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.

Now this is not directly related to Mindstorms, but way too cool to share with all.

Once again, the record for the world’s largest Lego tower has fallen. Last year, the Lego bricks towered 96 feet over Toronto. A new LEGO tower in the UK has taken over the title of “world’s tallest”. Constructed using over 500,000 bricks, it towers 100-feet above LEGOLAND Windsor. Hitting the 100 foot mark is definitely a fitting way to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

NXT NXT…? Are you seeing double? Yes! We are presenting a doubly fun building challenge where you create a robot that uses 2 NXT bricks! We are also giving you double the amount of time to enter this challenge (projects must be entered by June 30, 2008).

The 2 NXT’s can be onboard the robot or the 2 NXT’s can be separate (for example if 1 NXT is used as a remote controller for the 2nd NXT). The NXT’s must communicate with each other.

Don’t have 2 NXT’s? Why not enter the challenge with a friend!

As we all know it is extremely tricky when it comes to making triangles out of technic pieces. There are several different ways to do it, but i just discovered a new way that i have not seen before over on brickshelf.com.

This comes from Sariel, who has created several creative projects. From what you can see in the picture it is very sturdy looking, and could be adapted for many different uses. The direct link can be found Here.

He has several other creations that are worth checking out aswell.

Anyone coming to the Maker Faire? If you are, leave a comment, maybe I’ll see you there! I’ll be there May 3rd and 4th with my dad. Last year they had a MINDSTORMS booth and a LEGO setup….
I took some pictures last year, look at some of them here.

-NXTMonger

Here is a really cool Bobcat that i found on you tube, it uses Lego pneumatics to control the lift and tip of the bucket. This is a really good example of how one can combine pneumatics and the NXT together. I wish there were more information on it so that it would be easier to replicate, or make improvements.

Well even though this is not an NXT Creation I think it is still awesome. As most of you know NXTLiftBoy has made several really cool creations. You can check them out over at MOCpages Here.

Here is what he has to say about it:

The ChainRider is a trike featuring two huge wheels, remote control, and, i dare say, excellent drive properties. It is made entirely from a single LEGO set 8275, but appears to be much more fun in playing than the bulldozer!

For more information and building instructions see: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/54200

I challenge anyone to try to make a similar version of this with an NXT at the control.

This is my first entry for the Earth Day Building Challenge: The NeXT Bus! It is one of the first robotic public buses, and possibly the first made out of LEGO.
So here is how it helps the Earth:
This bus uses the same amount of energy as a TriBot, right? Well, maybe a little more, but about the same. So what’s the point? I’ll tell you. This bus easily carries 8 minifigs, but these minifigures are traveling alone, so if they weren’t on this bus, they’d be in 8 different cars! So with this bus, you would be using approximately 1/8 of the energy that would have been used.
Admittedly it doesn’t look much like a real bus, but at least it is functional! It has rack-and-pinion steering like a real bus, windows etc.

Here is a pretty cool project that Sascha from Germany Sent me.

Here is the information from Sascha:

“This is the Lego NXT “4 In A Row” robot project.
This robot is able to play against you on itself.
He is independend of any computer, so the program - programmed with NXC - is running on the NXT brick.
The human player can choose the row while pushing the touch sensor as often as the row’s number. The computer decides on its own, which row would be the best for it.
This KI is working mainly on the MINIMAX algorithm. However the computer is not as hard as i want him to be, because of the less NXT Brick speed.
the algorithm works like that: The computer simulates the next 3 possible steps and gives any game situation a specific number of points. The Row with the most points will be the next computers choice.
The robot uses three NXT motors:
- one is moving the gameboard
- the second fixes the stones
- the third opens the gate”

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