But now that I know that they can be used as a fan blade, I will have to blow the dust off that box and check them out.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Air Powered Car
Checking out TechnicBricks today I found a really neat invention by Barry Bosman. Why do I like it so much? Because I absolute hate all those single purpose body molding panel things that come with many newer Technic sets. I have a whole container full of them and I store them right beside a box of Znap parts. If I do build the set, I use those parts once and them throw them into the box never to be seen again.
But now that I know that they can be used as a fan blade, I will have to blow the dust off that box and check them out.
But now that I know that they can be used as a fan blade, I will have to blow the dust off that box and check them out.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Android Greatness
Wow!
And it looks like we are right on schedule for what happens in the year 2035...
And it looks like we are right on schedule for what happens in the year 2035...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
More PR2 Greatness
If you are not familiar with Willow Garage’s PR2 robot, you should make an effort to do some searches and find out more. It's a fantastic idea.
Basically, Willow Garage designed a very sophisticated robot with lots of features and then gave about a dozen of them away to worthy organizations. The software is open source, so the lucky recipients could program the robot to do anything they wanted. There have been groups who have programmed it to fold clothes, fetch beer, plug itself into an outlet to charge up the batteries, and countless other tasks. All the big robotic sites feature articles on the robot all the time.
Click here to see some of the videos on YouTube.
The robot itself is a major milestone, but the concept of building a sophisticated robot and letting many groups develop the software independently is the truly innovative idea. Rather than a large corporation selfishly hoarding the information, these groups share ideas that were developed and then bring them together. That will make this concept race ahead of the competitors. It is absolutely one of the best ideas ever.
Here is one of the latest videos..
Oh, and by the way, you can purchase your own for $400,000. I’ll take two.
As I was working on MARVIN, I started to notice a few similarities between MARVIN and PR2. Obviously, the software was open source plus it could be programmed in any NXT compatible language. The robot had tons of features like twenty-five motors and over thirty sensors. The robot could be programmed to do an infinite amount of tasks within limits. The nice thing MARVIN was that not only the software was open source, but so was the hardware. I still had open motor and sensor ports, so you could easily add or take away features. Looking back, I think it would have been awesome to let some other Mindstormers teach him some stuff.
Basically, Willow Garage designed a very sophisticated robot with lots of features and then gave about a dozen of them away to worthy organizations. The software is open source, so the lucky recipients could program the robot to do anything they wanted. There have been groups who have programmed it to fold clothes, fetch beer, plug itself into an outlet to charge up the batteries, and countless other tasks. All the big robotic sites feature articles on the robot all the time.
Click here to see some of the videos on YouTube.
The robot itself is a major milestone, but the concept of building a sophisticated robot and letting many groups develop the software independently is the truly innovative idea. Rather than a large corporation selfishly hoarding the information, these groups share ideas that were developed and then bring them together. That will make this concept race ahead of the competitors. It is absolutely one of the best ideas ever.
Here is one of the latest videos..
Oh, and by the way, you can purchase your own for $400,000. I’ll take two.
As I was working on MARVIN, I started to notice a few similarities between MARVIN and PR2. Obviously, the software was open source plus it could be programmed in any NXT compatible language. The robot had tons of features like twenty-five motors and over thirty sensors. The robot could be programmed to do an infinite amount of tasks within limits. The nice thing MARVIN was that not only the software was open source, but so was the hardware. I still had open motor and sensor ports, so you could easily add or take away features. Looking back, I think it would have been awesome to let some other Mindstormers teach him some stuff.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Wow, What A Weekend!
I only hope that you had a spectacular weekend like I just did. I had the opportunity to spend many hours building over this long three day weekend. I worked on four different projects with great success. And since I took MARVIN apart, I had tons of parts to work with. Man, it's good to be building again.
The first project I worked on was an updated Stewart Platform. Not much different from the last one I built, but this is far more stable in all positions. I changed one of the joints and moved some of the Linear Actuators in toward the center. I didn’t take any video of it because it operates pretty much the same as the last version. But take my word for it, it is better.
The second project I worked on is an updated Lego Flexpicker. I have some ideas that I might want to try. This version uses about half the parts, is lighter and more compact but not smaller (if that makes sense), and much easier to mount. I have been throwing around the idea of building more than one to see if I could create a large pick and place system. More info to come.
The third project was more of learning experience for me. I wondered if I could make the motor speeds follow a complex function, such as a trigonometric function like sine or cosine. I was able to do this without much hassle. What this means to the non-Math nerds such as myself is that the motor speeds up and slows down, reverses and does the same. It would remind you of a pendulum.
And I have video for the fourth project. A few months ago here on Tinkernology I blogged about the Lego Education Mobile R/C Robot called Rooster. I spend about a day building myself one and I named it The Hen.
