gmane.comp.hardware.lego.robotics

Re: A date has been set for the next Ontario Lego Robotics event

Iain Hendry — 2008-11-24T17:29:47

I'm actually really excited about this. I spent a good part of my morning sketching up ideas for it. :) Nice to see everyone last night! -Iain

Lego mindstorm not working

vorg7 — 2008-11-20T22:39:14

I have an NXT mindstorm when I turn it on it stays on for about 2-3 seconds. I have checked the battery strength and replaced the batteries many times. Does anyone Know why this is happening?

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Michael Huffman — 2008-11-16T22:17:08

More pictures from the event (many thanks to Shelley for providing them!): > >¬ > >¬ > > --Mike.

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Michael Huffman — 2008-11-14T18:48:56

Speaking of which... I didn't have time to build it, but I was thinking about attaching this: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=8675-1 to my boat; modifying the tires to be some type of paddle-wheel type of construction. :) Alas, I had other building I needed to get done for our event, that I didn't have enough time to see if I could get it to float or not. --Mike.

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Rob Hendrix — 2008-11-14T18:02:29

"Brian Davis" iusb.edu> wrote in message news:KAC4K5.8yI< at >lugnet.com... I was thinking... "More Power!! ungh ungh ugnh"

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Brian Davis — 2008-11-14T17:57:41

Fair enough... you mean one where you can use modified bricks for water-tight enclosures? I really would love to move into the even riskier option of true submarines... Or do you mean the modified *combat* class, that allows (nay, encourages!) tipping, trapping, fouling, and swamping the opponents? ...

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Rob Hendrix — 2008-11-14T17:17:47

I'll patiently wait for the modified class... *evil grin* -Rob www.brickmodder.net

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Brian Davis — 2008-11-14T17:07:02

Thanks - like you said, simple sometimes tends to be a good approach, and while I only had the red hulls there wasn't a lot of mass budget to "overbuild". That I *completely* understand. I just haven't had the luxury of a warm pool to play in, so it's test in the bathtub, and then really hope it works "in the wild". It's... nerve-wracking. I actually used a hot-wire cutter to shape pieces of foam insulation to custom-fit the hulls. Easier solutions would probably have worked... but with a $250 NXT in the mix, I decided to give myself the best insurance I could. Very good point. I was thinking about it because my solution is currently limited to the batteries contained in the stock LEGO boat motors, which isn't much (I want to move up to longer trips). I really need to move up to a different propulsion system, as much as I like the "stealth" approach that Serenity has currently. I look forward to that or any pictures of the various boats. This seems to be an... undertapped area.

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Michael Huffman — 2008-11-14T04:30:27

Very nice; I like your design! Since it was our first challenge, we figured we still needed someone in the pool, just in case something went wrong... We had one boat capsized, one boat take on too much water, & a few circle out of control. Yes, that came up in follow-up discussions. :) I think it'd be allowed... within reason. The initial problem was this part would take on water: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=50821c01 Since the top half didn't snap on well to the bottom half, it would take on water quickly. So we allowed for tape. But I could see filling it with a type of foam or by adding styrofoam would be a great benefit from keeping it from sinking... so it doesn't break the spirit of keeping it dry (afloat) instead of improving performance. Great ideas! We talked about sailboats afterwards, but we didn't think it would work without portable fans. :) But I could see it working with a few shop fans by the pool side... otherwise the race would take forever (very little breeze

Re: LEGO Powered Boat Race

Brian Davis — 2008-11-14T02:59:59

Cool. Although since the festival takes place at Downtown Disney, I think you really should have had a race across the entire lake. Serenity could handle it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ7gQdt7Cu8 And I've got the 2.0 version (using two blue hulls... and mounting a camera that can view above or below water) all built (around here, unfortunately, the water is starting to freeze). Further note: the center of mass is an important concept, as is the center of boyancy... and they're not the same thing :). Or, since I'm not sure there's a true all-LEGO way of doing this... make *darn* sure it won't sink. One potentially helpful almost-within-your-rules suggestion? Fill the boat hulls with styrofoam. It really doesn't change the "LEGO" aspect of it, but it does assure that if the hull starts taking on water, it can't take on very much, so the system still floats even if swamped. Two suggestions here: try it autonomously (a lot of fun... and *boy* do you have to trust your programming), and try sailboa

LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT book available

Michael Gasperi — 2008-11-11T22:15:39

The new book "LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT" is now available from the publisher at http://www.ntspress.com/ . You can also get a sneek peek at one of the chapters at http://www.ntspress.com/docs/Ch02.pdf .

Spatial sound localization

Claude Baumann — 2008-11-11T20:18:12

Sound localization is an extremely exciting topic. While blur localization cues that are based on level differences or precedence effect cues are easy to implement into real robots, the localization of continuous signals based on time difference of arrival cues are quite difficult. The task is very complex, if the localization should be done in space instead of just two dimensions. Please consult our site http://www.convict.lu/htm/rob/spatial_sound_localizing_robot_xyztuvw.htm, if you want to learn more about this particular subject. The page presents a LEGO Mindstorms robot called Nic_3 that uses NXT and RCX bricks that are linked through the HiTechnic IR-link module. The 3 DOFs robot samples 600 data-points of a continous sound source on each channel of the stereo audio sensor. The sampling frequency is 36kHz. Then it performs the cross-correlation and determines the time-lag between both signals. Applying a novel algorithm (Kneip/Baumann November 2008, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America), the ro

Re: Addional Building Instructions for Edu NXT

gypsy_fly — 2008-11-01T18:04:00

Thanks Brian. NXTPrograms.com is a nice website. Interesting that they chose to use photographs instead of CAD to illustrate their builds. For the most part, the basic NXT Edu bot is more than sufficient for Elementary school robotics courseware. In addition, we also have CMU's Robotics Engineering I & II where three more bots constrained within the Edu kit are illustrated. I built a few simple robots using only the parts in an Educational kit. Nothing fancy, just fast builds. It's really a challenge (for me at least) to make something exotic out of a fixed set when thousands more legos are teasing me from the corner of my play room.

