NXTMonger's World

Other Website

2010-07-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

I am working on another website, marten.tk, about a wider range of my interests. It focuses on lego, photography, writing, and I am working on adding an NXT section. Please take a look, I'm creating it from scratch and if you have any suggestions I would appreciate hearing them.

New GBC module

2009-10-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

Although I wasn't the first to come up with the idea of a module like this, I believe I was the first to come up with the idea of inverting the treads and using them to make the wheel. Let me know if someone else had the idea first.

Bare Bones Electronic Fun

2009-09-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

Ingredients: cellphone "vibrate mode" motor, watch battery, hot glue, toy car. Keep in mind that in this video clip the battery is almost dead.

SimplySim Update

2009-03-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Earlier I posted about an NXT simulation package created by SimplySim.
They just posted a demo video on their webpage, so I have posted it below.

Trebuchet

2009-02-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

This isn't exactly MINDSTORMS, but it's technic, which generally qualifies for posting.
This trebuchet can fling a 1x2 brick 5 meters, or 8m if you count the bounces.
The weight box has a weight brick, AA batteries, and lead fishing weights that I found at a garage sale.

Lights OUT!

2009-02-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you just aren't sleepy, but you'll get in trouble if you stay up past your bedtime... Lights OUT to the rescue! It sits in the hallway and when your parent comes down to check if you're asleep it turns off the lights!

YouTube distorted it...So it looks weird.

Flexpicker

2009-02-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

I don't normally post other people's robots, but this is just awesome.

Designed and programmed in RobotC by Chris Shepherd.

FLL State Competition

2009-01-19T20:25:00.001-08:00

We just had our FLL State competition, and unfortunately we didn't get an award, although our robot scores were significantly higher than at Regionals. We scored a 165, a 205, and a 160. Interestingly, in the 205 point round we got 25 points on accident because the robot accidently nudged the house and completed the "Turn off lights" mission.

Congratulations to the Co-Champion Award winners, The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies and the Hobbots.
A coin toss determined that the Hobbots would proceed to World Fest and the Duckies would be diverted to the US Nationals.

NXT Simulation

2009-01-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

A reader, Hugo Vivier, has told me about a very cool program that simulates the NXT on the computer. Here's what he says.

I would like to share something interesting with LEGO NXT Mindstorms and the MS Robotics Developer Studio, it is a package which contains a 3D simulation of the TRIBOT.

You can use this package to practice with 3D robotic simulation.

The MSRDS will allow you to design programs that you will be able to test both on your computer (in the simulated version) and on your real Tribot, via the package interface.

Almost all the sensors are implemented in the simulation.

Demo programs and tutorials are already done, you can also control your robot with a Xbox pad if you have one.

For the moment, only the TRIBOT is available, but if people discuss about new robots on the forum, maybe we will create new ones.

The Simply Sim website

Xmas Xpress

2008-12-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

A lot of kids like to put a miniature electric train around their xmas trees. We have one and we would like it, BUT... The track always comes apart so it barely ever works. So I made a line follower instead. I know the train cars are kind of ridiculous, but I really don't like building LEGO trains.

FLL Regionals!

2008-12-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

Whew. We just went to our FIRST LEGO League regional competition and it went pretty well! Overview:
Technical Judging: Great!
Teamwork: OK
Presentation: Pretty good!
Mat: Our top possible score in 2 and a 1/2 minutes is 175 but we got 75, 75, 90. (The, um, battery was low?)
Nevertheless, we got 5th place Champion's Award, and an invitation to State!!!

Hopefully we'll make the robot more reliable by then. We sort of had no missions that worked a week ago, so we really pulled it all together at the end.

Go, Star Trek The NXT Generation!

Stupid XP

2008-11-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

We have a Windows XP machine and two Leopard Macs, But I use the XP one for NXT-G because the software seems to be designed for Windows. Unfortunately XP has managed to mess up and NXT-G doesn't work anymore. I guess I'll be using the Macs from now on!
Here's a screen shot of the erroneous operating system:

Click it. It's even better enlarged!

