Top Five NXT Videos on Youtube

WiigoBot



Lego Mindstorms NXT Segway



SPC (Self Parking Car)



NXT Rubik's cube solver - Final version


Danny's Mindstorms NXT Rubik Cube Solver

NXT Warehouse

Here is a cool project I ran across while browsing YouTube. A group of software creators used the NXT system to create a fully functioning warehouse environment.

Mindstorms Building Instructions

I've seen some really cool robots created over the past few years. Alot of times I try to emulate their creations and make them myself. The problem however is that I just can't seem to nail down exactly how the robot was put together.

Recently I stumbled upon a website that has a pretty creative idea of showcasing robots and giving users the exact instructions on how to build them. The website is called "Mindstorms Building Instructions."

Each creation that is featured is listed with a title, description, and full set of building instructions via Brickshelf. Furthermore, it is listed if that robot can be made with the usual 8527 kit. Then each set of instructions is rated in bricks on it's dificulty with one stud being the lowest and three the highest. Finally, there is a catagory for a NXT-Gprogram, if provided by the creator.

You can find the Mindstorms Building Instructions website at: http://ricquin.net/lego/instructions/

Brickshelf is Back!

No, this isn't some awful joke meant to ruin your day, Brickshelf is really back from the dead! The boys at Brickshelf had this to say:

"Notice: Brickshelf will not be shutting down!
We will be offering "featured" accounts for $5/month shortly. We have received hundreds of supportive emails in the past few days including many who said they would like to contribute financially but did not know how. This has had us rethink the practicality of charging for enhanced features.We plan to do this without reducing current functionality for free users. Thank you for your enormous show of support. IMPORTANT: do NOT try to download the entire site, it causes major problems, slows things down for normal users and you will be permanently blocked."

Link to Brickshelf Status post on Lugnet

Edit - Saturday, July 21
Here is a post from the Lugnet user group explaining some more information:

I have not posted until now because there was too much uncertainty about how (or if) this was going to work out.

Due to financial reasons, Brickshelf was no longer in a viable position to continue operating. As our costs are billed monthly, any shutdown would occur at the end of a calendar month. I decided that 15 days was enough time for everyone to copy their files. Turning it off completely for a few days was intended to send the message that this is serious and get everyones attention so they could use the remaining time wisely. It also gave everyone an opportunity to see what would break when it did finally shut down.

In hindsight I should have handled this differently but it's too late for that now.

I had long ago written off various ides for charging recurring fees because AFOLs and geeks in general expect everything on the web to be free. What turned this around is the totally unexpected volume of email I received from what appear to be regular people. Many of these people expressed an interest in paying some modest fee to keep the site running, if only there was a way to do that.

In addition, I had underestimated the extent to which things would break on other sites with Brickshelf gone. It was clear after the "test" shutdown that some long lasting solution would be needed to at least keep old content available in some way or I would not be able to sleep at night.

So we are going to try something new and see if it works. The site will continue to work as it does now for free users. Paying users will have the opportunity to have greater visibility of their folders (that pass moderation and are not junk/avatars). Of course paying users would also not see ads nor have ads on their folders.

To those wondering why maj.com was unaffected: It has a tiny fraction (< 10%) of the traffic that Brickshelf gets While many of you are aware of it, many more brickshelf users are not and it is possible for me to run that site out of pocket at it's current size. This is one reason there were no instructions posted to simply move over there. For those wondering if this was some elaborate stunt: I have a very full time job and this distraction is the last thing I needed to deal with right now. I did what I thought was necessary given the financial circumstances. I am still taking a risk in continuing this but the tremendous show of support has convinced me it is the right thing to do. Final note: It has come to my attention that some people have been impersonating me on various forums. LUGNET is the only LEGO related forum I have ever posted on (other than r.t.l in the old days) and it's user authentication system should give you reasonable assurance that it really is me.

Bye Bye Brickshelf

You may have noticed a bit of news information that is making it's way around the Lego blogosphere in the past couple of days. That is: Brickshelf.com is closing.

Brickshelf has posted on the top of their home page in big red letters: "Notice: Brickshelf will be shutting down on 2007/07/31. Please save your files to your computer."

While at first the website was taken down with no prior notice, it has been reinstated until the end of the month so that users can download their content that they have hosted on Brickshelf.

In my opinion, this is a huge loss for the Lego community. I know that countless people have relied on Brickshelf in the past in order the host and share the files for their Lego projects. The question now is where to go with all of our images?

Get Inspired!

How many times have you found yourself sitting in front of a pile of Legos with not a single idea of what to build. Well, here are a few tips that can help keep the creative juices flowing and provide you with some inspiration.

Possibly the best method of inspiration I have ever heard of is the use of something called a "Morgue File." Originally it started out as a web designer's tool, but in my opinion it can also be used with Mindstorms NXT. The idea is simple, create a folder on your desktop called NXT Ideas. Whenever you are browsing the net and see an idea or robot that you think is cool, save that page or image in your NXT Ideas folder.

The idea is when your creativity "dies" you open up your morgue file and browse through all of the awesome ideas you have saved. One of these ideas is bound to inspire you and give you a great idea for your next robot.

A few creative sources include:
Youtube videos of NXT
The Official NXTLOG
Brickshelf NXT Galleries


So readers where do you get your inspiration from?
Leave a comment!

NXT Log Challenge: Bug Bot

A few months ago in April, the LEGO Mindstorms website sported a brand new feature - building contests. The first two contests included a FLL robot and a quadruped walker. Now for the third challenge, LEGO wants to see you build your best bug bot! Your challenge is to design a NXT Insect or a NXT robot that can fight pesky pests.