It is easy to control. In fact my five year old likes to drive it around, but she doesn’t quite have the arm movements down just yet. This project has a high “playability” aspect, almost as much as the Lego Bulldozer does. I would recommend this project to anybody who likes to play as much as build.
My favorite part about this build is the gripper. I have probably built forty versions of grippers over twenty years or so; I am just fascinated by grippers for some reason. But this one is special. I have built this version as shown a half dozen times because it works so well. I use a M PF motor running a clutch gear to control it. When the gripper is fully closed or open, the clutch slips so there is no stress put on the motor.
Now I can’t wait for the next three day weekend.
The first project I worked on was an updated Stewart Platform. Not much different from the last one I built, but this is far more stable in all positions. I changed one of the joints and moved some of the Linear Actuators in toward the center. I didn’t take any video of it because it operates pretty much the same as the last version. But take my word for it, it is better.
The second project I worked on is an updated Lego Flexpicker. I have some ideas that I might want to try. This version uses about half the parts, is lighter and more compact but not smaller (if that makes sense), and much easier to mount. I have been throwing around the idea of building more than one to see if I could create a large pick and place system. More info to come.
The third project was more of learning experience for me. I wondered if I could make the motor speeds follow a complex function, such as a trigonometric function like sine or cosine. I was able to do this without much hassle. What this means to the non-Math nerds such as myself is that the motor speeds up and slows down, reverses and does the same. It would remind you of a pendulum.
And I have video for the fourth project. A few months ago here on Tinkernology I blogged about the Lego Education Mobile R/C Robot called Rooster. I spend about a day building myself one and I named it The Hen.
It is easy to control. In fact my five year old likes to drive it around, but she doesn’t quite have the arm movements down just yet. This project has a high “playability” aspect, almost as much as the Lego Bulldozer does. I would recommend this project to anybody who likes to play as much as build.
My favorite part about this build is the gripper. I have probably built forty versions of grippers over twenty years or so; I am just fascinated by grippers for some reason. But this one is special. I have built this version as shown a half dozen times because it works so well. I use a M PF motor running a clutch gear to control it. When the gripper is fully closed or open, the clutch slips so there is no stress put on the motor.
Now I can’t wait for the next three day weekend.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Sloth
If you are into watching paint dry, you might like this. If you love watching extreme NXT robots do something absolutely unbelievable, then watch this. The video takes about ten minutes, but you won't get bored, at least I didn't
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
TechMeet
This one of the coolest meeting I have ever seen. A bunch of Technic AFOLs building. There are a bunch of people that read Tinkernology that I would love to spend a weekend with doing exactly this.
A Tank Controlled By Head Movements
I have now committed all my spare change, all my recycled aluminum can money, and all my birthday money to buying one of these for the office.
Now I can take out my personal revenge on those people who don't make a pot of coffee when they take the last cup, those who don't put a lid on their food in the microwave, those who talk too loud on the phone.
This little snippet gets me in the mood for the impending battle...
Now I can take out my personal revenge on those people who don't make a pot of coffee when they take the last cup, those who don't put a lid on their food in the microwave, those who talk too loud on the phone.
This little snippet gets me in the mood for the impending battle...
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sequencer Version 2
I found this over at TheNXTStep. I really love the simplicity.
You could even take this one step further by increasing the distance that the color sensor is from the pivot point and slowing the rotations down. You could play a much longer "song." What a great idea.
You could even take this one step further by increasing the distance that the color sensor is from the pivot point and slowing the rotations down. You could play a much longer "song." What a great idea.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Whaaaa... OMG!
Well, I did it. With very little warning, I did something that I have said I wouldn’t do. Yes, the unthinkable is..I tore MARVIN apart. All the way. No remains. Kaput. Nada.
Why you may ask? Because I need a break from MARVIN. I started working on him back in January. I worked very hard on him for many, many hours. But then summer came and I started working more outside, played with the kids, all the good stuff. I got distracted. Then last Friday night I sat down with about three good quiet hours and I was completely, utterly uninspired. The great cancer of a Lego builder.
Over the last few months I have been working “on the side” with a few other small projects but I couldn’t actually finish most of them because all my NXTs were tied up in MARVIN. That frustrated me. I thought, and still think that MARVIN is a great project and I fully intend to build him again, but I need to mentally stretch, take a walk and come back to him refreshed.
I also made some crucial mistakes while working on that project. First, I let my imagination get away from me. I literally had pages of notes of things I wanted to make him do. All of that would have taken time and when I looked at the list I was overwhelmed. I had a very hard time getting started on one thing because I had fifty other things on my mind.