Thief Detection (and Elimination)

2008-11-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

This is a LEGO/NXT creation I made that features a lego person "running" toward some money that he wants to steal. Luckily there is a state-of-the-art LASER-based security system that takes out the would-be thief with a missile.

It's a little distorted... YouTube's fault!

Another animation

2008-10-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

In Mac OS X there is a setting you can turn on that magnifies the dock around your cursor, like this:

Although it is a nice bit of "eye candy" it can get very annoying after a while. So I made this Quicktime movie of it's first practical use.

PuddleWorks v1.5

2008-10-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

(My entry for Action_Puny's Trialtank contest)

This is a robot I just made with my new treads designed to go on all terrain. Most treaded robots can do that. But this one can go through water! It can go in up to 7 cm deep water; Probably it could do better but I don't want to risk getting the NXT/motors wet.

Sorry for the mediocre quality of the video. Because of testing it in the bathtub I had to shoot it with indoor-quality lighting.

Flash Infinity

2008-10-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting animation I made, it represents infinity. How cool is a never-ending sentence?

In case it doesn't work, the sentence is "NXTMonger builds because NXTMonger builds because...."

MouseBot

2008-09-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is a creation that takes advantage of our old trackball mouse. It uses a motor to spin the trackball either this way ↗ or this way ↙. If you connect it to someone's computer you can annoy the heck out of them by gravitating the cursor toward the top right or bottom left corner!

It's especially good on Macs, as you can see in this video, because in System Preferences you can set the screensaver to start when the cursor goes to a corner of the screen...

David's Robots

2008-08-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

My cousin David sent me some video clips of a few creations he made, so I am posting them. I guess they aren't LEGO, but one's k'nex and the other is Capsela or something, both great alternatives to LEGO. Here is a collection of the clips:

Strobe-Bot II

2008-08-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a clip:

And here are some pics.

The best part? While spinning it whacked a fly.

The Rolling Terror

2008-08-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

This is certainly a menacing creation...

...most of the time.

The Robot of Many Names

2008-08-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite sure what to call this robot... it has been dubbed "Cute-bot", "Drunken", and "Hermit Crab" (My favorite).

Okay, I'll call it the Hermit Crab.

Anyways, it's original main purpose was to be cute. Here's a vid:

I'm back, and with a new creation!

2008-07-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Camp was great fun! But as soon as I got home I got out the ol' bricks and this is what was created:

Music Composed by Ben Dane

TP-bot

2008-07-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

You know when the president lands in his chopper and they unroll the red carpet? Well, I don't have a carpet like that so toilet paper will have to do.

Last Post (for a while)

2008-06-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow so I thought I'd try to write one last post. I was not inspired at all and after staring at my lego pieces for a while I decided to make a stop motion video. Here it is:

Gone for a while

2008-06-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, I won't be able to post these next five or so weeks. I am going to be gone for a while, but I'll be be back in very early August. All I can say is I would bring LEGOs and a computer with if I was allowed to.

However you won't die of boredom. I have already scheduled a post to appear automatically on July 15th, and if I have time I'll write and schedule another.

StringThing

2008-06-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

The StringThing uses one motor to spin a string. That's it. Oh right: it spins it in a sine wave. Cool, huh?

"Normal" LEGO Blog

2008-06-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

Once in a while I post some standard-LEGO-brick creations on my blog. However, I don't feel they really belong here. So I created another blog, Collective Creations. My problem is that I don't build with normal LEGO much. Well, I do, but not quite enough to supply a blog. So I'm asking anyone who wants to to join it! Instructions how on the blog. You don't have to be a regular poster, even just once every few months would be fine.

How do YOU organize?

