ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Although LEGO doesn't like to sell or support weapon-products, let's face it... robotic weapons are lots of fun! Besides the "imagination" factor, weapons can have "practical" uses as well. For example, two or more zamor-shooting, repeating rifles/pistols can make for a great LEGO "Paintball" match! (even if it is a little close-range :) ) You can make many different kinds of NXT weapons. Some ideas include crossbows, pistols, rifles, machine guns, catapults, and slingshots. Below are some resources that you might find helpful if you want to make one. First, there's Forbidden LEGO by No Starch, which gives instructions for making some neat-looking LEGO weapons. Although it's not NXT-related, it looks like it would be easy to interface the models with the NXT. You can also get some great inspiration from the models. Some current NXT weapons include my Beam Weapon (scroll down) and robots entered in NXTasy's "Throw Me!" Contes...

As promised, here are the building instructions and program for the NXT Beam Weapon. BTW, the pieces are not limited to one retail kit - there are several more - so you may have to substitute pieces or modify the design. Anyway, for this robot, I decided to try using LDD. It worked quite well. I really like the auto-snap feature, although at times it makes it hard to get a piece where you want it. It would be nice if you had the option to move pieces manually (like MLCAD) in case the auto-snap wasn't working. I also noticed a couple things with the gears. One of our forum members was having trouble with putting a gear on an axle, because the auto-snap feature kept putting the axle through the wrong hole in the gear. I worked around this by putting an axle in a gear separately, and then putting the combination into the correct spot. I also found a way to get gears to mesh - just use the hinge tool to rotate one or both gears in small increments until they fit. I don't know if t...

During LEGOWORLD, I've built a NXT-driven gun that is based on the Zamor shooter from LEGO(R)'s BIONICLE series. The shooter, named Nashorn (German for Rhin o), is stationary and can be accurately moved in two directions, either autonomously or using a remote control (as I did in the following video). For more pictures, see the robots section of my website.