Archive for April, 2008

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Tip: Making Triangular Shapes

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 by snowblader13 in Technic, Tips

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.

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Posted in Technic, Tips | 3 Comments »

Anyone Coming to Maker Faire?

Sunday, April 20th, 2008 by NXTMonger in News

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

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Posted in News | 3 Comments »

Video: LEGO Bobcat Skid Steer Loader

Friday, April 18th, 2008 by snowblader13 in NXT, Projects

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.

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Posted in NXT, Projects | 1 Comment »

Video: NXTLiftBoy Has done it again!!!

Sunday, April 13th, 2008 by snowblader13 in News, Power Functions, Projects

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.

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Posted in News, Power Functions, Projects | 12 Comments »

The NeXT Bus

Thursday, April 10th, 2008 by NXTMonger in NXT, Projects

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.

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Posted in NXT, Projects | No Comments »

NXT Connect 4 Robot

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 by snowblader13 in NXT, Projects

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”

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Posted in NXT, Projects | 1 Comment »

Golden Lego Bricks

Monday, April 7th, 2008 by Airkraft in News

gold bricksAs 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

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Posted in News | 1 Comment »

NXTCentral Challenge #1: Move that Weight!

Monday, April 7th, 2008 by snowblader13 in Challenges, NXT

I am challenging all builders to pull as much weight as you possibly can. This will test your creativity to build a robot that not only can pull a bunch of weight, but that looks like something that can actually pull it. Will it be like a tug boat, or a Locomotive? There is no limit on the amount of weight that you can pull.

The Course is as follows:

1. Move forward 5 feet

2. Turn 90 degrees

3. Move 2 feet Forward

4. Turn 90 degrees

5. Move Forward 5 feet

Download the rules Here

You MUST read this ‘Questions and Answers’ topic dedicated to challenge #1 frequently. Please ask any questions or concerns you have here. Any post by snowblader13 over this topic is ‘official’ as rules! However, any post by other member should be considered a recommendation at best, until I reply to the
question at hand.

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Posted in Challenges, NXT | 5 Comments »

NXTrain – a LEGO Monorail

Saturday, April 5th, 2008 by NXTMonger in NXT, Projects

This is a LEGO monorail I made that ferries Storm troopers over the ravine between… um … stoolistan and chairville. Hope you like it. The stop motion isn’t that great, but that might be because of my lack of any animation software. Still, I think it’s good! The music is by my friend Ben and his dad Mark.

-NXTMonger

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Posted in NXT, Projects | 5 Comments »

Site Change

Friday, April 4th, 2008 by snowblader13 in Challenges, News

NXTCentral.com has changed its look. Although the look has been changed we will still be bringing you the latest and the greatest Information and projects on all things LEGO Mindstorms.

Please bear with us for a few days as we are making sure that everything looks and works ok.

There are also many cool and exciting things happening around here as well.

We now have a links page so you can find all information related to the Mindstorms Community. If there are any links that you think should be added there is a dedicated forum topic where you can suggest links to be added to NXTCentral.com.

To suggest more links please go here

We are going to start having challenges here as well. The first one will be starting soon, So we are encouraging everyone to participate and to get all of your friends to participate as well.

Thanks

The NXTCentral Team

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Posted in Challenges, News | 7 Comments »

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