2008-06-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

I was wondering: how do all of you readers organize your NXT pieces? Or should I say DO you organize your pieces...! Please comment, and if you want, post a link to a image of your sortings. Here is a picture of my LEGO trays:

Rechargeable Batteries

2008-06-05T11:14:00.001-07:00

I have always used rechargeable batteries in my NXT, and if you do or are planning to, here are some tests I did with 6 new Energizer 15 minute rechargeable batteries and a new LEGO NXT Rechargeable Battery Pack.

The test was this: Have two identical robots, one powered by LEGO and the other by Energizer, drive forward a certain distance and time themselves. The one with the shortest average time wins. Here are the results:

Tests	LEGO's Battery	Energizer's Batteries
Test 1	3.941 sec.	4.119 sec.
Test 2	4.082 sec.	3.978 sec.
Test 3	4.095 sec.	4.163 sec.
Average Time	4.039 sec.	4.086

So, LEGO's battery pack supplies just slightly more power, but is more expensive.
If money is not an issue, get LEGO's battery, it has other advantages such as you can charge it while it's in the NXT. (Click it's image). If you don't have a big NXT budget, get Energizer's. They're better than one-use batteries.

I Won The Move That Weight Challenge!

2008-06-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

Yay! My TugBot II won NXTCentral.com's first building challenge, Move That Weight!

...And a diorama to go with it.

2008-06-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is my first ok diorama, and it was inspired by McZargald from Flickr. It pictures some rebels who dug a trench, attempting to hold out against the Military Police. Bad news for them, though; the MP just brought in a tank.
More Pictures.

Hey look, a tank...

2008-06-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

More Pics: Here.

TugBot II

2008-05-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, a new robot!!! This is my entry to NXTCentral's Move That Weight challenge. It can pull 10.3 pounds, and it is shown in the video pulling it 5 feet in 39 seconds. Now that I've entered my robot, I'll get some new bots built.

Also, did you notice the random header images? Reload this page a few times and they should change. Feedback on them please!

New robots soon, hopefully.

2008-05-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed the lack of new robots recently. The reason for this is that I am still working on my entry to NXTCentral.com's Building challenge #1 - "Move That Weight!". My entry is finished and I just need to program it, so hopefully you'll see more robots soon.

Maker Faire 2008

2008-05-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the Maker Faire! It was really fun, and I hope I can make it next year.
Anyways, I took some photos and movie clips there, and iMovie'd together a slideshow/video. It's mostly about the LEGO exhibit, but there is a bit of other stuff too.
Note: This does not cover the whole Maker Faire! There is way, way more than this. But most of the time I was looking at stuff and forgetting to take pictures, so this is what I have.

Just a head up...

2008-04-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, or I have at least, that my blog's popularity is finally growing. Last time I checked, it was up to 1004 unique visits! Unfortunately, however, I won't be posting that much this summer. In June and some of July, I'll be at some dumb summer camp, that has a ban on all electronics. So much for smuggling in an NXT! But I'm not here to rant, just to give you a head up. I might try to get a online friend to substitute blog for me. But up till then, I'm here, posting!

1 Year Old...

2008-04-22T07:13:00.000-07:00

Today is the day... NXTMonger's World is now 1 year old! Yay!

Coincidently, This is my 100th post.

Coincidently, it is Earth Day.

Coincidently...um....er...well, I ran out of coincidences. :-D

World Fest!

2008-04-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Good news on the team #32 Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies trip to Atlanta: The Duckies' best score was a 370, and they received 2nd place
Robotic Design: Programming!
So, 2 thumbs up to them! GREAT JOB, DUCKS!!!

Anyone coming to Maker Faire?

2008-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone coming to the Maker Faire? If you are, leave a comment, maybe I'll see you there! I'll be there May 3rd and 4th with my dad. Last year they had a MINDSTORMS booth and a LEGO setup....
I took some pics last year, look at some of them here.

Great 3-D animation software!

