Two New Mindstorms Websites

I have reently been invited to join two new Lego Mindstorms NXT websites as a contributer and moderator.
These two websites are:

Travis' TeamNXT and Snowblader13's NXTCentral


TeamNXT has a Blog and a Forum





NXT Central also has a blog and a forum


Both Sites have great potential, and great contributers. We hope to be keeping all you mindstormers out there informed of events, shop offers, new videos, and just about anything else NXT from all over the world.


Airkraft-NXT

Brand New RFID sensor (codatex)

Lots of people have made RFID sensors for the NXT, but at last, there’s an “official” third party product. LEGO has announced yesterday an official partnership with Codatex producing the NXT RFID Sensor seen below. The package contains a sensor and two tags, with holes matching Technic pegs.

Features:

• Reads 125 kHZ transponders of type EM4102
• 5 bytes number, i.e. 240 combinations (i.e. 1.099.511.627.775 numbers)
• The reader has three modes of reading:
  • Single read
  • Continuous read
  • Stop
• Reading distance up to 3 cm depending on transponder size and orientation
• Transparent front cap with LED signal at detection of a transponder
• Auto power off for saving battery power
• Firmware upgrade feature for future enhancements (saving hardware cost)

The press release can be found HERE

They Are Coming... 2008

What is there to look forward to in 2008? well, let me give you a clue:

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one" he said...



Read more HERE

Lego NXT Helicopter Simulator - ChopperBot

Too much caffeine today posted the video of his "ChopperBot". ChopperBot lets you "pilot" a helicopter on the end of a crane arm - forwards and backwards, up and down - all controlled with the touch sensor and the buttons on the NXT brick. Features include:

• No matter what altitude the helicopter is at, it is always level
• The helicopter's rotors turn due to the transmission of power up the arm

More info can be found at his website: http://www.way2muchcaffeine.blogspot.com/, as well as the .ldd file (when posted)

Milton Keynes Lego Shop MINDSTORMS DISCOUNT!!

Today I went to Milton Keynes (England) to see if they had the crawler crane in stock(as legoshop.com had run out, and I think it has been discontinued), and to my suprise, they actually had a sale on, ON DECENT SETS! Not just their crappy stuff. Sadly there was no crawler crane, but they did have the TIE CRAWLER and BATMOBILE sets (both with LOTS of caterpillar tracks) for only £28! (normally £40) So I bought a Tie set, as well as a selection of technic beams and lift arms.

Then as i was leaving the shop, I noticed that ALL MINDSTORMS ACCESORIES WERE HALF PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Sadly, I had just spent all the christmas money I had brought with me, so I didnt get any. Hopefully when I go a week next tuesday, they will still have the discount. If not, i think i may have to eat myself.

I got two more points on my loyalty card today though, so that was good.

And so, the moral of this story children, is, IF YOU LIVE NEAR MILTON KEYNES IN ENGLAND, GO BUY SOME LEGO!

Merry Christmas by the way!

Airkraft-NXT

Brian Davis' LEGO DigiComp II

Ok. So strickly speaking, its not LEGO Mindstorms, but who cares. this thing is COOL!

MDP Brian Davis made his own LEGO version of a basic computer a few weeks ago and posted this video on youtube.

Brian set out to rebuild an old "marble logic" computer from LEGO, using various tidbits and plans from the internet, and so, DigiComp II was born.
The finished model weighs about 10 pounds, & uses 14 simple switches, 21 flip-flops, 8 half flip-flops, and a ball release mechanism.

As Brian said,

"There is no electronics involved at all here - only mechanical gates moved by falling balls. The only 'programming' that takes place is setting a few (mechanical!) switches before dropping the first ball. No IC, no batteries - pure mechanism."

More pictures of the components can be found in his Brickshelf gallery here.

Tilt-A-Ped - A line following biped by 222doc

A few weeks ago 222doc posted a video to youtube showing his Tilt-A-Ped. This was his entry at nxtasy#4.
Tilt-A-Ped is a weight shifting bi-ped that uses two light sensors to follow a black line.
The nxt brick shifts left to right and right to left, and at the point of inbalance it teeter-totters at the ankles, then one of the two leg motors rotate as needed.
The brick is modular, and can easily be removed.
Below is 222Docs video of it in action.


A few days later he posted another video showing Tilt-A-Ped's mechanical features overview

NEW Page on www.airkraft-nxt.webs.com/airkraft-nxt

I have added a forum to my website for any questions or comments.
Any ideas for categories?
you can see the forum at: http://www.airkraft-nxt.webs.com/forum.htm

P.s. I thought I'd use a different font today!

Steve Hassenplug- On Youtube!

A video appeared on youtube today, that shows Lego Mindstorms NXT MDP Steve Hassenplug talking about hisholonomic drive robot called Omni. Take a look:


WE finally see what he looks and sounds like!

The Next Lego Mindstorms NXTLog Building Challenge

What will it be!

we've had a summer one, a back to school one, a Halloween one, and a sumo one.

What now?
Maybe a Christmas one?
or a new years reserlution one?
or maybe even a calander one.

do YOU have any ideas?
Send me a comment with your ideas.

Airkraft-nxt.webs.com

MY SITE HAS MOVED!
I have changed my site to:
http://www.airkraft-nxt.webs.com
now all I need to do is change all the links on all my other sites!

First of many posts!

OK This is it! My first of many blogs.
A few quick announcements to make:

I NEED HELP! if anyone would like to be contributor to my blog, SAY SO!!!

Any ideas of what to post blogs about eg videos, new robots ect TELL ME!

i am hoping to add a new blog at least every week, as well as some that the nxtstep.blogspot have posted

I will Leave you with a video of my NXT Rover