Your insect creations are judged on a few different aspects including:

• Design
• Performance
• Creative use of NXTLOG

You can check out the full contest brief including all the rules, inspiration, judging criteria, and commenting at the official LEGO NXTLOG Challenge page.

Bluetooth Gravity Controlled Robot

Check out this cool find over at the nxtasy blog.

Ulli Kortenkamp has used bluetooth technology along with an Apple Macbook's internal gravity sensors to create a gravity controlled robot.



Ulli Writes on the You Tube page:

"In this video we show how to use the gravity sensor of a Apple MacBook Pro in order to remote control a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot. They connect via bluetooth, and the Interactive Geometry Software Cinderella.2 is used as controlling software. It reads the data from the gravity sensor of the MacBook, processes it and then controls the motors of the NXT robot accordingly.

More info about Cinderella at http://cinderella.de, contact: kortenkamp@cinderella.de. Recorded at the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany."

New IR Seeking Sensor

HiTechnic has done it again with the introduction of their newest sensor: The NXT IRSeeker. The new sensor does exactly what it is named for: it seeks out infrared light sources. Outfitted with an array of infrared sensors, the IRSeeker has a 135 degree field of vision. With the multiple sensors inside, the IRSeeker can display approximately where and how far away an IR light source is from the sensor.

One real world application that HiTechnic has pointed out is locating the infrared RoboCup soccer ball.

HiTechnic has take it one step further by detailing the process of programming the new sensor and how to use it in your NXT programs.

You can check out the IRSeeker and more information at HiTechnic.

Mindstorms Cellular Bluetooth NXT Control

With the addition of the bluetooth technology in the Mindstorms NXT system a whole new area of control was opened. The guys over at LEGO have introduced bluetooth support for the Mindstorms NXT system in the area of bluetooth enabled cell phones.

Recently, LEGO has made available their NXT Mobile Application that allows you to control your robot wirelessly via bluetooth technology. According to their specifications the following cell phones are supported:

• Nokia: 6680, 3230
• Sony Ericson: W800i, W550i, K610i, K800i, K750i, Z710i, Z550i, K510i
• BenQ-Siemens: CX75, X75

With the software provided by LEGO, you can control your robot in two different modes: remote control and program control. In the remote control setting you can direct and drive your robot with a joystick/command wheel. On the other hand, in program control, you can select what program you want the NXT to run and then use the numbers to send the NXT messages during the program.

It's amazing to see what LEGO has done with bluetooth in the NXT system. With such great innovations already, I'm excited to see what the future holds for bluetooth and the NXT!

Check out the official LEGO Mindstorms NXT Mobile Application page for more info and downloads.

Sharing Your Creations

The NXTLOG is a fully moderated community set up on http://legomindstorms.com where users can share their creations with the rest of the world. The basic idea of the NXTLOG is to share your projects, archive the results, and get inspiration from other people's inventions.

The four step process to sharing your creations as described by Lego:

1. Build your project!
2. Document what you did. Take pictures, make notes, describe problems and how you overcame them.
3. Build your NXTLOG. Register with Lego and start a new project log. Post pictures, code, descriptions, notes, and programs for your new project. Tag your project so that others can find it easily. Finally, publish your NXTLOG for the rest of the world to see!
4. Check out your personal projects that are now online to share with everyone.

You can find the NXTLOG's and more information over at Lego's website: http://mindstorms.lego.com/NXTLOG/default.aspx

NXT Book Roundup

Here is a list I have compiled of the best selling Lego Mindstorms NXT books to date.

• Extreme NXT: Extending the LEGO Mindstorms NXT to the Next Level

By:Michael Gasperi

• LEGO Mindstorms NXT: The Mayan Adventure

by: Jim Kelly

• LEGO Mindstorms NXT Hacker's Guide

by: Dave Prochnow

• Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms NXT

by: by Mario Ferrari, Guilio Ferrari, and David Astolfo

• The LEGO Mindstorms NXT Idea Book: Design, Invent, and Build

by: Contributors to the Nxt Step Blog

leJOS NXJ alpha 0.2

Little late on this one, but the hard working guys over at leJOS have released the leJOS NXJ alpha 0.2.0 build. In case you are not familiar with leJOS, it is an advanced Java programming system for the NXT or RCX. This newest version of leJOS offers Bluetooth, Ultrasonic sesnor, and sound support. Please keep in mind that it is a work in progress, but you can grab it from the download page.

Quoted from the leJOS Website

leJOS NXJ Alpha 0.2 is now available. This release contains preliminary Bluetooth support, I2C support (Ultrasonic sensor), and sound support. There is no menu system yet so you still only get one run per upload

Link to leJOS: http://lejos.sourceforge.net/index.php

Happy Easter!

Hey guys, I just wanted to wish everyone out there a happy Easter!

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few easter related NXT robots:

Mike Brandl's Egg Plotter

Andreas Dreier's Egg Plotter

Matthias Paul Sholz's East Bunny

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

NXT + Wii = The Perfect Game

Ok so I know I haven't posted an article or anything in the longest time. I guess I fell prey to "blogger exhaustion" as they call it. When I was browsing Digg earlier today, I saw something too good not to post.

On of the guys over at Battle Bricks has come up with a robot to play the Wii Sports Bowling game. This robot is capable of bowling a perfect 300 every single game!

Check out the video:


Make sure you check out the Battle Bricks website for more info and a bunch of pictures! http://www.battlebricks.com/wiigobot/index.html