2008-04-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

I recently found a great 3-D animation software, called "Alice". It is a very easy to learn, drag-and-drop environment, very similar to NXT-G. There are two versions, Storytelling Alice, for middle schoolers, and Alice 2.0, for high schoolers and college students. I would recommend Alice 2.0, even if you aren't high school+. I'm 12 and I learned it in 15 minutes! And did I mention it's completely free? You can also make simple 3-D games with it. I will send you the game I made if you email me at nxtmonger@gmail.com.

The NeXT Bus

2008-04-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is my first entry for the Earth Day Building Challenge: The NeXT Bus! It is one of the first robotic public buses, and possibly the first made out of LEGO.
So here is how it helps the Earth:
This bus uses the same amount of energy as a TriBot, right? Well, maybe a little more, but about the same. So what's the point? I'll tell you. This bus easily carries 8 minifigs, but these minifigures are traveling alone, so if they weren't on this bus, they'd be in 8 different cars! So with this bus, you would be using approximately 1/8 of the energy that would have been used.
Admittedly it doesn't look much like a real bus, but at least it is functional! It has rack-and-pinion steering like a real bus, windows etc.

NXTCentral Challenge #1 - Move that Weight!

2008-04-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Snowblader13, ro1000, mini_man176 and I have orchestrated NXTCentral.com's first building challenge: Move that weight! Go ahead and check out the rules and stuff here.

NXTrain - a LEGO Monorail

2008-04-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

This is a lego monorail I made that ferries Storm troopers over the ravine between... um ... stoolistan and chairville. Hope you like it. The stop motion isn't that great, but that might be because of my lack of any animation software. Still, I think it's good! The music is by my friend Ben and his dad Mark.

NXTLOG 2.0!

2008-04-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! NXTLOG isn't in beta anymore, it's a fully-fledged 2.0 now! Now you can upload video and many other new features. Check it out! Unfortunately the video has to be under 5mb.

April Fool!

2008-04-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

For those of you that didn't catch it... the previous post was a joke! As you may know, yesterday was April 1st!
APRIL FOOL!!!

New Sensor!!!

2008-04-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

I just heard a rumor on LEGO.com that they (LEGO) are coming out with an all-new sensor!

"The newest sensor for the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT® is one that has never before been seen, even in the R.I.S.! In appearance it is similar to the R.I.S. Temperature Sensor, but in functionality, this new development is entirely original.

Presenting... The Taste Sensor! It is not as functional as the human tongue, of course, but it can tell the difference between opposite tastes, for instance mashed potatoes and ketchup."

Cool, eh? I'll be posting more details when I can find more.

posted by NXTMonger on April 1st

Netch-a-sketch

2008-03-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a great robot that my best friend Ben made, called the Netch-a-sketch. Well actually it's the program that's cool. As you may have guessed from the name, it is an NXT based etch-a-sketch.
If you want to see it in action, download the program (Right Click the link and choose Save as to download). I'd have included a video, but unfortunately you can't take Screencasts with the NXT :-(

NXTBot Lite

2008-03-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

I made this a robot as an experiment to see how small a NXT robot I could make. If you can make a smaller one, email me photos at nxtmonger@gmail.com

NXTyper

2008-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

This robot can type "NXT" on my MacBook! Take a look at the video below.

A Special Invitation to FLL World Fest!

2008-03-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

A big part of the robotic competitions is the outreach to the community in which a team participates, as well as the team's expression of the FLL Core Values. Teams from around the world were given the opportunity to present their works in these areas for special consideration. Of all the teams that applied internationally, only twelve teams would be invited to compete at the FLL World Festival (April 17-18 in Atlanta, GA). The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies from Village Home was one of those teams invited!

The Duckies are the "sister" team from the co-op that our team went to. AND THEY ARE GOING TO WORLD FEST!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Their website, made by Tesca, a computer genius age 10.

They would REALLY appreciate a financial contribution, because they live in Oregon, and Worlds is in Georgia. There's a page on that topic here.

Forklift

2008-03-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

+ NXT =

Here's a great new project I just made: a forklift!

FORUM ADDED!

