NXT 2.0 Giveaway TOMORROW

Makezine.com has just announced a new opportunity to win an NXT 2.0 set.

Today, in association with The Lego Group, we're giving away a NXT set! All you have to do is leave a comment on our Facebook fan page. Simply find the post on Facebook corresponding to this one, and leave a comment describing a real or theoretical project you'd like to make with the set. We'll choose a random commenter to get the prize. The contest ends noon PST tomorrow. Good luck, and our thanks to Lego for their generosity!

Another NXT comparison chart

It occurred to me that I could easily use the new version of Lemon to create some other chart comparing the actual NXT 2.0 set to different other NXT sets out there.

So here it is: tables that list the differences of NXT 2.0 (#8547) to

• the first NXT set (#8527), 
• the NXT Education Set (#9797) and 
• the NXT Education Set plus the Education Resource Set (#9648),

each in HTML, PDF and Excel format.

Not as elaborate as Clinton's hand-made wonderful comparison chart, but nevertheless maybe useful also.

NXT Motor multiplexer by Mindsensors

While browsing the Mindsensors website, I noticed that they're working on a new motor multiplexer for NXT motors. The device allows you to control two additional NXT motors and it requires an external battery pack.

You connect the multiplexer to one of the NXT sensor ports, but you won't loose a sensor port as you do this, because you'll be able to connect a sensor to one of the multiplexer ports which acts as a sensor port.

Lemon 2.0: Compare your model against different NXT sets

Lemon (LEGO® Model Nibbler) is a tool that allows for finding out whether a LEGO® model can built with a particular NXT set or which parts are needed beyond the contents of that set. The brand-new version 2.0 is a Java application that compares a LEGO® models laid down in LDraw or LEGO® Digital Designer  format against different NXT sets and lists  the parts that are used in one model but not in the kit (and vice versa).
Using a graphical user interface, the model can be checked against

• the NXT Kit 1.0 (#8527)
• the NXT Kit 2.0 (#8547)
• the NXT Education Kit (#9797)
• the NXT Education Resource Set (#9648)
• the NXT Education Kit plus the NXT Education Resource Set

The results might be exported to a HTML, PDF or Excel file then.

All you need for installation (best with Firefox web browser) is a Java 6 Runtime on your machine.

Give it a try - I'd be grateful for feedback, proposals or bug reports.
Don't hesitate to contact me in case of troubles with the installation.

NXTalk: Guest Blog

I received a really interesting letter from Dr. Michael Haupt in Germany - in his own words:

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NXTalk: Programming LEGO Mindstorms NXT in Smalltalk

There is a considerable number of programming environments for the NXT available, but dynamic programming languages are somewhat underrepresented, pbLua notwithstanding. The NXTalk project is another such environment, making the Smalltalk programming language available for the NXT.

NXTalk provides a Smalltalk virtual machine (VM) that runs on the NXT on top of the NxOS open-source firmware. In addition to that, there is a development environment that is available for the Squeak Smalltalk implementation. Smalltalk applications for the NXT are developed in Squeak before they are assembled to virtual images for the NXTalk VM and transferred to the brick via USB.

The NXTalk project started out as a M.Sc. research project at HPI in Potsdam, Germany. It is working - but there is only limited manpower available to drive its development, so it now seeks contributions from the broader community. Anyone interested in contributing to the VM and environment can contact the project maintainer (e-mail address available from the project home page).

----
I'd like to thank Dr. Haupt for sending this in - I hope some of our readers might find this of interest and be able to provide some feedback and assistance to him.

Controlling Alpha Rex with a WiiFit board

Need we say more? Watch the vid below.


More details here http://code.google.com/p/alpharex-nxt-step/

--
Damien Kee
www.thenxtclassroom.com

The NXT 2.0 Discovery Book, getting closer to release

With this post I'd like to announce that The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book - A Beginner's Guide to Building and Programming Robots - is almost ready to be published.

