Brick Labs

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A German builder named leggor has created a remote control for his NXT fatboy motorcyle.  That by itself isn’t anything new.  Many folks have created remote controls for their NXT projects.

What is neat about this remote control… is it simulates a real motorcycle handlebar.  Complete with twistable throttle and a break.

A simple shot of the controller:

Here is a short video of the bike and control in action:

Thanks to Klocki for the heads-up on this project. There are some other neat projects on leggor’s BrickShelf page.

Two posts in one!

HiTechnic has released a new sensor.  It’s an Electro Optical Proximity Detector.  It detects minute changes in distance.  Very accurate and very fast.

A version of this for the RCX was using in building the famous Steve Hassenplug LegWay.

This sensor will detect objects up to 30 Centimeters away.

As you may have heard, FTC has updated its systems to use a hybrid system.  It uses some of the VEX parts, combined with the NXT brain.  Pitsco is now selling a parts kit for the FTC competitions.  Note: These parts themselves are not LEGO compatible.  You will need to get the HiTechnic controllers that allow the NXT to control the VEX motors and sensors.

News updates courtesy of The NXT Step.

ThinkingBricks.com left me a note the other day.  It’s something I noticed myself, but forgot to pass along.

Right now, Toys R’ Us is having another of it’s “Buy 2, get 3rd Free” sales on LEGO kits.  In the past, they have excluded the NXT systems.

Not this time!

You can get three NXT Robotics Kits for the price of two.  That works out to about $194 per kit, which is a pretty good deal.  And, you can order these online and still get the 2-for-1 deal!

Oh yeah.  One more thing.  Toys R Us is currently offering free shipping on the NXT MINDSTORMS kits too.

You can find the kits here online, or visit your local Toys R Us!

Sneak peak at the cover of a new book coming out soon.  Expected ship-date is November 2008.

The book contains 10 robots that can each be built with a single NXT kit.  Many of the robots have extra challenges for you to accomplish.

All the robots have high resolution digital instructions so you can build the models yourself.  There are also high-resolution screen-shots of the programming (using NXT-G) so you can create the programs yourself.

All the digital instructions were rendered using the same settings, so the images are all of the same excellent quality, even though there are eight different authors.

All of the authors are members of The NXT Step blog.

The complete author list:

• James Floyd Kelly
• Matthias Paul Scholz
• Christopher R. Smith
• Martijn Boogaarts
• Jonathan Daudelin
• Eric D. Burdo (Hurrah, that’s me!)
• Laurens Valk
• BlueToothKiwi
• Fay Rhodes (our editor, who we appreciate immensely)

I contributed one robot, called "The Hand".  It’s a robotic hand, 360 degree wrist rotation, open and closing of the fingers.  I’ve used it to pick up and poor a can of soda. :)

You can pre-order the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders from Amazon now (note: the title text at amazon may not match the image, Amazon hasn’t fully updated their database yet).  You can also view a large image of the cover if you want.

FYI - The NXT Step has a post about the new book too.  I’ll try to update this post with any links to the new book I find:

• The NXT Step - LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders
• The NXT Step - Preview of One Kit Wonders
• The NXT Step – Forum for One-Kit Wonders
• YouTube clip from Laurens Valk (author)
• NoStarch (publisher) – NXT One-Kit Wonders page
• The NXT Step - One-Kit Wonders - Chapter Overview

Originally built in January of 2007, the Pin Plotter has undergone several changes.  The current version is capable of producing 1.3 holes per millimeter!

As you can see from the picture on the left, the detail is very good.

The needle (for punching the holes in the paper) is the only non-LEGO part in the model.

The write-up on the website is quite extensive, but there are no CAD directions for building this model.  You’d have to build it based on the photographs.

Technical specifications:

• printable area: 91×70mm (3.6"x2.7")
• maximum resolution: 1.3 holes/mm (33 dpi), using a 0.3mm needle
• time to print a bitmap of about 1,500 holes: some 35-40 minutes
• materials: only LEGO parts (one NXT brick, three NXT motors, three NXT touch-sensors, lots of Technic bricks) except the needle
• software: 14k of NXC commented source
• "printable" media: 105mm-wide paper sheets (best results using 80-100g/mq paper), plastic sheets (not too thick), kitchen "aluminum sheets"…
• NXT brick batteries: 6× 1.2V NiMH AA batteries (rated "2300mAh") allow 100 to 150 minutes printing
• instructions: sorry, I built it by trial-and-error, refining, adjusting, patching… no CAD, no instructions; I hope this page (and photos) may be sufficient to build some similar machine

Read the full article here (in Italian or English).