2008-03-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

I finally found a free forum service, so NXTMonger's World now has a forum! Yay!
I encourage you to register. It's free. (Duh!)

NXText Messaging?

2008-02-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

I just had an awesome idea: wouldn't it be cool if you could text message with NXTs? I have two, and I could have them send text to each other via BlueTooth that you enter on some NXT text interface like the one when you save a "NXT Program" (on the NXT) !
The programming will be tricky, but not too hard.
What do you think? Will it work?

SPMP

2008-02-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Meet the (S)emi (P)ortable (M)usic (P)layer (SPMP)!

This is the new hi-tech music player! The iPod now has a rival! Or maybe I should wait till someone buys mine before I say that...
Anyways, this is a robot that can carry around your Boom Box wherever you go! It even has a rack to carry all of your CDs. It'll play mp3s too as soon as LEGO improves the sound capability of the NXT... (hint, hint, LEGO!)
And if your music is all on your computer...
It will carry that too!

BlueTooth Remote Control

2008-02-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

This is a lesson on how to control one NXT with another. (via BlueTooth)
Ingredients:

• Two NXTs
• One computer
• 4 motors

1. First, you need to build a Tribot, or some similiar basic robot. (picture 1)
2. You then will build a remote like the one in picture 2
2. Connect the motors on both car and remote to motor ports A and C
Then, open the program with the NXT-G programming application.
3. Download Remote.rbt to the Controller NXT
4. Download Receiver.rbt to the vehicle robot.

5.
Connect the NXTs through BlueTooth on connection 1.

6. Run the programs. Use the paddles on the controller to steer the robot.

Credits:
Some of the program was from Brian Davis.

SumoBot v2

2008-02-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here it is... my latest creation worth publishing! It's a sumo bot that was for the NXTLOG sumo challenge that as usual I missed due to the deadline being a couple months before I made this. Oh well, at least I can still post it here!
So, pretty much what's cool about it is traction. It has 6 wheels that give it awesome traction. The only disadvantage is that it drives kind of slowly, but if it collides with the opponent boy are they going down! The program isn't really worth posting because it just has the robot stay on the table. There is no ultrasonic sensor to seek the opponent because due to limited space in my LEGO room (AKA bedroom) It would detect my dresser and attack it :-P
Here's some pics:

Coming soon...

2008-02-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

Two projects will be posted soon.
• A short guide for NXT-NXT remote controlling (pending NXTLOG approval)
• And a six-wheeled sumo-bot that is, as of now, undefeated (waiting for me to take pics and upload them)

1, 2, 3, WHO LOVES LEGO?

2008-02-16T20:48:00.000-08:00

Everyone leave a comment! I want to see how many people love LEGO! (Technic, basic bricks, NXT, or whatever) Lets see if we can get to 10!
You don't need an account or anything to leave a comment.
I'll leave a comment to get started...

People who have commented so far:

Josh

Snowblader13

NXTMonger
EDIT: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

New NXT Blog!

2008-02-07T07:19:00.000-08:00

I just found out about a cool site/blog, NXT Central. It has only recently been created, but it appears to have a forum even! It is updated by one Andrew, AKA snowblader13. It covers mostly his creations and NXT related news.
Update: Now AirKraft, ro1000, and I are contributing as well.

Blender 3-D design

2008-02-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered a great freeware CAD (Computer- Aided Design) program called Blender that I have been playing around with. It's available for Windows and Mac. Here's a screenshot of a snowman I made with it:

Admittedly it's not a work of art but it's my first project. I am hoping to make some LEGO parts at some point. Also, although it's difficult, you can also do 3-D animation with Blender. I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm going to take a class based on blender, so hopefully, I'll learn how to do it then.

RealCar III

2008-02-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Here is the third incarnation of my rack&pinion cars...

This one can even be picked up without being dropped!

PPS: Ping-Pong Shooter

2008-01-30T07:22:00.000-08:00

This is a mobile, BlueTooth remote controlled robot. It has has a magazine of 7 ping-pong (table tennis) balls that it it will shoot if you press the bump sensor on the controller.

