Skip to main content

NXT Motor Grader: Part 3: NXT controlled Lighting

By
Continuing on with the series of posts on creating a NXT motor Grader I started last week ... Today we are going to look at lighting. This is an important part of the NXT robot design that often gets overlooked.
Motor graders are often used in winter to clear snow - so lighting is very important. I tried to create the large floodlight the big Cat graders have:


When I started the project I was not sure what sort of lights to use - some are easier to use with NXT. Some are so bulky it simply does not go with the model.

My first attempt used the LEGO lights that comes with the NXT Education version:
They are easy to interface (using the cable that comes with the kit) and can be programmed using the NXT-G Motor block. However, I did not like the studded pieces so I discarded the design.

The next lights I tried was the PF lights that came with the new LEGO TECHNIC off roader. The lights were very elegant and fitted neatly inside the standard hole. It was perfect. However I was not sure how best to interface to NXT. First I tried connecting it directly using the adopter:
The disadvantage of this is that I loose one NXT port - which was not acceptable.

So I used the PF power supply for the power - given that there was a PF supply already in my grader design (see last part).  The IR-Link allowed the NXT to control the light and the brightness programatically:
Programming the light was easy using the new PF-block availabe free from HiTechnic. I wanted to create the way the floodlights on the big graders turn on and off - the large flood light take about 2 seconds to become really bright:


The simple loop allows the brightness to gradually be increased to full level in a loop.

Following the comments from the last part, I am going to add some additional links below: If you want more details of interfacing Power Function (PF) hardware to NXT or using IR-Link with PF hardware please check out the following posts I done in the past:


BlueToothKiwi
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 3

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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
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

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 2

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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
Read more