ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

You may know him as the guy who made the Timmyton that amazing shark like bot he brought to MakerFaire NY last year. But now builderdude35 has a new series of EV3 tutorial to present us. " Hello, everybody! I just wanted to let you all know that I have started a series of EV3 tutorials that I will be posting every Thursday (or Friday) on my YouTube channel, Builderdude35’s MINDSTORMS Creations: https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCuXq-jiU0ANeBcF_ Tvq1D7g  In these tutorials, I discuss a topic and teach you how to implement it into an EV3 robot. Many of my tutorials are FLL related and aim to give some tips that could help you score more points on the mat.    You can watch one of my tutorials, “Building Your FLL Robot” right here: https://youtu.be/N5fzepIrFw8   Please don’t be afraid to give me any feedback, and if you know anyone who might benefit from seeing this video, go right ahead and share it with them! I would really appreciate it! You can also suggest future to...

Many of our readers may already know the popular multimedia NXT tutorial at STEMcentric . The author, Dale Yocum, has created an EV3 version now that features a lot of instructive videos on many aspects of the new MINDSTORMS generation. Check it out!

2013 is there and also this year The NXT STEP will keep on delivering amazing news from the MINDSTORMS universe to you. It starts with a personal pleasure to me: my new (German-speaking) 10-hours tutorial DVD " LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT " has been presented and recommended on the official MINDSTORMS web site . Feel free to have a look there . Watch the trailer , too; it's in German, though, but that might be a good opportunity to finally start learning the native language of Goethe, Kant, Beethoven and Albert Einstein... ;)

In the past years I've received a lot of questions about LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set versions. Here's an article I wrote which hopefully covers most of these questions. You'll find an overview of: Overview of all three versions of the NXT set, and the differences in the included electronics Links to element parts lists Overview of Education base set and resource set (two versions) Color vs. Light Sensor - which is in the NXT set? NXT Rechargeable battery, what is it? Upgrading NXT kit Upgrading NXT "1.0" software NXT Versions and NXT Books Most of this is very basic information, but the variety of NXT sets and information can be confusing for new users and teachers. Especially when you buy a lot of sets for the classroom, it's important to know what you buy. I'm not making any recommendations to what you should buy, I'm only collecting a lot of information in one place. Click to view article . --- And a question to those who use the NXT-G education softwa...

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.

Dr. Stephanie Ludi has composed an excellent series of tutorials and lessons plans on NXC. They're available here and here . The lessons are targeted for grades 7-12 and assume no prior knowledge of programming in general or NXC in particular. They were underwritten in part by the National Science Foundation.

"megamindstorm101" has posted some basic tutorials for those new to NXC. They're available here . NXC requires no additional firmware other than that supplied with the NXT kit. (It's also free). You can download NXC and its graphical interface (known as "Bricx Command Center") here . NXC is used by all the robots in Daniele Benedettelli's book, "Creating Cool Mindstorms NXT Robots" . It's also used in Tilted Twister , a Rubik's cube-solving robot that requires only one NXT kit. Those wanting to delve deeply into NXC can purchase NXT Power Programming by John Hansen.

Here is part two of Chad Cardwell's instructional video on the NXT. This video deals with NXT programming basics. Chad is getting a graduate degree in instructional technology and the quality of the video's content reflects this.

For those completely new to the NXT, this eight-minute tutorial will serve as a useful guide.

Some guys from the Eindhoven University of Technology have created a tutorial that provides step-by-step instructions for the installation and configuration of leJOS NXJ . leJOS NXJ is a Java platform that enables you to write Java programs for the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and run them on the brick. The tutorial also shows how to use the popular IDE Eclipse for that. Hence, if you are into Object Oriented Programming when it comes to your NXT, check it out. Thanks, Christoph and Hu!

Some people have been asking how to operate the Microsoft Robotics Studio. This Coding4Fun article, by Brian Peek, will walk you through how to use it. From the article: "In this article, Brian Peek will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Robotics Studio to control the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. A simple remote-controlled robot will be built and controlled using C# and the MSRS Visual Programming Language (VPL)." http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2007/07/16/3902344.aspx There is also a Wii-type NXT remote tutorial one Coding4Fun. Good luck with the Microsoft Robotics Studio! Richard