New Guest Writer - Eric D. Burdo

New Guest Writer - Eric D. Burdo - Who Am I?

My name is Eric Burdo. Some of you may know me from Brick Labs. http://www.brick-labs.com/ I was talking to Jim the other day to see if he wanted to reprint any of my articles from Brick Labs (since Brick Labs will be retired on or about the 10^th of April). Instead, Jim offered me a position as a guest writer.

I will be moving some of the articles from Brick Labs over to this site, and any future LEGO contributions will be made here, for your reading enjoyment. If there are any particular articles on Brick Labs that you want, please post a link in the comments. I’ll migrate them over, and possible update them if I can.

I have been an avid LEGO collector since I was about 7. That gives me about 23 years of collecting. :) I started into the Mindstorms world about 3 or 4 years ago with the RCX. I tried to get into the LEGO beta program for the NXT, but alas, fate smiled on others… so, I had to wait. My wife bought me a NXT kit for my birthday back in September. My son and I have been dabbling with robots since then.

My Interests:

LEGO building
Robotics - all forms
Computer Programmign
Reading - mostly technical materials now.
Very beggining bass player (4 string electric)
Apprentice-level juggler.

My Robotic Creations:

Various tank-bots
Several 3 and 4 wheeled bots.
I created a RC-style car for my son (using the RCX remote and a rack-n-pinion steering). I learned a lot about differentials and slipper clutches with that project).
I built a yarn-winder once based off of a few pictures I found online. I think that was my wife’s favorite project.

Future Projects:

Mostly just learning the ins-and-outs of the sensors.
I am working on a series of articles on the Ultrasonic Sensor.
I want to try and build a room-mapping robot. I’ll keep y’all posted!

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we take a trip through history. Please also visit ROBOTMAK3RS Community every week as we highlight different projects all through 2023 in celebration of the anniversary. Some of the early history is based on the content shared by Coder Shah in our MINDSTORMS EV3 Community Group . Some of the text and links may have been edited from his original posts for consistency and clarity. 1984 - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen watched a TV program called "Talking Turtle," where MIT professor Seymour Papert demonstrated how children could control robot "turtles" using LOGO, a programming language he developed. 1988 - The collaboration between MIT and LEGO resulted in LEGO TC Logo in 1988, which allowed students to control LEGO models using computer commands. The video shows Papert demonstrating TC Logo. 1990 - LEGO TC Logo was hampered since the robots you built had to be tethered to a personal computer. LEGO and MIT...

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 3

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these Fall and Winter remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Braill3 by Jerry Nicholls Braill3 is an EV3-based LEGO Braille bricks reader. This robot uses its fingertip, made from three touch switches, to read messages written using the LEGO Braille bricks and will speak out what it detected. If it sees a simple maths problem it will attempt to solve it and give the answer as well. To learn more about the process of creating this machine, read Jerry's blog . Braill3 can be viewed here . Set Review: The Braille Bricks set is well thought out. The ratios of the letters is suitable for general use and the addition of some punctuation and arithmetic operators is excellent. There is a card showing what bricks there are and their quantities, but no form of sort...

Ghostbusters R.T.V Remix

Nino Guba is from Torrance, California, USA. He played with LEGO as a kid, but growing up in the Philippines, it wasn’t something he had easy access to. He only got reintroduced to LEGO when he moved to the US and had kids of his own. When his sons were younger, they received LEGO sets as gifts, but as they grew older, the sets got put into storage as their interest faded. Fast forward a few years, he started coming up with his own product ideas and thought about how he could quickly prototype them. That’s when he discovered LEGO MINDSTORMS—and was hooked! He raided his kids’ old collection, got everything organized, and now he's designing and building his own creations, blending his coding skills with LEGO robotics to bring ideas to life. Tell us about your Ghostbusters Remote Trap Vehicle (R.T.V) project. This project is a LEGO Technic adaptation of the Ghostbusters R.T.V.—a ghost trap converted into a remote-controlled vehicle. Its companion build is a prop replica of the Futaba...

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