Hacking the LEGO Mindstorms NXT Standard Motor

We are working on interfacing the LEGO sensors and motors to a compact lightweight computer for more sophisticated control. Aret Carlsen brings us a video demonstrating how one can hack into the NXT Standard Motor:

See also quadrature encoder or rotary encoder at wikipedia and the LEGO NXT Hardware Developers Kit (LEGO NXT data sheets). Philo also has the pinout diagram on his page on deriving power from the Motor A port.

Additional details can be found in the excellent book Extreme NXT: Extending the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT to the Next Level (Technology in Action) by Michael Gasperi, Philippe E. Hurbain, and Isabelle L. Hurbain.

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Posted in Hacking
April 05th, 2008 | 10:20 am
« Smooth LEGO Clutch with Differential | Hacking the LEGO Mindstorms NXT Light Sensor »

There are currently 8 responses

  1. Dan

    Hi,

    I am very impressed with your project. Recently, I have started playing with the nxt motor and I also want to learn to control the nxt motor. Can you please let me know the details of controlling the nxt motor, that is, what does each of the six wires in the cable mean and what kind of signal they carry.

    I will really appreciate your help.

    Cheers
    Dan

    June 30th, 2008 | 2:46 pm
  2. admin

    Hello Dan,

    My apologies for the delay in my reply.

    Yesterday I posted a piece on the motor wiring:
    http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/09/05/lego-nxt-motor-wiring/

    I hope that this helps you out a bit.

    Cheers
    Kevin

    September 6th, 2008 | 2:00 am
  3. Dan

    Thanks Kevin.

    Do you know where can I find more parameters about the motor, like its: terminal resistance, output torque, torque constant, back electromotive force constant…etc ? Please let me know.

    Cheers
    Dan

    November 21st, 2008 | 7:32 pm
  4. admin

    Hi Dan

    The only place I know where you can get this information is on Philo’s website where he has collected a great deal of information about the NXT motors:

    http://www.philohome.com/nxtmotor/nxtmotor.htm

    I hope that this helps.
    Kevin

    November 25th, 2008 | 1:38 am
  5. Dan

    There was another link in the above website that was pretty helpful. It had link had some of the motors parameters. http://web.mac.com/ryo_watanabe/iWeb/Ryo%27s%20Holiday/NXT%20Motor.html

    Thanks,
    Dan

    November 25th, 2008 | 3:00 am
  6. Dan

    Sorry about the typo.

    November 25th, 2008 | 3:02 am
  7. admin

    Hi Dan

    This is a nice find!

    http://web.mac.com/ryo_watanabe/iWeb/Ryo%27s%20Holiday/NXT%20Motor.html

    Thanks!!!

    Kevin

    November 25th, 2008 | 3:26 am
  8. Private Krankenversicherung

    Very good article for motor. Merci:-)

    December 2nd, 2008 | 3:17 am

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