A week or two ago a blog post showed up over on the Wired GeekDad Blog of a project being done by editor Chris Anderson. Chris was tryign to build a Lego NXT Autopilot for his RC Plane. When I first saw this I was quite skeptical. Right off the bat putting anything Lego onto something that acutlay flies is very difficult. By aviation standards Lego's are extremely heavy. The NXT with it's 6 AA batteries is even more so. On top of that, the NXT's processing power is quite limited and at that point Chris didn't even have any sensors more complicated than a compass sensor. Well a few weeks have gone by and I'm starting to think he might actualy be able to make it work. He's taken the NXT added a Hitechnic Gyro sensor, and has fitted the whole thing inside a rather large plane. Take a gander over at his blog for some more pictures!
» Read more: NXT on a Plane!
Archive for March, 2007
NXT on a Plane!
March 27th, 2007Flopper Video
March 26th, 2007{youtube}F2HzpUDHfu4{/youtube}
Last week I posted some pictures of the Flopper into the Gallery, and here is a video of it in action. It actualy works suprisingly well, up untill the point where it gets stuck and destroies itself. Don't worry know Lego were harmed in the making of the video, or in the many times it broke itself before the video. I also thought it might work a bit better if I put another two arms on it, making it more wheel like. Sadly it didnt. A video of that failed experiment can be found here.
Lego Forklift and Nitro Intimidator on Sale!
March 23rd, 2007
Its generaly hard to find a really good deals on Lego sets, but one exception to that is the Lego Sales and Deals page. Old sets that are on thier way out of production end up on this page for a little while and are usally between 25%-50% off. Today the Technic Forklift that debuted in 2005 showed up, as well as the Nitro Intimidator. The Forklift is a rather large model (14 inches tall), with 729 pieces. Its got a nice assortment of beams, pins and connectors, as well as a decent chunk of gears and axles. Unfortuantly there aren't any real exciting pieces in here like drive-rings, clutch gears, or turntables. There are however a pair of universals, which always come in handy. The Forklift is on sale for $55 which is a good deal for anyone looking to stock up on parts. The Nitro Intimidator isn't a technic model, so its not as useful for building NXT bots, however, at $25 or 50% of its still worth taking a look. Its got some nice big stiff tires, which always come in handy, as well as a a few gears. Although its not a technic model, it does have a good number of long arms, including 16 1×15's and 10 1×13's. Unfortuantly its also got a good number of fairing panels, which are really only useful for decoration. These deals are only valid in the US, however for other countries with shop-at-home they're are probaly some other nice sets on sale. Check out all the deals on the Lego page.
» Read more: Lego Forklift and Nitro Intimidator on Sale!
The Flopper
March 21st, 2007
The Flopper is an attempt at a Lego NXT based stair climber. There has been lots of discussion lately about all-terrain Lego vehicles. My personal opinion is that while its a neat discussion its a rather moot point. Lego isn't really designed for out-door use, and its really on too small a scale to make a good off-road vehicle. For indoor use you're generaly not going to come across any significant obstacles that you'd really want a Lego bot to be able to climb over, except for one, stairs. Stairs, as anyone in a wheel chair can tell you are a real pain to navigate, however in alot of situations it would be quite useful for a Lego bot to be able to go up or down them. Unforatunatly the size of an average stair is quite large compared to even the largest of Lego creations. Its about two times bigger than the length of the NXT brick, and about twice as large as the longest Lego piece. This means that climbing a stair can be quite an intresting challenge.
The Flopper is my first attempt at trying to overcome this. It is essentialy a long arm (about twice the height of a stair) that rotates and drags the NXT behind it. Sadly this design has some serious flaws. The first is that its two narrow, and easily falls over. The second and more difficult to overcome is the dragging of the NXT. While the Flopper can get up the first stair, it can't pull the NXT up after it. This flaw will require a full redesign of the project. For now check out the gallery with all the pictures.
Pneumatic Excavator
March 20th, 2007
Brickshelf member taylorsk8 has created an impressive pneumatic excavator. Using something like seven pneumatic cylinders, as well as a few motors, he's created an increidbly full featured excavator. The digging arm is fully articulated, and the excavator runs on a pair of Lego Technic tracks. Not only that, its got a nifty remote control that not only uses wires but also pneumatic tubing to control the machine. Checkout all the pictures on Brickshelf.
» Read more: Pneumatic Excavator
222Doc’s Biped V2
March 19th, 2007{youtube}2xID6iCQykk{/youtube}
Early this month I posted on 222Doc's impressive dual-NXT Biped. Since then he's worked some more on it and has managed to get it to shamble along. He uses two NXT's to control the 6 motors on it, and as a result its a very complex, very heavy bot. Therefore getting it to walk is no small feat.
URBI released for the NXT
March 19th, 2007
The folks over at Gostai have released a version of thier Universal Robot Behavorial Interface (URBI) for use with the NXT. URBI is an event based language that touts its simpilicty and parrellism as key features. I haven't tried it yet, but they say that you should be up and running in less than 5 minutes. URBI uses the standard Lego NXT Firmware, which makes life easier. Unfortunatly this also means that it won't be as fast as some of the other languages. Gostai has put up a few video tutorials to help you get started. Head over to thier webpage to see it for yourself.
Marion 6360 aka “The Captain”
March 16th, 2007
Ben Ventura has built a mini-fig scale model of the Marion 6360 Shovel. This Shovel, nicknamed "The Captian" was the largest selfpropelled land vehicle in the world, weighing in at a massive 14,800 tons. Ben's creation is therefore quite possibly the largest selfpropelled Lego creation in the world. At 53 inches tall it weighs in at over 60lbs. Sadly however its not powered by an Mindstorms NXT brick (or even an old school RCX) but rather by some custom electornics. Regardless its quite impressive. Check out all the pictures on Ben's Flickr photostream (interspersed with some pictures of his son that is).
Dune Buggy
March 15th, 2007
I recently picked up the Dune Buggy / Tractor set (#8284). I was looking for some more wheels, as well as some more drive train components, and after scowering the parts lists over at Peeron, this looked like the best one. Its a bit pricey at $60, however it is quite large, and has a ton of pieces. I've only built the Dune Buggy so far, so I'll save the full review until I build the alternate tractor as well. Right off the bat though I was impressed with how big the tires are. The rear ones are some of the biggest tires Lego has made, and the fronts are only slightly smaller. The buggy itself is a fairly unimpressive model, with the biggest dissapointment being the lack of any sort of suspension. It appears that the buggy was mostly designed around the add-on technic motor, which might improve the model. The buggy can steer, and has a working "engine" with a differential powering the rear wheels. It also has the rather odd ability to change tis wheel base length. Check out the pictures in the Gallery.
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Tread Roller Coaster
March 14th, 2007
Lego introduced a new type of tread recently first in the Snowmobile set, and it will soon be appearing in the Bulldozer set. In advance of the bulldozer set it appears that Lego gave out a ton of treads as well as some of the new "Power Functions" motors to some Lego fans to put through the paces. On imaginiative user came up with the idea to instead of using the treads as treads, use them as a gear rail on which a car can ride. Thanks to the size of these treads Lego was able to incorporate two peg holes into them, which allows them to be mounted (or to mount things to them). The treads have a bit of flex in them, which allowed Mark Bellis to make a roller coaster that can do a 360-roll. While the pictures are not the best, it is quite an intresting model, unfortunatly to build a full-blown coaster it woudl require a great deal of treads. Check out the gallery on Brickshelf
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