The StringThing uses one motor to spin a string. That’s it. Oh right: it spins it in a sine wave. Cool, huh?

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.

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

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.

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

I recently discovered a great freeware CAD (Computer- Aided Design) program called Blender that I have been playing around with. It’s available for Windows and Mac. Here’s a screenshot of a snowman I made with it:

Admittedly it’s not a work of art but it’s my first project. I am hoping to make some LEGO parts at some point. Also, although it’s difficult, you can also do 3-D animation with Blender. I haven’t figured that out yet, but I’m going to take a class based on blender, so hopefully, I’ll learn how to do it then.

–NXTMonger

Here is a great robot that my best friend Ben made, called the Netch-a-sketch. Well actually it’s the program that’s cool. As you may have guessed from the name, it is an NXT based etch-a-sketch. If you want to see it in action, download the program(Right Click and Save as to Download) I’d have included a video, but unfortunately you can’t take Screencasts with the NXT

This robot can type “NXT” on a MacBook! Well, a keyboard hooked up to the MacBook, to be precise. Take a look at the video below.

A big part of the robotic competitions is the outreach to the community in which a team participates, as well as the team’s expression of the FLL Core Values. Teams from around the world were given the opportunity to present their works in these areas for special consideration. Of all the teams that applied internationally, only twelve teams would be invited to compete at the FLL World Festival (April 17-18 in Atlanta, GA). The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckes from Village Home was one of those teams invited!The Duckies are the “sister” team from the co-op that our team went to. AND THEY ARE GOING TO WORLD FEST!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!

• Their website, made by Tesca, a computer genius age 10.
• They would REALLY appreciate a financial contribution, because they live in Oregon, and Worlds is in Georgia. There’s a page on that topic here.

2+1 = 4 . This robot’s function is a special drive train called a Motor Multiplexer. It works by having 2 motors to drive the vehicle, and another motor in between the 2 to slide them forward along a gear rack. When they are in the front position a bump sensor is pressed, and it stops the center motor. The 2 motors are now disengaged from the wheels, and engaged to the 2 worm gear-boxes on the front, which have attachments on them. So, basically, it’s purpose is to have 2 powered drive wheels and 2 powered attachments, with only 3 motors. It was originally designed for FLL.

Video Found Here: LEGO MINDSTORMS Motor Multiplexor