LEGO Digital Designer (LDD): with some cool extra additions

I am sorry I have not blogged for a few months - I have been really busy with part authoring a book on LEGO MINDSOTRMS NXT coming soon. More on that in coming weeks!

If you visit the LEGO’s NXTLog web site regularly you would notice that increasing numbers of models now have a LXF file created with LEGO Digital Designer (LDD). LDD is a great computer aided design tool for designing your robots and creating building instructions for others. LDD has all the parts that comes with NXT Retail kit.

This week, there are some new library added to LEGO Digital Designer. The latest library update now includes the TECHNIC Snowmobile (including the tracks!!!), so now you have even more elements to work from.

Last time I blogged about LDD six months ago [see link], LEGO had just added the PF motors and other PF elements as part of the LEGO Creator 4957 Ferris Wheel and the cool 4958 Monster Dino - which was great. I hope to see parts from more and more TECHNIC models added to the library.

Since I have a Technic Snowmobile, I been playing with the LDD to see what I can create using the new Snowmobile parts - including the new red fenders.

However, for me the most exciting addition is the tracks. You need a bit of patience with it and it takes a while to get it exactly right with the hinge tool.

To use the latest library, just start the LDD (If you don’t have it, you can download it from here. LDD will automatically download the latest library.

If you are new to LDD, one of the really good unofficial resource can be found here.

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

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 2

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these summer and fall 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. Remote controlled material handle r by Jozua van Ravenhorst (aka Mr Jo) This remix combines the LEGO Technic Material Handler (42144) with MINDSTORMS EV3 (31313) It uses the power of pneumatic cylinders to move objects around. By using a bluetooth remote control, very precise movements can be made with this model. Touch sensors in the base chassis prevent the turret twisting the cables that go through the turntable to much. The program has several protections to prevent over pressurizing the system for each of the 3 individual pumps and valves that control the 2 booms and claws. The real version of this machine is mostly used in waste material sites to bring the material to machines that sort and

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