Re: How to get a RCX1.0 working these days?

Jetro de Château — 2008-10-24T05:50:12

Robolab comes with the RCX firmware and I agree it will probably be a lot easier to grasp for your son than NXC/NBC. The advantage of the latter though is that it is completely free. Since you have a serial tower you'll need to load whatever software you want to use in Windos XP since Vista doesn't support the serial port. Regards, Jetro

Re: How to get a RCX1.0 working these days?

Ardjan — 2008-10-23T23:02:32

On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:45:13 GMT, "Philippe hurbain" free.fr> wrote: Thanx for your answer, I'll definitely look into that. But I just discovered Robolab, from TLG itself. Does that work (RCX1.0 on XP or Vista), and if yes, does it have Firmware coming with it? A few years ago I worked a bit with LabView at the laboratory, and so I think this will be more easy for me. Also, I'll have to explain my son (5.5y) what I am doing. With drawings it will be easier, I think... :-)

Re: How to get a RCX1.0 working these days?

Philippe hurbain — 2008-10-23T14:45:13

I suggest you use NQC with BricxCC (http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/). Since your tower is serial, you should not need to install any other software. Though it is not VB, it is nonetheless very easy to learn. Firmware file is on LEGO CD-rom, but it would be better to use the newer and more powerful 2.0 firmware (look for "firm0328.lgo"). Philo

How to get a RCX1.0 working these days?

Ardjan — 2008-10-22T22:09:58

Hi! I have tried to get my old (old? It was the first one in Austria!) RCX 1.0 working again, but didn't succeed. After all these years, the firmware seems to be gone, it doesn't even run the on-board programs... I tried to install the original software on WinXP, but it didn't work. Of course I tried the Win95 compatibility mode :-) I can dive into an alternative system, but then it should look like (visual) Basic, because that's all I know... I have the following components: * RCX 1.0 and the Ir-Tower, incl serial cable. * a modern Laptop with Dual-Boot Windows XP and Vista. * This laptop has IrDA and a Serial port. * The original CD-ROM * a fast internet connection and some time to download help and/or an alternative system. So, what would be the best idea to be able to use the RCX again? It would be a pity to have 35year old LEGO bricks, but not being able to use a 10 year old 'brick' anymore... Thanks in advance! Ardjan

A date has been set for the next Ontario Lego Robotics event

Jeff Van Winden — 2008-10-16T18:45:37

[THE CAN GAME!] [Summary] Build a robot made completely out of Lego parts that can find and retain a can. The robot with the heaviest can at the end of the round wins. [Date and Time] Sat 24-Jan-2009 10:00 AM - 04:30 PM [Location] New Toronto Library Alex J. Faulkner - Community Room 110 Eleventh St. Toronto, ON, M8V 3G5 416-394-5350 [Prizes] 1st prize: - LEGO Technic and Pneumatic elements - (In opened condition) 2nd Prize: - Land Buster - 3rd Prize: - LEGO Crazy Action Contraptions The Winner can Choose his prize. [Details] [Premise of the Game:] Build a robot that can find the heaviest can in the play field. The play field will contain

Re: Odin, a robot for odometry

Claude Baumann — 2008-10-15T12:49:00

Very nice work,... as usual ;-) (Noblesse oblige!) -Claude

Odin, a robot for odometry

Philippe hurbain — 2008-10-15T12:18:21

> A robot able to move around along pre-defined paths, and keep an estimation of its position from encoders in its wheels and central pivot. <> Its mechanical structure allows it to go straight with 4 fixed direction wheels, and to turn precisely around a retractable central pivot. <> After a round trip Odin will come back at its starting position with some position and bearing offset A light sensor placed below Odin enables it to return home guided by a L-shaped mark on the floor. More details, images, video, programs and full building instructions available []. Enjoy! Philo

Is it normal that my local FLL knows nothing about AFOLs?

Darrell Urbien — 2008-10-11T09:02:40

OK, so I got roped into going to a meeting of a fledgling Robotics League in Orange County, California. They invited me because one of the founders of the League knew I was into Lego. There were several FIRST and FLL coaches, mentors,and club organizers from other areas of SoCAL present. The idea was to use their expertise to help start up new teams in my area. But while there was plenty of talk about involving local schools, afterschool programs, churches, etc. no one had any idea ADULTS were into this stuff. Huh? I've never been involved with FLL before, and I've been out of the AFOL scene entirely for years now, but I thought AFOL groups and FLL were intimately connected. When I told these people there were internantional conventions, LUGs, websites, Lego trains run by RCXs, GBCs, Moonbase, etc., they looked at me like I was speaking in tongues. Then after humoring me for awhile they went on with the "real" organizing... Has this been the normal reaction most of you have experienced getting into FLL? Or