ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Today we have a guest blog by Cyrus Cuenca   Hello, my name is Cyrus Cuenca. I am 15 years old and have been an avid LEGO MINDSTORMS fan since late 2012. I got my first MINDSTORMS(NXT 2.0) kit on Christmas 2012, opened the kit the next day, and immediately started building the Alpha Rex model because, it "looked cool". I learned quite a lot as I constructed my first MINDSTORMS robot. When I finally got Alpha Rex working, I played around with it for an hour or two then deconstructed it and began experimenting and building my own robots. In 2013 I started my blog to document my creations @ The Teenage Maker . I continued to post my robotics creations on the blog (I still do) ,then I joined the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Facebook group where I met a ton of awesome MINDSTORMS fans. I recently started my YouTube channel where I post videos for my creations. I hope that my work will inspire other MINDSTORMS fans like those who've inspired me. Recently, I complete...

French LEGO® MINDSTORMS master builder Philo has published a brick sorter that can be built with a single EV3-set: He states that he will publish building instructions and programs soon after the official release of LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 in autumn. 

Philo from France, well-known for numerous great NXT creations and as an author of many LDraw files, has updated the web page for his NXT-3D Laser Scanner . The Scanner is able to create three-dimensional computer models of things it scans with a laser: Amongst other things, Philo uses it to create LDraw models for new LEGO® parts.

Philo , author of many a NXT LDraw part and renowned expert of NXT electronics, has published an artcle on his web site on another possibility of using the Power Functions remote handset to control a NX T. In contrast to other already existing solutions to do this (e.g. Dave Parker's or Mike Brandl' s), Philo's one allows for using all nine different combinations of the PF handset: "The idea is simple: combine the outputs of the PF receiver with well chosen resistor values to obtain a different voltage for each combination of controls and measure this voltage with the NXT." Yet, you need to do some soldering inside of the PF receiver for that.

My good friend Philo, who designed and build the robotic arm as a extra model for the NXT 2.0 box, build and FAST ball sorter. Here is a movie: Philo also made great Building instructions at his homepage . Thanks Philo for this nice creation, I'm looking forward for the first implementation inside a GBC.

Philo has just put up a really well-done comparison of two of the color sensor that are currently available for the NXT. The first is the official one from LEGO, included in the V2 NXT kit, while the second is the HiTechnic V2 color sensor which can be purchased separately. I'm not going to bother summarizing Philo's excellent presentation too much, because reading it is an education in itself - not just on how the sensors "perform", but on how to compare sensors properly: developing tests, and understanding the results. Please read his page for the whole scoop. A dirt-simple summary is both have strong points, with the HiTechnic one being amazing at detecting multiple colors and handling challenging ambient light conditions, and the LEGO one (by virtue of using the rapidly-reading AtoD converter on-board the NXT) being much faster (probably important for line-following, for instance). Thank you Philo for doing comparisons like this - and please read his summary , it...

MCP Philo , well known for a lot of exciting robots, deep insight into the NXT internal electronics and as author of many LDraw parts and of a NXT book (just to name a few things), has published a new fascinating device: a NXT-based 3D scanner . It scans small objects using a needle mounted on a LEGO® linear actuator and reports the data to a computer where they can be used to generate a related 3D CAD model: Intriguing! Note that the scanner has been programmed with pbLua , the NXT programming language based on Lua. A lot of more information can be found on the associated web page .

Philo , the new (well-deserving) lauréat of the James Jessiman Memorial Award of ldraw.org , has published a site where you can download the tools for the legacy MINDSTORMS products that LEGO® has stopped supporting: RCX™, Scout™ and Spybotics™. LEGO® removed these tools from their web site in 2008, so this site of indefatigable Philo will be welcome by all the people that are still developing for these products. It features the MINDSTORMS SDK 2.5 updated USB tower drivers RIS 2.0 XP patch Note: as Philo states on his site, usage of these tools is completely at your own risk.

Philo , MCP and relentless Wizard of LDraw parts, has published LDraw files for the treads contained in the NXT Education supplemental kit (other configurations of the treads can be found here and here ). Hence you can model your NXT robots that run on these treads now in LDraw. Thanks, Philo!

Philo, one of the European MCPs, has published a new robot for odometry , the art of estimating the own position during wheeled vehicle navigation. It's called Odin and "it measures as precisely as possible distances travelled and orientation of displacement. Its mechanical structure is well suited for that: when travelling it rolls on four parallel wheel so it is able to go very straight. For turning, it raises itself on a central pivot, turns around it and goes down, ready for the next move" , as the author states. On the associated web site you'll find ample documentation, images, videos, programs and building instructions for it. What's more: you can build it was one single NXT Retail kit!

For an (internal) contest some time ago, some MINDSTORMS veterans took up the challenge to build NXT tripods, i.e., NXT-based robots on three legs that would be able to autonomously walk in arbitrary direction (without rolling) and avoid or cross obstacles. Though it doesn't look so at a first glance, this is a rather difficult task from the engineerical point of view which might be the reason why so few actual working tribot robots have been built so far. One of the prototypes that arose from that efforts is that of Philo : It walks along with a "dragging" movement. More movies can be seen here , pictures are available here , here , here and here .

Philo did it again! After a lot of work, he now has published the LDraw file for the Power Functions Infrared Remote Control to the LDraw Parts Tracker . Merci, Philo!

Philo , The Mighty And Relentless Wizard of LDRAW parts, has created such for HiTechnic's Color Sensor and Codatex's new RFID Sensor (including the RFID tag). You can find them on his Unofficial LDraw Parts page , contained in the most recent NXT parts archive. Merci, Philo!

Philo has formalized a very nice auxillary power source, based on the fact that the internals of the NXT drive the "brake" state of the Port A motor slightly differently than the B or C ports. This allows you to draw up to 800 mA of current from port A and still use it to control a motor. He's used this to power a small wireless camera as well as LED "floodlights" for it (something these cameras can really use), or even an entire motor multiplexer (shown in the picture). More importantly, he's formalized everything on his website: Port A Power Tap He has the schematics up, shows you how to build it all into a cable (a bulky one, to fit the capacitor), and even shows you how to mount the LED floodlights or build a more advanced regulated version. This is a great hack! If you want to discuss it, he's posted about it to both LUGNET and NXTasy , and he's great at following both. -- Brian Davis