http://www.brickengineer.com/pages Engineering for LEGO Enthusiasts Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:53:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am getting interested in more general robotics projects, but will still be relying on LEGOs for their construction.  The LEGO brick is a bit too limited with its specialized programming languages and limited sensor and motor ports. So for those interested in some LEGO electronics hacking, here is a list ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/06/14/basic-electronics-supplies/ In a previous post, I describe the design of a smooth LEGO clutch. Here I introduce a version where I have added a differential to the top of the clutch. By rotating the main differential gear in one direction, the clutch will engage and rotate one axle. By rotating it the ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/05/31/smooth-lego-clutch-with-differential/ 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 ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/04/05/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 Light Sensor: Additional details can be found in the excellent book Extreme NXT: Extending the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/04/05/hacking-the-lego-mindstorms-nxt-light-sensor/ One of my students recently gave me an idea for a LEGO tool.  This is the LEGO Pin and Axle Puller.  Axle pins and axles themselves are often hard to get out.  At some point everyone has used their teeth, but you damage your LEGOs when you do this; not to ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/03/22/lego-pin-and-axle-puller/ I am working on designing a walking machine, but I needed to know the Center of Mass of the LEGO NXT Motors.  When using Newton's Laws to compute the forces on the system, we can treat the motor as if all of its mass is located at a single point.  ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/03/16/center-of-mass-of-lego-nxt-motors/ 1. Use only parts that are necessary...no less and no more. In the course of trying to fortify a LEGO construction, it is extremely easy to get carried away and add too many parts. If you are like me, you have a limited supply of parts.  Using too many parts rapidly ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/03/14/101-lego-design-and-engineering-tips/ I recently received a comment on my post on controlling NXT robots with Matlab that pointed me to the RWTH - Mindstorms NXT Toolbox for MATLAB®, which is a public domain Matlab package that enables one to interface with and control LEGO mindstorms. The RWTH - Mindstorms NXT Toolbox for MATLAB® ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/03/09/matlab-package-for-lego-mindstorms/ LEGO Technic Tora no Maki is a new book by ISOGAWA Yoshihito and is available on the internet for download.  He asks $10 to be paid, which is more than a fair price as this book boasts over 200 pages of images of over 1700 LEGO constructs. Here is a sample ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/01/13/lego-technic-tora-no-maki/ All of a sudden there are several NXT books available.  Here are several that I have seen and really enjoy. The others, I have not yet had a chance to review. http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2007/12/05/nxt-books/