Skip to main content

Head-Mounted Displays for LEGO vehicles

By
Having recently gotten over a bad stomach flu, I did what most people would do and grabbed a soldering iron (note to self: do not get the cheap battery-powered version next time!). My goal was to hack a previously obtained "mini spy camera" and combine it with the Spy Video Car Replacement Headset to create a wearable "spy video" hookup for my LEGO vehicles (notably LNE/Packbot, or Serenity for a boat's-eye view). Jake of All Trades did an excellent blog entry about hacking this some time ago, that has resulted in the headset being rather hard to get, but I did manage to order one just before Christmas. The camera is the same as the one Jim posted on a while back (and very similar to this one). The receiver just needed 12V DC and a display to make the system completely portable, so...

Following the directions in the Jake of All Trades blog, I grabbed a battery box, 3.5 mm miniplug, & project enclosure from Radio Shack (the rest of it I had laying about, but still shouldn't set you back more than a couple bucks) and set to work. Trusting the regulator in the headset was good, I risked powering it at 12V DC (risky), so all I needed to do was power both the headset and receiver from the 8 AA batteries (through a switch for ease of use), and wire the video signal from the standard RCA output the receiver provides to the RCA+power miniplug to hook the headset into. I then hooked the battery box to the side of the project enclosure (with 3M Dual Lock), & the whole thing to the back of the receiver (more Dual Lock), and that was it. The result is a nice little B&W head-mounted display that can be stuck in a pocket or clipped to a belt, and allows me to drive around with a "robots eye view" - without needing a TV, or even a laptop & video card. Even for me, this was easy*, and I've not even bothered cracking open the headset unit to switch it to NTSC format (it is set to PAL video by default, & I'd probably get a better image if I performed the hack shown at Jake of All Trades).

Getting the entire "Spy Video Car" (around $100) might actually be a better option for some hackers - I suspect you could gut the RC car and controller for everything you need, already wired together, and just provide the power & case. But since I already had a camera handy, the fact that Wild Planet has just the video headset available ($25 at this time) made it a much cheaper option... not to mention a lot of fun to hack. And that's coming from a guy who is not exactly hacker-friendly (why do you think I like LEGO electronics?).

Now excuse me as I send LNE/Packbot on a search and destroy mission under my bed. I know I has a fresh pair of socks under there somewhere...

--
Brian Davis

*Well, it was "easy" after I figured out I had cross-wired the power and video signals to the headset, and then fought with the stupid soldering iron for 20 minutes trying to undo the work I'd just done... yes, I'm poor at soldering, but not quite as poor as the lousy resoldering job on the miniplug makes it look. And yes, it still seems to work after my mistreatment.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

ROBOTMAK3RS Review: LEGO River Steamboat

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
I thought the LEGO River Steamboat would be an interesting set for a ROBOTMAK3R review for a few reasons. First, the LEGO designer of the model is Marina Stampoli, a long-time collaborator of the late ROBOTMAK3R Vassilis Chryssanthakopoulo s. From earlier collaborations with Vassilis, I  knew Marina was incredibly talented, with an eye for aesthetics and functionality. Her background in architecture is particularly useful for her relatively new position at LEGO. Her other sets include the Magic of Disney (21352), Message Board (41839), and Red London Telephone Box (21347). Second, watching Marina's reveal video  and reading her designer interview made this set even more tempting to build. The gearing mechanisms running through the model gave way to many opportunities for automation using LEGO robotics elements. Since ROBOTMAK3RS is all about adding interactivity and automation to LEGO brick, I thought it would be fun to see where and how LEGO robotics could be added to this s...
Read more

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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...
Read more

Ghostbusters R.T.V Remix

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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...
Read more