ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Today I got a mail form NXT1engineer, about his Beer Machine. The machine can serve 2 kinds of typical Dutch beers, then it will open the bottle and cool it down to the perfect drinking temperature. As a beer lover, I sure want to have his machine, but I'm sure it will also work with your favorite brand of soft drinks. Enjoy the other movies where Jan explains how he build the separate parts of the machine. Thanks for this nice winter project, if you make it with soft drinks you might even post it on the current MINDSTORMS challenge Crazy Contraption . Martyn

If you're a programmer like me, your programs won't work perfectly when you run them the first time. Sometimes it's a simple mistake on the programmer's part, but sometimes the problem is not so obvious. In some cases you can analyze part of your program by displaying some of the program's variables on the NXT screen. For example, you can do this to determine whether a sensor works or not. Displaying such a number on the NXT screen is not very difficult, but it can be a bit cumbersome if there's multiple things you would like to display. To make it a little easier I'd like to share an old trick (a My Block) that will make it simple to do this. The NXT screen will show "Sensor: 47" if the ultrasonic sensor measures 47. Installation Instructions - Just open the packed example program: Click here to download. Be sure to open the file that's in the zip archive with the Mindstorms NXT-G 2.0 software. Alternatively, use "Right Click" and c...

HiTechnic has released a new motor block that you can use in NXT-G. Here's an excerpt from the description found on the HiTechnic website . Why the HiTechnic Motor PID Block? This block is an alternative to the standard LEGO Motor Block. Unlike the Motor block, which when used with a duration of degrees or rotations, gives you relative control over the position of the motor, the PID Block is designed to give you absolute position control. With the standard Motor block, you might use it to go forward 45 degrees, go another 45 degrees, then go backward 90 degrees. Each time the motor turns an amount that is relative to the position that the block starts in. With the PID Block you specify an absolute position. For example, if you want the motor to go to position 45, you can pass in that value to the Set Point input of the PID Block and it will drive the motor to that position. If the motor starts at position 100, then it will go backward to 45; if it starts at 0 then it will go forwar...

Reproduced with permission from Xander's blog I'd Rather Be Building Robots Give it up for my main man Andy Milluzzi who, with some help from John Hansen, created the world’s first NXT-G block that leverages the NXT’s RS485 communication abilities! Well done. What does that mean?  Well now you can connect two bricks, back-to-back with a cable connected between their S4 ports and communicate at a blinding 921600 bps!  That’s quite a bit faster than regular Bluetooth and without the overhead of those mailboxes. This opens up a whole new world of possible sensors! One of them being the new Dexter Industries NXTBees . How cool is that? You can download the block from here: [ LINK ]. You will need at least version 1.05 of the LEGO NXT firmware to use this. see original post here   PS: looks like this could be quite useful for my W.5 project...

The standard NXT-G programming system for the NXT includes a feature called "My Blocks" that lets you create your own custom programming blocks. This is especially useful when developing complex programs, so that you can build up more complex actions from simpler actions that you can re-use. Although creating a simple My Block is not hard, it gets trickier to make more complex and more useful ones, and there are a number of practical concerns. For anyone wanting to learn more about My Blocks, I have posted this web tutorial , which starts at the basics and works up to more complex uses, including input and output parameters, simulating local variables, and various practical concerns such as testing and maintenance.

The Multi-Bot project for NXT 2.0 from nxtprograms.com is a robot vehicle that can take a number of different forms, including taking on several different modular attachments that can be used individually or combined in various ways, all using a single NXT 2.0 (8547) kit, or equivalent/replacement parts from other NXT/Technic kits. Multi-Bot was designed to be a flexible "teaching robot" of sorts for NXT 2.0, especially as an aid to learning NXT-G programming, as you can use it to do a lot of classic robot vehicle tasks and expand it to do your own tasks. Home users of NXT 2.0 might find it a good way to learn about the basics of robotic vehicles, and especially in conjunction with the CD (see below) as a good way to learn a lot of NXT-G programming. FLL teams that have the 2.0 retail kit (8547) or equivalent parts and software might also be interested in using it as an educational tool before the regular FLL season starts or at the beginning of the season. Building ins...

Last Saturday, I blogged about a Segway programmed in NXT-G. Many NXT Segways out there work very well, but they're hard to get to work with common tools software. Therefore, I decided to create a step-by-step tutorial to making your own Segway with simple tools. All you need is Any version of the NXT set (Hence AnyWay), plus the HiTechnic Gyro Sensor. The tutorial can be found here , and a video of the robot is shown below.

I've recently gotten a scattering of reports of problems under Windows 7... but as a Mac user, I've got no way of testing it, and I'm not sure if these are problems due to working with a new OS, or just the smattering of problems that often crop up. So I'm curious and thought I'd ask the readership what they have heard or seen. Has anyone done a clean install of NXT-G (either 1.0 or 2.0), and what have been your experiences? Do they play together nicely, or have you found any incompatibilities between them?