Thanks to The NXT Step for this find.

I’m the proud new owner of Jack.  Jack is an Omnibot 2000.  He was left on my doorstep in a basket, with a spare change of batteries.  I don’t know who his parents are, so I’ve adopted him.

Unfortunately, Jack has one problem.  He is missing his remote.  This means, I can’t control Jack’s behavior. :(

I’m considering making Jack a project.  Seeing if I can convert him to be NXT powered.  I think it’s doable.  But I’ll need to break out my handy multi-meter and start digging into the electronics.

The battery will not hold a charge anymore, so I’ll need a replacement.  I have some spare RC batteries, but they are 9.6 volt vs. the 6 volt that the Omnibot 2000 uses. I need to see if Jack can handle the higher voltage, or if I have to step it down.

I’m going to try and use the existing motors, and tie in my own sensors and lights.  I’ll replace the eye lights with LED’s.  Maybe tri-color to make a cool visual effect.

If you have any information on the Omnibot 2000, especially concerning schematics or hacks for the Omnibot 2000, please let me know.  Jack and I would be most grateful!

I’ll keep full documentation of my project, and post everything I find, including progress.  I’ll warn you now… this may be slow.  This is the first time I’ve tackled a project like this, so it will be a big learning experience for me.

I recently found Jing (this morning as a matter of fact).  It’s a great tool (from what I’ve used so far) for recording images (screen captures / screenshots) and screen casting (videos of your computer screen). This would be a great way to make simple tutorials for NXT-G, LDraw, MLCad, RobotC, LDD or anything else on your computer that you want to demonstrate.

It’s free.  And you can use it to share your images and captures with friends, via ScreenCast.com, FTP or on your network.

There are a few limitations (the following is a direct quote from Take 5: The Video Time Limit - via the Jing Blog):

1. We think Jing is for quick and simple sharing. Record, send. No scripts, no editing, few retakes. Anything over 5 minutes starts to become a tutorial and we thought things like that are better suited for Camtasia Studio and the like.
2. File size. Depending on what you’re recording, the file size can start to get massive. Once I recorded live video from a web cam and I was up to 55 meg in under a minute. This sort of relates to quick sharing in that we wanted to be friendly to viewers on less-than-ideal connections.
3. Our video format is SWF. One good thing about SWF is that the quality is lossless (no degradation between what you record and what viewers see). Learn more about SWF near the bottom of this post.

They have some great tutorials of how Jing works, and Jing runs on the PC or Mac. So, go download Jing now and see for yourself.

UPDATE: A friend asked me "Why is this better than ALT+PrintScreen (or even regular PrintScreen).  There are a few reasons.

1. Jing will do a screencast.  It will do a live recording (with audio) of your computer screen.  PrintScreen can’t do that.
2. Jing offers a "hint" when you hover your mouse over a window.  It darkens the other windows, so you can easily see what you are taking a screenshot of.  PrintScreen can’t do that.
3. Jing lets you choose the entire screen, a single application, a single window, or you can draw your own custom sized box. PrintScreen can’t do that.

So there you have it.  Three reasons why Jing is better than the regular PrintScreen.

Jim Kelly from The NXT Step has a review of the Red, Blue and Green books from Yoshihito Isogawa.  These books are on my wish list.  I definitely would like to get copies of them. 

The books are written in Japanese, but the author uses an icon system to portray what is happening, or what the model is supposed to do.  So they are fairly easy to follow.

You can read the full review here at The NXT Step - Red, Blue and Green Books.  There is an English table of contents for the Red, Blue and Green books as well.

Yes Asia has the books available (with free international shipping) as well.

Originally designed by inventor Greg Blonder, this version of the clock is powered by the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT system.  It uses foam core for the slider and framing.

There is a video of the Slide Rule Clock in action, plus links to Greg Blonder’s original renderings of the Slide Rule Clock.

A rather nice idea.  I have a  math geek friend who would enjoy this immensely.  I think it’s time to build one. :)

Cory Walker has developed a new set of libraries for working with your NXT from a C++ program.  He calls it NXT++.

NXT++ is an interface written in C++ that allows the control LEGO MINDSTORMS robots directly through USB or Bluetooth connections. The interface is intended to be simple and easy to use. The code can be used in any C++ program.

Remember! This isn’t a replacement language for running on the NXT brick itself.  It’s a means of controlling the brick from USB or Bluetooth.

You can download the project from the NXT++ SourceForge website.  And there are some tutorials available in the NXT++ Wiki.