Some aspects of this book changed since I first announced this book, so be sure check the above link for an up to date book description. The book is built around several keypoints:

• A complete introduction to LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0


• Building and programming instructions for eight innovative robots


• 50 sample programs and 72 programming challenges (ranging from easy to hard) encourage you to explore newly learned programming techniques


• 15 building challenges expand on the robot designs and help you develop ideas for new robots

In short, it's a book that will keep anyone who has a NXT 2.0 set have fun with it for hours. Whether you want to learn all about programming in NXT-G (including the basics and 'advanced' programming), wanting to build cool robots with one set, or whether you want to give a go at some of the over 85 programming and building "Discoveries", this is a good book for you. These are the models that you'll find in the book:

• Explorer, a vehicle that roves around and makes sounds


• Discovery, a robot that uses sensors to navigate around a room and to follow lines


• Shot-Roller, a robotic defense system that can shoot in any direction to keep intruders out of a room


• Strider, a six-legged walking creature (the robot on the cover)


• SmartBot, a robot you’ll use to explore advanced programming techniques


• The Snatcher, a robotic arm that grabs, lifts, and moves objects autonomously


• The Hybrid Brick Sorter, a robot that sorts bricks by color and size

CCC, a compact robot that can climb up a chimney

You can view a video with one of the robots in action here. You can pre-order the book (worldwide) using this link, and if you live in the Netherlands or Belgium, you may also purchase an authographed copy through my website.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment here, or send a message to me personally.

Laurens

LEGOWORLD 2010 Denmark, aftermath

So, after 4 days LEGOWORLD Copenhagen is over, but what happened to that massive High bay warehouse?

Well, we took it apart (in 2 hours) to ship back to LEGO headquarters, were it will stay until its next demonstration. Here are some of the pictures.


The big gray robot crane, and its foundation take 2 boxes.


Now you can see the three main robot cranes (each 2 boxes), and in front of it are the roller tracks.


The road sections will fill up 3 boxes.


ALmost all is down, except for the main grid (24 boxes).


Putting it away in the mover boxes (K8).


All packed on 5 Pallets, 60 boxes, ready for shipping to the Billund warehouse.


Hope you all enjoyed it, see you next time.

Martyn

Why don't designs work for everyone?

As someone who works hard to makes designs and building instructions easy for everyone, it's frustrating when users---even members of this blog---say that they can't get a model to work. I can't tell you how many people complain to me that they can't build the models found in various highly-rated NXT books (or free online).

I've had the same experience---or have seen my family have the same experience. We KNOW that the model works---and it has been demonstrated on video---so why the disparity?

Does varying part wear make that big a difference? Is there a difference in the production of the same part? I'd like to gather some of your insights here for the benefit of our frustrated builders and designers.

Another way of using the Power Functions remote handset to control the NXT

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 NXT. 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.

Yellow Cube Machine

It seems like there is another Rubik's Cube solver every day! This is one of the better looking one's, mostly yellow LEGO bricks.

An all LEGO solver, including the webcam from LEGO Vision. The laptop does the actual solution, and is connected to 2 NXTs to manipulate the cube. The laptop communicates with one of the NXTs via USB and the NXTs communicate with each other via Bluetooth. Enjoy!



Enjoy,

Andy D

NXT plus Wii - Guest Blog

I received an email from Fabrice D. about his controlling an NXT using a Wii remote. He's put up a video that explains it all, and I've embedded the video below.

Thanks, Fabrice!

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.

--
Brian Davis

FLL Spain Finals - Guest Blog

Koldo emailed to share some pictures from the FLL Finals in Barcelona, Spain. You can see the photos here.

Thanks, Koldo!

Manty NXT 2.0 bonus model

This is one of the robot designs that appears at the back of the NXT 2.0 box. It was published on mindstorms.com some time ago, but back then I didn't get to shoot a video of this robot. I have done so now, and here is the result:

You can find more information, pictures, building instructions and a program on my new website: http://www.laurensvalk.com. According to visitors of LEGO related events, it's a cute robot, but be sure to let us know how you like it when you build this animal.

LEGOWORLD 2010 Denmark Sunday

Today, Sunday the last day of the show, the Highbay Storage Warehouse still works




There are still two boxes to give away today, are you a winner?



or does this hungry mouse, get the boxes..



Martyn

LEGOWORLD 2010 Denmark Saturday

Day 3;
I first took a LEGO bath, but the bricks were a bit cold...



Then later that day ROBOGATOR was hungry and found a WeDo alligator just around the corner.


Also today we gave away 2 NXT2.0 Boxes


Hope to see you tomorrow (last day)...

Martyn

LEGOWORLD 2010 Denmark

Welcome to LEGOWORLD, Copenhagen, 18 to 21 Feb 2010.


Demo and explanation on what MINDSTORMS.


You can build and program your own robot.



Now don't you want to be a MINDSTORMS AFOL (adult fan of LEGO) ?


ALPHA REX


The MINDSTORMS Development team is here to talk to you.


Brick-it build a nice forklift model







The warehouse.


You can win a NXT 2.0 box.


You can win this brick.