People love running programs on systems they weren't quite designed for, and NXT-G is no exception. Several people have found that it will run on very small laptops, but the screen size forces the configuration pane to be invisible, displayed off-screen. Problem. TeamHassenplug has a solution . Steve Hassenplug had this problem recently, and with some help wrote a wonderful LabVIEW tool that allows you to display the Configuration pane in a floating window - find it on the above page under "NXT-G add-ins". Now you can run NXT-G on screens with resolutions below N x 600, and have a nifty way to reposition information in the screen for taking screenshots, etc. While you are there, you might want to check out some of the other tips, tools, and tidbits that pepper the site. There's a lot of information (and custom blocks) in the site. And in the interest of full disclosure, yeah, some of the stuff on the site is mine as well :) . -- Brian Davis

New images from toy fairs all over the world slowly pop up. Gadget review blog Pocket-Lint states , "Mindstorms NXT 2.0, will focus on offering 10 to 14-year-old boys a good robot experience rather than trying to appeal to the hardcore fans that use the kit. Other new features include the inclusion of ten robot instructions from the software rather than two as in the previous model." The article also tells us that this kit will cost around £200, which is about $285. However, these prices may vary per country: LEGO usually has different prices for different countries. If follow the article link and click on more images , you will also see something which appears to be a new NXT- G feature, a remote control. This would suggest that the kit comes with newer software than version 1.1, which currently ships with NXT kits. Update: One of readers correctly states that the target audience referenced on the Pocket-Lint blog doesn't cover the complete audience. Of course, Mindstorm...

Available here .

While Lil’ Joe sports a fairly simple program, Gypsy ended up as one of the more complex programs I’ve written in NXT-G. The program (still named “Nadar”) really needed to handle several different tasks at once. Primarily a photographic platform, it had to be able to operate the camera in both still & video modes, and take interesting pictures while controlling the platform. As a secondary goal, it needed to datalog the numerous environmental sensors hooked up, as well as “engineering data” (like battery voltage, platform angle, motor noise, etc.). On top of this, it needed to monitor and control the payload temperature, critical to keeping the payload alive. And to complicate all of this, the program needed to be as small as possible, leaving as much memory as possible for datalogging. In order to handle the photographic challenge, the program uses the same approach as the original Nadar: following a script . It reads a series of timed commands from a text file (think of it as a “...

Recently, over on the NXTasy forums , Brian Davis posted a list of the many tips and tricks he has figured out over the years. Steve Hassenplug also took the time to publish the list onto his website Hope this helps to all the users of NXT-G out there... and thanks to Brian Davis and Steve Hassenplug! Richard

One of the things that has come up recently with regards to NXT-G v2.0 and datalogging is the speed that information can be logged. It seems the custom logging option under NXT-G v2.0 may be “slow”, in that it only logs somewhere between 10 and 100 readings every second (reports vary wildly, and until I test it myself I’m in no position to speak on this). Readers have pointed out, quite correctly, that NXT-G is not the fastest option for this. Robolab, for instance, is faster, and other offerings such as RobotC and pbLua are blazingly fast. But before everyone complains about this “new feature”, consider two other important points. First is ease of use. It seems that with NXT-G v2.0, LEGO Education will be releasing a version that has a lot of the datalogging handled for the student (or the teacher), making it easier to get and process data. That may require a slightly slower acquisition rate, but it may be more than worth it to some folks, especially if it provdes built-in smoothing,...

I have put together a series of Units of Work, Lesson Sequences and accompanying Lesson plans for use by Teachers (and Students). There are Junior, Middle and Senior School units, all lasting approximately 6-8 weeks. Some lessons overlap across the 3 levels of schooling – but there are a number of new lessons at each level. The lessons are all based on NXT-G and are designed to follow on from specific activities in Robot Educator. Of particular note is: - “Four Poles Challenge” - one of the most successful resources I have used for introducing Robotics to students and teachers alike. - A learning based approach to Line Following using one and two light sensors (as opposed to the more prescriptive approach in Robot Educator). -A very simple, yet effective “Remote Control” for the EduBot that you can use in the classroom. -Reference to other robotics resources such as PowerPoint ideas, Robot films, excursions and NXT Books. - Whilst the program objectives, understanding goals, essential ...

Now, you (or our parents) have an additional option! LEGO Shop@Home is now offering the NXT Idea Book in the Fall/Winter (you know, Christmas) season catalog. In case you missed it...find it here on page 43 within the 2 NXT pages! Same goes for the print version if you received a copy. The NXT Idea Book really is a nice way to expand your NXT experience. Enjoy! Christopher

Today, I learned that the NXT-G 1.1 cd with Item code: 4524081 is available at the Shop@home. Unfortunately not in my country, even though the CD holds the Dutch language. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software version 1.1 CD-ROM provides support for Windows Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit) and Intel-based Mac computers. Programs and sound files are compiled more effectively and faster so they use less space on the NXT microcomputer. This CD includes the following languages: English, French, German, Dutch and Japanese. I think it will be a matter of time until the CD ships to The Netherlands.

Reader Lee M. emailed me to let me know that NXT-G 1.1 is now listed on the LEGO Ed website. It's listed at US$19.99 and states "available the week of August 27th" with product ID W900093.

Several of the contributors have been going round on the merits of various languages. And we all have our favorites. The question I have... is what is YOUR favorite programming language for the NXT? And why? NXT-G RoboLab pbLUA RobotC leJOS NXJ ??? Please post your favorite language (and why you use it) as a comment. I'll compile up some statistics at some point in the future, and publish them here.

Readers and Programmers, The following is for NXT-G... Is it possible to remove a letter or section from a phrase, like an opposite to the "Text" block? If so, how? Also, is it possible to view all the files on the NXT? Again, if so, how? Also, my computer crashes everytime I attempt to use a MyBlock. I can successfully create and edit a MyBlock, but if I attempt to drag it out onto the work area, the software crashes. This gets annoying being the type that overuses them. I can't stand the huge programs I'm forced to write now! The next thing I'm going to try is to create a new user and see what happens. Ironically using NXT-G, Robolab 2.9 (Richard)