The second major mistake was that I initially spent all my time building and very little time programming. I enjoy building much more than programming (but I do like to program) so when it came to make him do his thing, it was pretty much exclusively programming. I didn’t enjoy that. I had a pile of about seven thousand Lego parts, but I felt that I couldn’t mechanically change him because it might mess up my plans. My next project(s) (and when I do get back to work on MARVIN) I am going to build, program, build, program, build, program… rather than build, build, build and then try to program it all. At one point I had twenty five motors and over thirty sensors mounted but not a stitch of code. That was a big mistake.
So what this means is that I hope to do smaller projects for a while, throw some video up on YouTube, and offer more good stuff here on Tinkernology. I have some great ideas that I have started working on and in fact, I have already built one small thing that only took me about two hours. I really miss working on projects like that. I am very excited to be back building again.
Why you may ask? Because I need a break from MARVIN. I started working on him back in January. I worked very hard on him for many, many hours. But then summer came and I started working more outside, played with the kids, all the good stuff. I got distracted. Then last Friday night I sat down with about three good quiet hours and I was completely, utterly uninspired. The great cancer of a Lego builder.
Over the last few months I have been working “on the side” with a few other small projects but I couldn’t actually finish most of them because all my NXTs were tied up in MARVIN. That frustrated me. I thought, and still think that MARVIN is a great project and I fully intend to build him again, but I need to mentally stretch, take a walk and come back to him refreshed.
I also made some crucial mistakes while working on that project. First, I let my imagination get away from me. I literally had pages of notes of things I wanted to make him do. All of that would have taken time and when I looked at the list I was overwhelmed. I had a very hard time getting started on one thing because I had fifty other things on my mind.
The second major mistake was that I initially spent all my time building and very little time programming. I enjoy building much more than programming (but I do like to program) so when it came to make him do his thing, it was pretty much exclusively programming. I didn’t enjoy that. I had a pile of about seven thousand Lego parts, but I felt that I couldn’t mechanically change him because it might mess up my plans. My next project(s) (and when I do get back to work on MARVIN) I am going to build, program, build, program, build, program… rather than build, build, build and then try to program it all. At one point I had twenty five motors and over thirty sensors mounted but not a stitch of code. That was a big mistake.
So what this means is that I hope to do smaller projects for a while, throw some video up on YouTube, and offer more good stuff here on Tinkernology. I have some great ideas that I have started working on and in fact, I have already built one small thing that only took me about two hours. I really miss working on projects like that. I am very excited to be back building again.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
8043 Motorized Excavator Solution Near???
The people over at TechnicBRICKS have posted a communication from TLG about the faulty 8043. Check it out.
I put a battery box in the machine and ran it literally for about 30 seconds and then took it apart. I didn't want to ruin the motors as many have already done. But you can be assured that I will be contacting the Lego Group for my Service Bag to fix it.
I am actually surprised that they were able to fix it. While I was building mine I noticed that the movement mechanisms were packed quite tight. It didn't seem that a fix would be possible. Kudos to TLG.
I put a battery box in the machine and ran it literally for about 30 seconds and then took it apart. I didn't want to ruin the motors as many have already done. But you can be assured that I will be contacting the Lego Group for my Service Bag to fix it.
I am actually surprised that they were able to fix it. While I was building mine I noticed that the movement mechanisms were packed quite tight. It didn't seem that a fix would be possible. Kudos to TLG.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Confessions of a Lego Hoarder.
I have been actively collecting Lego for over twenty years. You might even say that I have been hoarding Lego for twenty years. I was buying Lego before the internet became popular, so I was one of the original members of the old rec.toys.lego newsgroup. I have watched the popularity of Lego skyrocket on the web. I also remember thinking “boy it would be really cool if someone would make something to control the Lego motors.” Today, I couldn’t be more pleased with the direction that Lego and the AFOL community have gone.
When I started collecting in the late 80’s, I made it a point to save all the instructions from every set I purchased. After a few years, I got my first computer and it came with a really cheap, barely useful spreadsheet. So in the early nineties, I started a database of all my sets. It included the set number, the name, the line, part count, the cost, and how many of the sets I own. About seventeen years later, I still keep that inventory, but I have upgraded to MS Excel. I am so glad I have because it tells me so much. I now have all kinds of data that I protect fiercely. I thought I might share some of that data.
I break it up into a few categories; “Sets”, “accessories,” and “other.” I classify “sets” as sets that are meant to be built by themselves. “Accessories” add to other sets, such as individually sold motors, sensors, brick packs and that sort of thing. “Other” is stuff such as Pick-A-Brick items, parts bought on Bricklink, Ebay, garage sales and such. Usually accessories are sold by Lego in Lego containers and “other” is sold as-is by other individuals.
