ANxT’s….
The figure below shows the progression of body/weight ratio from the challenge announcement (Jul 9th) till the deadline. I must admit you surprised me (again…) with the amazing results at the final submissions.
As promised, I will put some information on each of the competitors robots.
To get started I show below the robot of kbirk from Denmark (1.1 body/weight ratio):
the video of this robot is found here and the RobotC file is here.
The second robot is from Brickmaster_MV, a 13 years old NXTer from the US. I enjoyed the image below showing weighting of the robot:
Well, he did find a better way to measure it’s weight later… His robot reached body/weight ratio of 2.3. A better view of his ANxT is this:
You can see this robot in action here. His robot didn’t pass the second black line at the end of the process, but it doesn’t matter much in this case…
I enjoyed very much getting these two submissions. Both kbirk and Brickmaster_MV knew they had no chance at winning when they submitted their robots, but both said they enjoyed and learned a lot in the process – which is the reason for these NXTasy.org challenges anyhow!
to be continued…
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FLL Power Puzzle
Monday, December 10th, 2007With the coming FLL regional finals, I thought to pay tribute to Jonathan and Richard, contributers of TheNXTStep, and give easy links to their excellent review on FLL Power Puzzle missions.
FLL Mission Overview Part 1 - Roof Solar Panel
FLL Mission Overview Part 2 - Solar Power Satellite
FLL Mission Overview Part 3 - Hydro-Dam
FLL Mission Overview Part 4 - Power Plant Supply
FLL Mission Overview Part 5 - Tree Planting
FLL Mission Overview Part 6 - Oil Drilling
FLL Mission Overview Part 7 - Wave Turbine
FLL Mission Overview Part 8 - Grid Connection
FLL Mission Overview Part 9 - Coal Mining
FLL Mission Overview Part 10 - Personal Vehicle Choice
FLL Mission Overview Part 11 - Oil Barrels
FLL Mission Overview Part 12 - Corn
FLL Mission Overview Part 13 - Uranium
FLL Mission Overview Part 14 - Wind Turbines
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NXTasy Challenge 4
Thursday, December 6th, 2007I apologize for not publishing all the nice video and photos of the previous challenge, but I decided not to delay the announcement of NXTasy.org challenge No. 4 - so here it is!
The mission is simple - make an NXT bot that moves around on the black oval circle in the NXT test mat. The fastest robot to make a complete circle wins 60$ coupon courtesy of mindsensors.com!
Oh, did I mention wheels are not allowed? =)
Deadline: March 1st, 2008
I encourage people to post any information they wish to share on their submission before the deadline to inspire others, but will not force anyone nor will I do so myself until the above date.
Comments/questions (and answers) and extra rules on-the-fly will be found in this forum topic.
Guy Ziv
NXTasy.org Editor
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Table Cleanup
Thursday, December 6th, 2007Alban made this robot to clean his desk. In the spirit of the upcoming NXTLog Sumo, you can get some inspiration for other usage of this robot. More details and images are here (french only). I think my desk is too cruded for this nice NXT to be effective…
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NXT Sumo
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
BlueToothKiwi (and his family) made these three NXT robot sumo - the good, the bad and the ugly. Great use of NXT and power function elements with impressive results too!
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SCARA Robot
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007Check out this YouTube video of a Lego SCARA robot arm by pishita69. SCARA stands for Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm. This type of design is often used in pick-and-place, assembly, and packaging applications. You can find out more about scara robots here. Nice work.
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