There are still 2 more days to go....

See you there, Martyn

NXT 1.0 Segway with Rider

I have posted an NXT 1.0 version of the NXT Segway with Rider project (see previous blog entry on the NXT 2.0 version).

This version uses the standard light sensor instead of the color sensor, the taller balloon tires, and the NXT-G 1.x software (tuned for the 1.05 firmware). Although the control program runs significantly slower than the 2.0 version (the newer 2.0 software and firmware has reduced the overhead of the sensor and motor blocks considerably), the 1.x version fortunately is able to make up for it by using the light sensor's "Raw" output (not available on the 2.0 color sensor), which has much higher resolution, which makes it easier for the robot to maintain an accurate on-center position, despite the slower sampling rate.

So the best NXT-G configuration for this sort of task (or similar, think line following...) would actually be the NXT 2.0 software and 1.28 firmware but using the old light sensor in Raw mode, so you would get both the high speed and the high resolution. If anyone tries this starting from my programs, you will need to re-tune the PID gains to account for the higher sampling rate, since the calculations do not take into account the time slice...

New LEGO (non-NXT) book

Okay, it's not related to NXT, but as someone who has visited and LOVED New York City, I thought this was just too cool a book not to share. Christoph Niemann has released "I LEGO N.Y." - where the heart is made of LEGO bricks - and it's a collection of sights, sounds, buildings, food, and more... all related to New York City.

There's a lot of subtle humor in the book... and some of the items are beyond my understanding - I think you HAVE to be a New Yorker to get it all. (I do love his take on Marilyn Monroe - very cute! And the image of Nathan's Hot Dog... I've had one. Awesome.)

Maybe someone needs to contact Abrams Image and suggest a similar book using NXT robots!

Jim

LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT Robots Alive! Endangered Species: a conclusion

This weekend, I've built the last model from Fay Rhodes' "LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT Robots Alive! Endangered Species" book: the Sloth which is capable of layawaying on a branch.

You can find a movie on it, filmed by Rick Rhodes, here.

Like the other animals from Fay's book , also the NXT Sloth is a both exceptional as well as entertaining robot.

Building time: app 60 min
Programming time: 10 min
Difficulty level for children: medium

After having worked through the complete book now, I can draw the conclusion that all the five models reflect Fay's particular skill in mimicking the physique and the motion patterns of real-world animals with LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT. Apart from some minor things (which mostly are adressed already on the accompanying web site) I was able to follow the elaborate and well commented building and programming instructions without any problem.

Because of the appealing models, the well adapted level of difficulty, the particular topic, the extensibility of the robots (of which Fay proposes some in the appendix) and the didactic part at the end of the book,  "Endangered Species" in my opinion is a very good choice both for parents who are in search of a book for their child accompanying the newly bought NXT 2.0 set as well as for teachers who are looking for a guide to their robotic classes.

Toy Fair 2010

Great news for our favourite LEGO product. The NXT was just voted "Educational Toy of the Year" at the 2010 Toy of the Year awards at ToyFair, New York.

http://www.toyawards.org/

--
Damien Kee
www.thenxtclassroom.com

CubeStormer

Have you seen any incredible Rubik's Cube solving robots lately?  Ya, that Speedcuber was pretty cool.  But believe it or not, the king has already been dethroned (in my opinion at least).  This thing reminds me of the Large Hadron Collider and is probably just as impressive.  Extra credit for pulling off the teal and purple parts, plus all the lights.  This one will make you stand up and clap.

NXT 2.0 - One Kit Segway

Dave over at www.nxtprograms.com recently put up instructions and programs for a Segway - built with a single NXT 2.0 set and programmed with NXT-G using a simple PID loop. Very cool!

Read more here: http://nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/index.html

Great job, and thanks!

Richard

In Recognition of the Start of the Vancouver Olympics

My husband and I are fans of curling and created this video a few years ago.


I know the robot is rather lame, but it was just for fun---so enjoy!

Speedcuber

Just watch and enjoy.

Bluetooth control of NXT

This is a re-post of a January 2008 item - the weblink has changed. I thought this was a useful enough application that this needed to be re-posted.

Mario P. emailed me to let me know about a new piece of software he's created that allows you to control any robot wirelessly using your mobile phone.

From the website:

"This should run on any MIDP 2.0 phone, provided it supports the JSR-82 Bluetooth implementation.

Features:

•Current sensor values are displayed on screen while you control your robot using the game keys.


•Basic settings allow you to easily change the way robots are controlled.


•No musical intros or fixed resolution settings.