Lego 8070 Supercar

This is Lego's 8070 Supercar model that I had built almost a year ago now. It has working steering, a v8 that has moving pistons when the rear wheels turn (the rear wheels are connected with a differential gear), shock absorbers and mainly motor-driven doors, hood and rear spoiler. A gear selector switch engages the gear that controls a particular part (i.e. open/close the hood). A single medium power functions motor and battery box drive the whole thing. However the drivetrain and steering are not motorized. There are methods to make them motorized with two additional medium motors and a IR receiver. Problem is that it is best to do this modification when the car is first built. It is very difficult to do after it is built since it is built very strong and not easy to disassemble. I also added a set of LED lights to liven it up a little. 6 LEDs at the front for headlights, a pair for the engine compartment, another pair for the rear and last a pair on the rear spoiler. I don't show it but the LEDs can be set with different flash patterns than just 'always on'.

SPECTRE Versatile Rover

The SPECTRE Versatile Rover or VR uses 4 ExoForce wheels with a Power Functions XL motor per wheel. Features four Power Functions LEDs at the front for illumination. A add-on procurement allows for installing accessories such as pocket digital camcorders for onboard video. The battery box has been modified to support input from a 7.4V 3700mah Li-Po battery for long use and easy recharging. The chassis has the ability to flex in providing each wheel contact with the ground.

 

Johnny 5 is coming

My little teaser made for Johnny 5 parodying the beginning of the movie "Short Circuit"

 

MS Ball Machine III Overview

This is simply a look over of the third version of the MS Ball Machine. I never did make a video of the second version.

 

Turntable

NOTE: This is a facsimile. It is NOT intended to play actual LP discs. This simulates playing an LP (long play) disc. The idea for it came about as this year's BrickFair theme is based around music. Thinking back on the NXTosh acting as a jukebox (video name is "NXT Music") I could use the same method here, just simulate playing an LP record. The cover can open and close, the read arm swings back and forth, and of course the disc turns. The disc is driven via a 40 toothed gear coupled to a 24 tooth clutch gear which allows the record to stop but not the motor. An ultrasonic sensor checks to see if a disc is in place, the color sensor acts as a lamp to indicate playback, open lid, closing lid, errors, etc. The two touch sensors act together as a volume rocker to adjust the volume of playback.

 

 Playing Mega Man Music:

Die Raupe

Known as "The caterpillar" in English, this is a longer, more versatile variant of the previous camera rover. It is now over twice the length of the original rover, and has interchangeable gearing for a 1:1, 3:1 or 1:3 gear ratio. Uses two XL PF motors and PF lights on the front. There's a dedicated spot for the camera or IR remote now which can securely hold the camera in place. With the interchangeable gearing the body stands up off the ground, thus giving the rover some off-road capability.

 

ACROFORCE

It gets the name ACROFORCE from the fact it rsembles (and technically works like) Acrobot II from the Mindstorms RIS 1.0 sets and that it uses those large Exo-Force tank wheels. Powered by 2 XL PF motors at the rear providing 2 wheel drive. With another two XL PF motors, this can be made four wheel drive which is more effective in snow (as opposed to 2WD seen on the snow in the video). It also features the PF lights, and because of those large wheels can run right-side up or upside-down. The front wheels aren't the most secure as you'll notice they twist and flex a lot when turning.

 

NXTosh

If the title hasn't given it away yet, this is spoofing the classic Macintosh systems of the late 80s/ early 90s. A lot of it is programming, most of which is derived from mutliple nxtprograms.com projects including: Scribble Pad, Pitching Machine and Batter, Sound Meter, and Whack-A-Brick. It is set-up so it waits for a disk to be inserted (which is detected by the ultrasonic sensor) and then "loads" the OS. It runs a motor in the back with random degrees of movement 10 times to simulate a disk drive motor. The light sensor just simulates when the disk drive is in use. It has a touch sensor on the side to act as the "interrupt" key seen on the older Macs and I set it up to do what it does if you press it while it "boots up." Lastly, the sound sensor is used as a microphone for the sound meter program. I modified the Pitching Machine section to be used as a controller for the scribble pad as the program is sensitive. The startup sound and crash sound are those of actual Macintosh computers of that era. When done, just remove the disk and it "shuts off." This is a crude version right now and my camera battery was dying so I didn't get footage of the scribble pad or additional video of the unit.

 

 Music 1:
   


 Music 2: 

UBS Plotter

This is the plotter built from the Ultimate Builders Set expansion for the Mindstorms Robotics Inventon System (RIS). Most of the beams and connectors used are those from an NXT set so they will appear in different colors from the original design. I'm using a 9V AC Adapter to keep the RCX powered while providing higher voltage so the plotter works faster and more effectively. I've set it up so it uses a light sensor to know when there is paper present and a touch sensor is used to indicate when to begin plotting.

