Vernier and NXT
Friday, September 21st, 2007With the coming release of their NXT adaptor, Vernier put online an impressive webpage http://www.vernier.com/nxt/ with links, NXT-G block and information on sensors the new adaptor works with. These includes:
25-g Accelerometer
Barometer
Charge Sensor
Colorimeter
Conductivity Probe
Current Probe
Differential Voltage Probe
Dissolved Oxygen Sensor
Dual-Range Force Sensor
Electrode Amplifier
Extra Long Temperature Probe
Flow Rate Sensor
Force Plate
Gas Pressure Sensor
Hand Dynamometer
Instrumentation Amplifier
Light Sensor
Low-g Accelerometer
Magnetic Field Sensor
O2 Gas Sensor
ORP Sensor
pH Sensor
Relative Humidity Sensor
Salinity Sensor
Soil Moisture Sensor
Sound Level Meter
Stainless Steel Temperature Probe
Surface Temperature Sensor
Thermocouple
Turbidity Sensor
UVA Sensor
UVB Sensor
An impressive list, isn’t it?
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Friday, August 17th, 2007
Ian Ahrris kindly pointed me to his website describing ready-made expension IO cards by Futurlec, which can be (rather easiliy) integrated into the NXT. These commercially available boards include a 7-segment display (image above) and an 8 LED output board.
Thanks Ian!
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NXT Gyro released
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007HiTechnic released the Gyro sensor! See it here.
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Another RFID sensor
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007User RFID has made public a design project report he made in univ. of San Diego describing construction of RFID sensor and assosiated NXT-G blocks. See it here.
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NXT Brick Sorting Solenoids
Monday, July 30th, 2007
markr80, whom we previously reported built interface for different solenoids to NXT, has published this new YouTube. Here he demonstrate how to sort bricks by color using several soleniod-activated levers that deflect the brick to different lanes at the bottom.
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RFID sensor for NXT
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
Another long lasting who-will-be-the-first challenge completed! Anders has published in great detail how he constructed an I2C RFID reader sensor for NXT. He used a Paralax RFID reader and a MSP430F169 MCU to communicate with the NXT.
More information, video and details are found here.
Well done Anders! Thanks for time you spent documenting this project!
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Quantum Torque NXT sensors
Monday, July 9th, 2007
I never heard of Quantum Torque, did you? Well, their website says that “Quantum Torque is a independent Australian internet shop which aims to provide components and products that can be used for robotics and embedded electronics projects”. The picture above is a ‘cball Infrared Ball Sensor’ - 8 x infrared photodetectors arranged in a 180 degree semi-circle. It has I2C interface, and their site has NXT-G and RobotC examples. Other products on their site is a ‘iball’ (1 x infrared photodetector with NXT socket) and an NXT breakout PCB board. Check their site for details.
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Connect a GPS with pbLua
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007Ralph Hempel describes how to use pbLua to stream Bluetooth GPS data to the NXT. See this page for the code and details.
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Using Stepper Motors
Monday, June 18th, 2007
Steppers are motors that move in discrete steps. You can control them to move a given number of steps without any feedback. You can rotate them slowly but with a lot of force without using any gears.
See full description of the project (which includes a video) to learn how to integrate a common stepper motor into a NXT creation and how control it.
My controller was influenced by a stepper controller that Michael Gasperi posted to one of the forums. See the forum for the Michael’s circuit and program, and click here for a video of his stepper in action.
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POB-Bridge
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
Here’s a new product from POB-Technology - POB-Bridge. The POB-Bridge allows you to :
- Get analog values on 5 analog inputs.
- 8 digital Inputs/Outputs.
- UART Communication.
- Connect a POB-EYE color camera to recognize forms.
POB-Technology has already developed 5 bricks to help the user to create his robot. Here’s a link to POB-Bridge specifications. A YouTube video is here.
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Port Expander by Mindsensors.com
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
Mindsensors.com now sells a port expander. It allows either running 3 motors together (no separate control over each motor speed or encoder readout) and multiplexing several digital (I2C) sensors on single input ports. You can order it via mindsensors.com NXT Accessories page.
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A Solenoid-Triggered Gun
Monday, June 4th, 2007
The NXT servos and other Lego motors are useful actuators, but it’s interesting to explore other actuators. The “Extreme NXT” book by Michael Gasperi, Philo, and Isabelle Hurbain shows how to use many more actuators with the NXT: LED’s, lamps, relays, motors, and a really exotic one called a muscle wire. But it’s always an interesting challenge to find out how to control new kinds of actuators, and it’s often even more interesting to find out ways to integrate them into the Lego/Technic/NXT building system.
In this project I tried to use a solenoid, which is basically an electromagnet that pulls a metal plunger when current flows through it. There were three main challenges in this project: to integrate the solenoid into a Technic mechanism, to find a good use for it in spite of the very short stroke (length of movement), and to drive it either from a motor port or from a sensor port. The difficulty in using a sensor port is that sensor ports cannot provide the high current required to activate the solenoid.
A web page describes the project with pictures and a short video. If you are interested, you may also want to join the lively discussion on actuators in the hardware forum.
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Toy Piano Interfaced to NXT
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
Gasperi does it again! Here’s a toy piano with 23 ’switches’ (i.e. keys) interfaced to one NXT port, using two PCF8574s. More info here.
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