NXTLOG reaches 5000 submissions!
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008One week until NXTLOG reaches 5000 projects!
Gather your NXT components and submit your best design. The NXTLOG moderators will freeze NXTLOG submissions at 4999 and in one week will choose the robot that best demonstrates the true LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT creative spirit. Will your robot be the NXTLOG 5000?
And to all MINDSTORMS NXT Camera Bot challenge participants, you still have until February 29th to submit your entries.
We will announce both the NXTLOG 5000 and Camera Bot winners the week of March 3rd.
What will you make?
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RCX sensor multiplexer for NXT
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
Mindsensors.com is now selling this multiplexer, allowing connection of 4 RCX style sensor to one NXT port.
RXMux supports following sensors:
RCX Touch Sensor
RCX Light Sensor
RCX Rotation Sensor
RCX Temperature Sensor
More details can be found here.
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Black Tread Links!!!
Monday, February 18th, 2008Yes - it’s true. LEGO has listened to us and included the following tread links in black!
Which set? These in black will be found in the 7645 MT-61 Crystal Reaper from the Mars Mission Line. American MSRP is $50.
This is not definite, but incredibly likely. The initial prototype did not have them, but the final version most likely will.
I also noticed there were some rumors about black tread links in 8294 Excavator. Sorry but this set will not have them in black.
Josh
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UniBot 2 - a single-motor base unit that can turn
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Some of you may be aware of UniBot 2 from the discussion on the forums, or from my site.
UniBot 2 can be used as a base unit for more complicated robots. The interesting thing about this robot is that it only uses one motor but can still turn by using a ‘floating worm’. This effectively ‘frees-up’ a motor from turning duties, leaving you with two motors for more functionality from the rest of your robot.
Following comments on the original design, this second version of UniBot features more attachment points for a mechanism on top, a better ball-castor arrangement, and a more robust construction. Also, the design now only uses pieces in the NXT retail set, so hopefully it will help users with only one set (like me) build some more complicated robots.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone uses the LDD file to build UniBot, and what contraptions people might put on top of it that use that ‘extra’ motor.
Tip ‘o the hat to 222doc, whose excellent description of a ‘floating worm’ arrangement in the forums prompted me to start building UniBot.
The LDD file for UniBot 2 can be found here.
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BricxCC Scripting
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008BricxCC now has preliminary but fully functional support for compiling and executing PC-based scripts to control your programmable brick (NXT, RCX, Spybot, whatever). These scripts can be edited in BricxCC with syntax highlighting and (coming soon) code and argument completion/insight support. The active brick connection is used to send commands to the brick. The exact same interface used internally by BricxCC (originally based on the Spirit OCX control) to communicate with a programmable brick is exposed within the scripting language. The scripting language is RemoteObjects Pascal Script. Here are a couple sample scripts:
program joybtn01p;
const
OUT_C = 4;
begin
BrickComm.SetMotorPower(OUT_C, 2, 4);
BrickComm.SetFwd(OUT_C)
BrickComm.MotorsOn(OUT_C);
end.
program joybtn01r;
const
OUT_C = 4;
begin
BrickComm.MotorsOff(OUT_C);
end.
These scripts will work for either a connection to an RCX or to an NXT. The BrickComm class’s public interface is shown at
http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/uSpirit.html
BricxCC also has a mechanism for assigning scripts to joystick button press and release events (up to 32 buttons). The first script above would execute when the joystick button 1 is pressed since it is named joybtn01p.rops while the second would execute when button 1 is released. These script files must be located at
C:\Documents and Settings\jhansen\Application Data\JoCar Consulting\BricxCC\3.3
replacing “jhansen” with your own username.
All the pascal scripts have a .rops extension. If you have a script open in an editor window you can compile it and run it using the standard BricxCC compile and Run toolbar buttons or menu items. You can define Pascal Script templates and customize the syntax highlighting color scheme like you can with any other supported programming language.
Soon the scripting language will have access to all of the tool windows in BricxCC. You can even write scripts that display GUI dialogs with event handlers, etc…
http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/test_release.zip
John Hansen
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Challenge No 4 - last 3 weeks
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008As you remember, there are less than 3 weeks for the deadline on the 4th challenge. There were very nice contributions submitted so far, but it is still open to others. The challenge is sponsored by mindsensors.com, contributing 60USD coupon for their online shop for the winner.
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PF Speed control (and more) in NBC/NXC
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008John Hansen published a test release of NBC/NXC with better interface to HiTecnic IRLink, allowing speed (PWM) contol of PF motors and other stuff.
Check it here:
http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/
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NXTLog
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008Here’s some “inside information” I received about NXTLog:
1) People need to remember that a large part of the moderation is done by fellow AFOLs as a volunteer job, so there will be accidental inconsistencies
2) Yes, there was a “change” on NXTLog…LEGO legal said no more links of any kind to external sites (though official implementation is delayed as LEGO figures out what to do about the many links that are already posted
3) Yes, comments with names are rejectedBottom line: LEGO is working to improve NXTLog. Give them a little more time
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Using the Power-Functions Remote to Control an NXT
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
The robot on the top is controlled by the Power-Functions remote through the home-made IR link that the robot carries. The NXT reads the IR commands from the link and uses them to control the motors. Channel 1 on the remote controls the drive motors, and channel 4 controls the grabber. The program that runs on the IR link is the same program that I posted earlier, which is able to both send Power-Functions commands and to receive them. An NXC program on the NXT parses the 16-bit command to extract the channel and specific command (this was facilitated by Lego’s publication of the protocol).
The little vehicle on the lower left is a conventional Power-Functions vehicle, using a battery box, a receiver, and two medium motors (one for each large wheel). It receives on channel 2, so the same remote can control both it and the robot.
Click on the image to watch a video of the two in action.