http://www.brickengineer.com/pages Engineering for LEGO Enthusiasts Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:55:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Geekologie posted an article about a man who made a wearable Boba Fett costume out of LEGOs. Mind you, its not a full costume. The helmet is most impressive, the rest are pieces of LEGO body armor that attach to his outfit. [caption id="attachment_134" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="LEGO Boba Fett ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2009/11/15/grown-man-builds-lego-boba-fett-costume/ NOTE: WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU MAY DO TO YOUR NXT BRICK. THIS EXERCISE PRESUMES SOME WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF ELECTRONICS. In this exercise, I will walk you through interfacing a potentiometer (variable resistor) to the NXT brick. You will need: - A stripped NXT cable - A potentiometer with a maximum resistance ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2009/10/05/interface-a-potentiometer-to-the-nxt/ Daniele Benedettelli introduces a MATLAB-based NXC Bluetooth Router. This router relies on connecting a master NXT Brick to a computer via USB. This master NXT Brick then can communicate messages to up to three additional slave NXT Bricks up to a distance of 10 meters from the master. ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2009/02/16/danny-nxt-matlab-bluetooth-router/ An article at NXTasy.org highlights a three-wheeled robot that moves in one dimension and detects signals from an external beacon that emits ultrasonic bursts.  The robot relies on a microcontroller that runs a Kalman filter to perform and maintain spatial localization.  The NXT software is implemented using the LabVIEW NXT ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2009/02/16/infrared-ultrasonic-beacons-for-localization/ This is the first in a series of installments that describe how to render high-quality 3D images of your LEGO creations.  You will need the following free software: LDraw MLCad L3P POV-Ray v3.6 which can be downloaded with the LDraw All In One Installer In this tutorial, we will be aiming for a nice simple still ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2009/02/15/lego-rendering-tutorial-the-basics/ There are now several MATLAB packages for robotics, and specifically for the NXT.  One paradigm is to run the code on a PC and have it communicate direct commands to the NXT Brick via Bluetooth or USB.  I have found this paradigm to be a bit dangerous since in the ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2009/02/11/matlab-packages-for-the-nxt/ I call this creation The Blossoming Lotus.  It was originally posted on Online Cortex, but I have decided to repost it here because its just plain fun. Basically it is a large 2D version of a Hoberman sphere. Why did I not make a large Hoberman sphere? First, ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/11/07/the-blossoming-lotus-lego-kinetic-art/ The University at Albany (SUNY) has highlighted Knuth's research in a recent news piece. UAlbany Professor Kevin Knuth with a robot built from LEGOs. (Photo Mark Schmidt) Kevin Knuth has a laboratory in the physics department of the University at Albany that is filled with LEGOs. The bricks are relatively cheap and ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/10/22/knuth-developing-robotic-scientists-for-space-exploration/ I have finally compiled building instructions for my Little Rover, which can be seen above in a 3D Rendering courtesy of POVRay.  An earlier version of this rover can be seen in this YouTube video: Little Rover Prototype Video Rover Design The complete detailed building instructions can be found here in this 94-page ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/10/12/little-rover-with-instructions-and-code/ After posting Hacking the LEGO Mindstorms NXT Standard Motor, I received several requests for more information regarding the wiring of the motor. The NXT cable has six wires. Below I list a table with the wires and their colors: Color Name White Motor 1 Black Motor 2 Red GND Green 4.3 Volts Yellow Tach01 Blue Tach02 The WHITE and BLACK ... http://www.brickengineer.com/pages/2008/09/05/lego-nxt-motor-wiring/