So here is the dirt:
In the Sets category
Sets I own: 227 total sets, 195 unique sets
Piece count of Sets: 76,540
Value of sets (MSRP): $9,540.51
Average cost per piece: $0.125 each
From the lines:
Adventurers, Aquanauts, Aquazone, Basic, Bionicle, Blacktron, Boats, Castle, City, Creator, Cyberslam, Dark Forest, Diver, Divers, Exploriens, Extreme, FERRARI , Fright Knights, Launch Command, MARS MISSION, Master Builder Series Technic, Mindstorms, Mindstorms/Star Wars, Model Team, M-Tron, Outback, RACERS, Roboforce, Rock Raiders, Space, Space Police, Space Port, Space Triple Set, Star Wars, System, Technic, Technic Robo Rider, Technic/Star Wars, Throwbot, Time Travelers, Time Twisters, Town, Town/Flight, Train, Ultimate Collector Series, Wild West, Znap (yes, Znap)
I own the most sets from the Technic line with 86, but I only own 75 unique models. This means that I have bought several sets more than once. I own four of 8047 Technic Compact Excavator (out now, because is has parts I need) and I own the most of 8527, Mindstorms NXT 1.0, which I own six.
In the Accessories category,
Sets I own: 348
Piece count of accessory sets: 20,002
Value of sets (MSRP): $3,623.64
Average cost per piece: $0.181 each
Cost per piece is more because the accessories I buy are typically things like motors and sensors which really pushes the number up high.
In the Other category
From Ebay and Bricklink,
Piece count: 5,504
Value of purchases: $583.24
Average cost per piece: $0.106 each
And I estimate that I have picked up about 12,500 parts from different Pick-A-Brick walls from a few different Lego stores.
So here is the summary
Total Piece Count: 102,236
Total set count : 575
Average cost per piece: $0.13
Average cost per set: $23.91
Average Parts per set: 178
Total Value: $13,747.39 (staggering to me)
And keep in mind this number doesn’t include shelves, tables, drawers, totes and all the stuff it takes to maintain a fully operational, dedicated Lego Room.
Wanna come over to my house and play legos??
When I started collecting in the late 80’s, I made it a point to save all the instructions from every set I purchased. After a few years, I got my first computer and it came with a really cheap, barely useful spreadsheet. So in the early nineties, I started a database of all my sets. It included the set number, the name, the line, part count, the cost, and how many of the sets I own. About seventeen years later, I still keep that inventory, but I have upgraded to MS Excel. I am so glad I have because it tells me so much. I now have all kinds of data that I protect fiercely. I thought I might share some of that data.
I break it up into a few categories; “Sets”, “accessories,” and “other.” I classify “sets” as sets that are meant to be built by themselves. “Accessories” add to other sets, such as individually sold motors, sensors, brick packs and that sort of thing. “Other” is stuff such as Pick-A-Brick items, parts bought on Bricklink, Ebay, garage sales and such. Usually accessories are sold by Lego in Lego containers and “other” is sold as-is by other individuals.
So here is the dirt:
In the Sets category
Sets I own: 227 total sets, 195 unique sets
Piece count of Sets: 76,540
Value of sets (MSRP): $9,540.51
Average cost per piece: $0.125 each
From the lines:
Adventurers, Aquanauts, Aquazone, Basic, Bionicle, Blacktron, Boats, Castle, City, Creator, Cyberslam, Dark Forest, Diver, Divers, Exploriens, Extreme, FERRARI , Fright Knights, Launch Command, MARS MISSION, Master Builder Series Technic, Mindstorms, Mindstorms/Star Wars, Model Team, M-Tron, Outback, RACERS, Roboforce, Rock Raiders, Space, Space Police, Space Port, Space Triple Set, Star Wars, System, Technic, Technic Robo Rider, Technic/Star Wars, Throwbot, Time Travelers, Time Twisters, Town, Town/Flight, Train, Ultimate Collector Series, Wild West, Znap (yes, Znap)
I own the most sets from the Technic line with 86, but I only own 75 unique models. This means that I have bought several sets more than once. I own four of 8047 Technic Compact Excavator (out now, because is has parts I need) and I own the most of 8527, Mindstorms NXT 1.0, which I own six.
In the Accessories category,
Sets I own: 348
Piece count of accessory sets: 20,002
Value of sets (MSRP): $3,623.64
Average cost per piece: $0.181 each
Cost per piece is more because the accessories I buy are typically things like motors and sensors which really pushes the number up high.
In the Other category
From Ebay and Bricklink,
Piece count: 5,504
Value of purchases: $583.24
Average cost per piece: $0.106 each
And I estimate that I have picked up about 12,500 parts from different Pick-A-Brick walls from a few different Lego stores.
So here is the summary
Total Piece Count: 102,236
Total set count : 575
Average cost per piece: $0.13
Average cost per set: $23.91
Average Parts per set: 178
Total Value: $13,747.39 (staggering to me)
And keep in mind this number doesn’t include shelves, tables, drawers, totes and all the stuff it takes to maintain a fully operational, dedicated Lego Room.
Wanna come over to my house and play legos??
Sunday, August 22, 2010
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