Now all I need is a 3rd NXT to fetch the projectiles!

Happy Birthday LEGO Brick

2008-01-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

The LEGO Brick turns 50 in 2008!!!

Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday dear LEGO Brick,
happy birthday to you!

FLL State

2008-01-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

Last saturday we went to the FLL state competition! We were there for 11 hrs. and while we were there we:

Got table scores from 150 - 295
Won the 3rd place teamwork award
Met the Pigmice, last year's world-fest winners
Saw the founder of FIRST
Ate granola bars :)

From what I can tell, 3rd place teamwork ≈ tied for 6th place with three other teams.

In the teamwork judging what we had to do was to answer questions about "gracious professionalism" and that sort of thing, and -the fun part- to build a bridge out of uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows! Most likely we got a teamwork award because we built a really good bridge.

I'll try to post pics and a robot video as soon as I get them from our coach.

--
NXTMonger

All Terrain Crawler (ATC)

2008-01-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

This is a sturdy little robot that I made a while ago that can get over anything. Well, not exactly, but it can get over dictionaries!
It has 4 treads that can pivot freely, enabling it to have great traction when driving over books etc.
Here's the movie

LEGO Rapid Fire Machine Gun

2008-01-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a video I made of one of my recent creations, a LEGO machine gun. Strictly speaking it's not MINDSTORMS, but it
has a motor
has mechanical parts
and is cool

therefore qualifying it for posting on this blog.

NXTLOG Winter Wonderland Building Challenge

2008-01-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Another NXTLOG building challenge! Looks like this time it's snow-themed:

"This can be a robot that relates to winter in any way. It can be a snow plow, a robot skier or ski lift, or even a NXT robot designed to deliver you hot cocoa. The ideas are endless and we’ll be looking for the most creative robots that we could not be without on a cold snowy winter's day."

By the way, happy new year!

If you're gonna buy an NXT buy it now!

2008-01-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

The following is from LEGO:

"Purchase 8527 LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT and receive an exclusive set of free accessories. Set includes one 9843 Touch Sensor, one 9844 Light Sensor and one pack of 8 Energizer Lithium AA batteries – a $50 value! Limited quantities. Offer good while supplies last. One free accessories set per order."

Holidays

2007-12-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

Yessssss! for christmas my dad gave me another NXT! I have just finished a (flawless) BlueTooth NXT-NXT remote controlled car and I will post it soon. Please leave suggestions in the comments section if you want me to build something that has to do with two NXTs. I also got the LEGO MINDSTORMS Idea Book authored by some of the The NXT Step's contributors, and it is a great book. I would recommend it if you like NXTs and reading. And they encourage you to respond to them if you have a question.

FLL Competition at Intel

2007-12-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

The A.E.R.O. Cows competed at Intel Jones Farm Dec. 15 and we got these scores:

1st round - 190

2nd round - 275

3rd round - 225

The second round tied for 3rd best table score with another team out of about 20 teams.
We scored high in the other topics too, and overall they were enough to get us to State! Woohoo!
our web page can be found at:

www.villagehome.org/lego/AERO_Cows/index.html

OctoBot

2007-12-19T19:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a cool robot I made a while ago that uses it's 8 legs to walk fairly speedily. I designed it originally to enter the NXTLOG BugBot building challenge, but never got around to posting it and thus ran out of time. However, I am still allowed to post it on my site, so here it is:

Modular Multiplexor

2007-11-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

Here it is! the project you've all been waiting for! (Or at least that I have been waiting to post ;) ) Anyways, so here is how it works. There are 2 modules. 1 is the base, which is basically a bit of technic with wheels on it. Then there is the top module, with the motors and NXT on it. This one is a bit more complicated. There are 3 motors and 1 of them slides the other 2 forward and backward. When they are in back position, they engage with the base's wheels, and when they are forward they engage with the base's attachments. As there are 2 motors that slide forward, there are 2 attachments. And just so you know, the attachments are built into the base so the only change-out time is when you switch out the bases.