 

Brick Sorter

This is one of those classic types of Mindstorms projects: the brick sorter! This uses a Mindstorms RIS 2.0 set plus pneumatic components and Power Functions motors. Unlike the NXT which you can get a color sensor for, the original RIS system just had a light sensor. If you wanted a color sensor, you had to make your own (homebrew as it is called). In this case, the brick sorter is monochrome, meaning the light sensor sorts the bricks by the shade of color than the actual brick color. For the injector, I didn't want to use a motor with rack gearing to push the bricks into the bins so I got the idea of using a pneumatically powered injector mechanism. Problem was the little air pumps (even with two of them) can't provide a high enough pressure to operate the piston quickly which then granted the need for the compressor to provide air at 20 psi. For the rack that moves holding the bins, I originally used a Technic 9V motor with a worm gear at 24:1. This moved the rack back and forth quite slow, so with a Power Functions converter cable and 2 medium-size motors I changed it over to use those with a 3:1 gearing and connected it to the drive sprocket via chain links. Like my ball machine, the brick sorter is also configured to be modular. This allows the sorter to be seperated into two modules by just disconnecting a few parts making it easier to transport. The bricks used in the sorter are placed upside-down in the loader as the light sensor reads the shades of the bricks better than right-side up. Plus, when done, they just go on the board and go with it wherever.

 

Camera Rover

This is a rover built using Lego's Power Functions system. It can be built from instructions from the Power Functions homepage:http://web.archive.org/web/20090620071935/http://technic.lego.com/en-US/powerfunctions/default.aspx (THIS LINK IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE). It includes the Power Functions LED lights and is set up to hold a point-and-shoot camera onboard similar to my set up of the onboard camera on the OdinScout. It uses the PF XL motors and the remote that I customized for better "response and feel."

 

2-Cylinder Pneumatic Engine

This is a two cylinder Lego Pneumatic Engine (LPE) I put together as I had leftover technic beams and pneumatic components after building other projects. The engine provides a good array of power, I would just perfer it run smooth. For now the only item the engine powers is a 9V Technic motor to act as a generator for a lamp. I intend on building the 3-speed manual transmission from nxtprograms.com and using this to power it instead of an nxt motor. I make use of an Iwata Sprint Jet air compressor that is used for airbrushes. I can get up to 125 psi with it but the engine will run at 60 psi max as it uses the air.

 

 3-speed transmission:


 Integrated transmission:

Dicke Bertha

My first dual NXT based robot. I must say it is quite large... and heavy. It did undergo a refit later on since the video of it was done. The refit is shown in my video with my BrickFair 2010 MOCs. Mainly the barrel was shorter, added a Zamor gun to its arsenal and fitted touch sensors to the front and rear. This model used six motors and a variety of sensors. Two motors powered the drivetrain and were geared down 3:1. Zero-degree turns were a problem as the high weight caused the drivetrain to strain and make gears slide off axles. Another motor operated the turntable that rotated the main ball gun. Another motor operated the up/down tilt of the gun (this was removed and used for the Zamor launcher in the refit). Two motors fire the main ball gun using two 40-tooth gears moving a set of worm gears on an axle like a rack-and-pinion setup. AN ultrasonic sensor looked for targets, a HiTechnic EOPD sensor monitors the rear if it backed too close to something, a light sensor looked for light sources (the LED was also used to indicate current status of the robot), a HiTechnic color sensor monitors the balls in the magazine and a sound sensor to monitor ambient noise. Later on it was used as the tug in the LEGO Road Train.

 

NXT: CD/DVD Plotter

The CD/DVD plotter was a good means to use up those old, find in the mail (junk), useless CDs I had laying around. The design is relatively simple. The pen arm slides back and forth on a rail and is moved by a motor turning a worm gear. In this setup the worm gear acts as a screw moving the pen holder via an 8-tooth gear. Another motor moves the pen assembly up and down when the pen needs to make contact with the disc. Lastly another motor simply rotates the disc in the tray. The tray itself opens to insert a disc and to remove it and is held closed by two beams. I didn't get overly fancy with the programming to make it write text. Merely I just had it do some graphical designs.

 

First Person View of the RoboArm T-56

I attached a camera to the RoboArm T-56 that is included as a build in the NXT kit. The camera I used is a Kodak V1233. I can't say its the best camera out there, its given me plenty of problems. The arm automatically resorts 4 different objects... essentially it swaps the objects from one side to the other. They are the red and blue nxt balls, a yellow tennis ball and an empty soda can. Due to the worm gearing for moving the arm up/down left/right the machine operates rather SLOW. Plus the advantages of high torque is overdone by the gears slipping... as can be noted in the video since the camera on the arm adds weight.

 

OdinScout

I built Philo's "Odin- A Robot for Odometry" orignially, but then wanted to add sensors, an on-board camera, and bluetooth remote control. That's where I designed the OdinScout. Scout was added to the name as the robot is more for remote surveillance operations.

 

MS Ball Machine I

My pride and joy: In my belief for the first time I make something worthwhile with the original RIS system. I combined it with an NXT set and soon with several building instructions from various providers I brought them together into my own ball machine.

 

KILO - A Holonomic/Killough Robot

I had always wanted to build a holonomic or Killough based robot. With the designs for KILO available online I built it. I was however a little apprehensive that there is little support to the motors and frame so it can be only used on tile flooring. Carpeting literally rips it apart. Plus I didn't have/built any omniwheels so I used the original RIS large wheels as surrogates.

 

Lego gears, worms, belts, differentials, etc

There isn't a whole lot on lego gearing of any kind. I decided to make an educational vid using various gearing methods powered by NXT motors. The same principles shown here work with any gearing setup wether its Lego, Meccano, or real-world uses.