Skip to main content

Illuminating the NXT brick

Here's a guest blog post to The NXT STEP by Joshua "NXTesla" who's done some interesting stuff with illuminating the NXT brick:

LEDs make everything cooler, right? Even LEGO MINDSTORMS? LEDs look pretty cool on the new EV3, so why not put them on an NXT? I had some nice, bright LEDs lying around, so I thought I’d try it. Here’s what the finished product looks like.

Inline image 1
Inline image 2
If you would like to see more pictures go take a look at my Imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/2ogda

I uploaded the schematic so everyone can see how it works. My original plan was to solder the two power wires to the battery terminals located next to ports 1 and A. It was a good plan, but let me just say that the plastic case melts a lot easier than the solder does. Yes, the one corner of the case right next to the negative battery terminal is melted. Luckily, the white part of the case covers that part. Proceeding with caution, I found that it was nearly impossible to melt the solder, and I was forced to find a different place where I could solder the ground wire to the ground plane. The wire that connects to the positive battery terminal could not be moved as easily, so I had to do a really sloppy job of soldering that connection. In the end though, it turned out to be somewhat acceptable.

The Bluetooth power supply is apparently turned on only when the NXT is turned on, so I used it as a power switch for the LEDs. It would also be possible to, instead, use the signal that is used to control whether Bluetooth is turned on, which would make it so that the LEDs turn on only when Bluetooth is turned on. I decided against the latter because of the Bluetooth battery usage.

After I did all of the wiring and put the white cover back on, the LEDs were shining through the plastic and it looked horrible. So I spray painted the inside of the white cover black so that the light would shine only though the input and output ports. I also put a piece of paper between the LEDs and the ports to diffuse the light so that, rather than shining through the ports, the LEDs would glow through them.

If anyone would like to do something similar, I suggest using LEDs no larger than 3mm.

Please note, also, that doing this will, in fact, void your warranty.

Popular posts from this blog

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 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

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