So picture this: you send out your robot, it uses it's 2 motorized attachments to solve 2 missions, it comes back to base, and in about 2 seconds you move the top module to the next base, with different attachments, and you send the robot out to do it's next 2 (or more) missions. If this explanation doesn't make sense I won't be surprised so please comment if you have a question.

PackBot NX

2007-11-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a video I seem to have forgotten of the PackBot NX. I recently was playing around with iMovie and edited it a bit (added sound and stuff).

Leopard

2007-11-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

I got Mac OS 10.5 Leopard! And it is about twice as good as I thought it would be!

Coming Soon: Modular Multiplexor!

2007-11-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

I am making a robot that is a combination of a my mobile motor multiplexor and my modular bases robot! Expect a post on it soon. So far I have spent about 5 hrs. on it and currently it is flawless. It is designed for use in FLL. Here are some pics of the Multiplexor and Modular Base Bot:

Power Puzzle Competition Approaching!

2007-11-16T17:44:00.000-08:00

The FLL competition is almost here! We will compete in 28 days and I hope we will be ready. You can visit my team, The A.E.R.O. Cows,' website here.

Update: 15 days left! We are currently at a healthy 340 points and are working on making it more efficient because it takes about 3 minutes for us to do it all.

2007-10-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yay! Mac OS 10.5 came out Friday! "Leopard" is packed with new features and I will definitely try to upgrade. For all you Windows users I recommend switching to Mac because it crashes way less than PCs. Plus, the laptops look cooler! :p

For the geeks: Mac has Unix underpinnings!

Learn more at Apple.com

LEGO's FaceBook: My LEGO Network

2007-10-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know about lego.com's "Club Pages", but soon there will be a whole new deal: My LEGO Network
I was lucky enough to become a beta tester for it and so far it is quite fun.
If you are quick maybe you can be a tester too! sign up at
http://play.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx

Modular Base in Action

2007-10-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of the modular base robot.

Modular Base

2007-10-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

This is another robot I designed for FLL. It has several interlocking modules.
The first is the one with the NXT and motors on it, and the second is the base, with gears, wheels, and attachments on it. The first module just snaps into the second one, the base, engaging the motors with the wheels. Then you send out your robot to do the mission. When your robot comes back you exchange the base with a new one. It only takes about 1 second to snap in. The point of this is to minimize base time, a big negative factor in many robots, because you only get 2.5 minutes to do all your missions.

NXT-G

2007-10-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

NXT-G 1.05 is out and can be downloaded for free at:

http://mindstorms.lego.com/Support/Updates/

Slow Times

2007-10-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. With the school year here (and FLL season), I have been quite busy, leaving little time for blogging.

FLL Missions

2007-09-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

The FLL missions are out! On 9:00 wednesday FLL released the Power Puzzle challenges. Yay! FLL's mission descriptions are here.

NXT-G

2007-08-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

NXT-G 1.0 is now obsolete! Sort of. LEGO education is now selling NXT-G 1.1! Unfortunately the upgrade is not free, it costs $20 (oops, I mean "$19.99")

NXTLOG 3000

2007-08-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

Yes!!! I was one of the three NXTLOG 3000 winners!!! Or at least my NeXcavator was. Yippee!!!

NXcavator

2007-08-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

I was not entirely satisfied with the RoboArm T-56. A friend challenged me to build T-56 on motorized wheels, and I said it was not possible because T-56 uses all 3 motors. After a bit of thought, I changed my mind. To qualify as T-56's equal, it has to be able to rotate, move vertically, and grab.Here is what I made. So now the arm can release, down, grab, up by saying "motor A forward 360 degrees", rotate by saying "B Forward C backward" and have the added capability of going forward/backward.
I got the idea for it by ro1000's similiar robot.

NXTLOG post here

NXTLOG 3000

2007-08-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

NXTLOG 3000 has been announced! Prepare your projects! Ready your robots!

