LEGO Temperature Sensor - Splicing it into Retail

For various reasons, LEGO only sells the temperature sensor through it's educational channel. That's fine... but how can the average user, with only the Retail software, use them? That's been a problem I've had a lot of folks email about, asking how I use it under NXT-G and if I can "share my secret".

Well, how about Steve Hassenplug just hosts my secrets? Look about half-way down this page, at the "Temperature Block" and the "I2C blocks" below it

Inside the LEGO temperature sensor is a Texas Instruments chip (a TMP275 chip to be exact), which can be controlled like any other I2C device. That's handy, and there are 3rd party add-on blocks that will let you let you read a byte via I2C, or write a byte via I2C, or even read a series of bytes (multi-byte read) via I2C. Steve has also been kind enough to host copies of these right under the My Block I drew up to read the sensor. Note that you need to configure the sensor before reading it - I normally configure it for highest resolution. To see how this block works (and how to configure it), take a look at the program fragments above, from my Brickshelf gallery.

Please let me know how well this works, and if there are any problems I need to address. You will need to have both of the I2C blocks installed into NXT-G, as well as have the My Block in your program, and configure the sensor correctly with a single I2C write... but it should make it a little easier for Retail set users to enjoy this fun sensor.

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Brian Davis

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 3

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...

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 2

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...

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

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...

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