Maker Faire 2008

I'm back from the Maker Faire! It was really fun, and I hope I can make it next year.
Anyways, I took some photos and movie clips there, and iMovie'd together a slideshow/video. It's mostly about the LEGO exhibit, but there is a bit of other stuff too.
Note: This does not cover the whole Maker Faire! There is way, way more than this. But most of the time I was looking at stuff and forgetting to take pictures, so this is what I have.

I thought that this site needed some new content, so I have recently become a member to Airkraft-NXTs blog, and Airkraft-NXT to mine. Lets hope there are many more posts and topics here,

RjbsNXT
rjbsnxt.blogspot.com

Golden Lego Bricks

As we all know, Lego turns 50 this year and to celebrate they've produced a bunch of "gold" bricks as a free gift with purchase of over $50.

The new set, "Town Plan" also includes three 2 by 2 golden bricks as well as a letter from company owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, who appeared on the original town plan box when he was much younger and returns on this one.

They've also produced a nice little anniversary site with a historical overview of their products.

You can read more about this on the Lego site

-Airkraft

NXTlog Biped Building Challenge

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXTLOG:
These robots are made for walkin'
Alpha Rex can't be the only biped you'll ever make, so we're asking you to create the NXT two legged walker! Bipeds are said to be the most difficult robot to make, but we know NXTLOGgers are up for the challenge!

All entries to NXTLOG fall under the Terms of Service
Entries must be submitted from Saturday March 1, 2008 - Monday March 31, 2008
All entries must be tagged "NXT200803"
Only LEGO elements may be used.

And of course all the other NXTLOG Challenge rules apply.

Lots of us have made bipeds, adn now is our chance to show them who's best!

Read More about thihs building challenge HERE

Forklift

Here's a great new project I just made: a forklift!

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

RealCar III

Here is the third incarnation of my rack&pinion cars...
See the other cars here.

This one can even be picked up without being dropped!

NXT Dot Matrix Printer?!?

I have just watched a video on youtube that shows a NXT robot using a felt tip pen to print a dot matrix (?) type image. The Video is called Lego Mindstorm, and the description is

113b Robot

Here is the video

Does Anyone have any information about this robot? it seems really cool
If you want to you can follow up this topic on my forum:
http://airkraft-nxt.forumotion.com/open-discussion-f1/video-with-no-info-nxt-dot-matrix-printer-maybe-t19.htm
Air

Farewell Crawler Crane!

The Crawler Crane Set 8288 has finaly been phased out of production here in the uk.
This is a sad day for me! I realy wanted this set, but it seams i shall have to buy it from somewhere else if i can find it.

If you know of anywhere that has any in stock, preferably in the UK, please get in contact.



Airkraft

PPS: Ping-Pong Shooter

This is a mobile, BlueTooth remote controlled robot. It has has a magazine of 7 ping-pong (table tennis) balls that it it will shoot if you press the bump sensor on the controller.

Now all I need is a 3rd NXT to fetch the projectiles!

--
NXTMonger

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

Buy your NXT now!

The following is from LEGO:

"Purchase 8527 LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT and receive an exclusive set of free accessories. Set includes one 9843 Touch Sensor, one 9844 Light Sensor and one pack of 8 Energizer Lithium AA batteries – a $50 value! Limited quantities. Offer good while supplies last. One free accessories set per order."

See it 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)

LEGO PF elements now avaliable at lego shop.com USA only though...

LEGO Shop-at-Home has updated their products recently. Perhaps most interesting there are some new PF elements among them, as well as the existing PF motors but you can now buy them on a "piece by piece" basis. It seems there is also a "hybrid" PF cable, that appear to function as both a PF extenssion cable as well as a cross-over cable to the older 9V system. The grand Technic Bulldozer may not be available... but at least now all the PF parts are (they've also been added to LEGO Digital Designer for that matter. It appears I need to browse S@H more often... and after I already put in my last order, too. Oh well, perhaps I need another order... For folks wanting new sensors, there's a lot of offerings at S@H as well: the standard four (US, light, sound, & touch), but also the Acceleration, IRSeeker, IRLink, Gyro, Color, & Compass sensor.

As posted by Brian Davis at http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/

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

Theres Something...Christmassy about www.airkraft-nxt.webs.com

If you havent allready seen, why not visit my website. you may be in for a festive treat!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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!