You know, that really is a lot of robots! 3000. Impressive!

Motor Multiplexor

2007-07-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

Another robot. (Big deal! Seriously. It took me like 5 hrs.)
NXTLOG post here

Table Top Cleaner

2007-07-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a 'bot I made a while ago but couldn't post immediately cause google video was experiencing "technical difficulties". Anyways, this one's function is to sweep little bricks and stuff off a round table. Unfortunately, while it does do it's job fine, it also makes an even bigger mess on the floor around the table ;-)
BTW the things it sweeps off the table in the movie are transparent red 1 x 2 bricks.
Update: Full screen version here

LEGO House

2007-07-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is just a little LEGO house I made. It's supposed to be sort of a medieval setting. It is made of three layers: ground floor, attic, and roof.

LDD for NXT

2007-07-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

This software, LEGO Digital Designer, has just come out with (or I have just found) NXT parts. so now you can build your NXT creations virtually. Download the software here. Enjoy!

NXTLOG Building Challenge #3

2007-07-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

The third building Challenge is here! What you have to do is build a robot that is either a robot that "can fight pesky pests" or a insect itself. To see NXTLOGster's official post, click here.

Maker Faire 2007

2007-06-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the coolest LEGO creations I saw at the Maker Faire this year in San Mateo. Most of the event was non-LEGO, but there was a hall devoted to a small-scale Brickfest, put together by BAYLUG (Bay area LEGO Users Group). Pic 1: HailFireNXT. Pic 2: A bridge spanning about 6 feet, made entirely out of LEGO TECHNIC beams (and pins). Pic 3: A LEGO trainyard that was impressive just for the amount of LEGO trains used. Pic 4: Some sort of MINDSTORMS setup that demonstrates how a calculator works, titled "PneumADDic".

Do You Read Me (Or Rather, This Blog)?

2007-06-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hello again.
I was just wondering who reads this blog. Could you please leave a comment if you are reading this?
Thanks,
-NXTMonger

Alpha Rex The Football Star

2007-05-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a hilarious video of Alpha Rex playing football! (soccer) *sigh* If only the real one was that flexible.

LEGO packbot - "PackNX"

2007-05-24T17:17:00.002-07:00

Here is my LEGO version of irobot's Packbot. Pack-NX is basically a treaded robot with 2 rotating flippers. The flippers also have moving treads on them, so it can flip itself upside-down and drive only on it's flippers. (if it wanted to) It can also use the flippers to "swim" in grass and LEGO bricks, or to flip itself right side up.
P.S. The treads are from the EXO-Force Mobile Defense Tank (A.K.A. the Orange Tank)

Steering Car 2.0

2007-05-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

I updated the steering car! The new version features:
• A 2:1 gear ratio for faster transport
• four wheels, not just three
• A differential gear
• No gear skippages at all
• Slightly less sturdy construction (hey, it was a 20 minute project)

Camera Sensor

2007-05-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Finally, a camera sensor for the NXT! Mindsensors.com has released information that they are working on a sensor that "can support tracking of up to 8 objects at a time." Not many details, unfortunately, but the video speaks for itself. (And no, the car isn't bluetooth controlled :-> )

Motor Multiplexor

2007-05-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

This car has a certain gear"box" that uses 1 motor to move 2 others along a track. When they are in the back position they each power separate wheels. When they are in the front position they each power separate attachments. It is called a motor multiplexor. His nxtlog post of the MD-A1 is here. I have something similiar to this built currently, but I can't post it yet, because it is my top secret future FLL robot. (I'll post it when I can, okay!)

Hassenplug's Robot

2007-05-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

This is a video of a robot that can get 400 points in the NanoQuest challenge in just 55 seconds. It was, however, built by a adult, but it is still way cool! It's interesting how such a simple bot can get such a perfect score.
(so much for my 4-degrees-of-freedom bot!) His NXTLOG post is here.