Check it out here.

Josh

Here’s a project in progress. A few weeks ago I looked into the internal of the toolkit VI ‘Write Message’ which send BT string from master to slave devices and vise versa:

when you go deep into the internal codes (here’s one good use for the NXTToolkit. Unlike regular NXT-G implementation VIs these VIs are not password protected!) you find that for master BT devices the message string is converted into a ‘BT packet’ by this code fragment:

As some may recognize, this is a Direct Command message format. The 0×80 0×09 start means BT Write Message telegram w/o reply (unfortunatly the master BT can’t request reply, since the firmware does not support it. If it could, there’ve been many more possible uses for the kind of “trick” I show here). It then adds the mailbox, the message length and the message itself. All this is converted into a byte array and sent over BT using a VI called ‘BT Write Buffer’ (not shown).

Having seen this, I started thinking - what if I send other Direct Command telegrams from the master NXT to a slave NXT? As I said earlier, only non-reply telegrams are possible. Among the possible telegrams is the ‘Run Program’ command (0×00 command). Indeed, if I have a program called ‘remote’ on the slave NXT running the following code on a master NXT executes ‘remote’:

As I said in the beginning, this can be cast into an NXT-G block which can either run a program by name on a connected NXT, or stop the current program (0×01 Direct Command). The question is - will it be useful for anything? I will be happy to get your feedback on this at this forum topic.

Guy Ziv

I think long ago some MCPs were playing with a similar concept, but I never saw real results. This guy did a very nice job, combining NXT and Bionicle in a very convincing way. I wonder how far it can go - adding maybe US to each horse, and maybe sending BT messages between the two?

There’s a topic here on this project.

“Creating Cool Mindstorms NXT Robots” by Daniele Benedettelli has come out with some delay. The author and editor’s wise decision to take their time to do this book has purified the contents and enhanced its quality… which can be only described with the attribute : excellent !

Danny has developed a handful sophisticated LEGO robots to which he gave life through control- and behaviour-based programs. The reader is led through slowly growing degrees of difficulty and complexity from “Quasimodo” to “JohnNXT”, while learning about the essence of NXT C-programming and concepts as diverse as finite state machine, hysteresis, underactuation, line following, Boolean operators, decision tables… All these topics are well-woven to form a balanced patch-work of knowledge that has characterized so many good robot books. You consequently learn by doing.

The author astutely combines NXT-programming with remarkable LEGO studless building in order to realize and describe more and more complex robots. With a note of humour the reader is accompanied through all the designs, where he has the impression of participating in the development of each prototype, which definitely is one of the best didactical choices. The graphics of this book are of high quality.

The absolute high-light of course is JohnNXT, the LEGO incarnation of the famous “Short circuit”-movie robot. Daniele uses two NXTs (pardon : three!) for this project. Two NXTs control the robot and communicate with each other over the RS485 high-speed connection. A third NXT is used in a “Remote Control” project and sends its commands via Bluetooth to the robot. But JohnNXT also can survive quite autonomously through a behaviour-modelled program.

Well done Danny !

More pictures are found in NXTLog project page. Good work, John!

btw. Technically it IS possible to build a BT GPS NXT-G block. There’s a lot of work involved, and very little potential users. If anyone is interested, email me. I’ve posted a few posts on GPS in NXTasy, and since some implementations do work in NXC (under standard firmware) they can be ported and wrapped into a NXT-G block (but with a lot of effort).

Guy Ziv

Click here for the article on their Mindstorms main page, below the article about Dean Kamen.

This link seems to be permanent.

Josh

Here is a link to the World Festival awards page, featuring a picture of the team and their robot.

Josh

Here is Little Joe, a biped walker. He was inspired originally by the work of Joe Nagata, but the feet are probably the only bit of Joe’s original that survives.

Little Joe has a pretty smooth and reliable walking action going on which you can see on video here. I’m very pleased with how he turned out. Just wish I’d got him finished in time for the NXTlog competition!

There’s not many instruction sets for bipeds out there (or not that I could find anyway). Hopefully this LDD file will come in useful.

If anyone does build Little Joe, I’d love to hear how you get on…

There is now a new (well written) tutorial on using floats in pbLua.

Keep up the good work, Ralph!