Mindstorms Podcast Videos

This is the second model of my "Smart" Cars and this is much better than the first. This is also my entry into The Mindstorms Annual Online Competition under the Car category. Hardware This car has 1 motor for driving, 1 motor for steering, and 1 motor for the ultrasonic sensor. The driving motor was geared 20:10:20 (so in the end -- 1:1). the steering motor was geared 8:40 (1:5) for greater control in the steering, This did lower the speed at which it turned but it made it much more accurate and easier for parallel parking. The motor for the ultrasonic sensor was just holding the sensor with no gears, it was used many different was in different the programs. Programs (all programs require the HiTechnic Motor PID Block) Parallel Park In this program, the robot would find a parking spot and then parallel park. It put the ultrasonic sensor at a 90 degree angle with the car facing the wall, and it would drive straight. when it saw an open spot it would count the rotations of the driving motor till the end of the spot, if the motor rotated far enough then it knew that the spot was big enough, if the spot wasn't big enough, then it would keep driving. Then, once it had parked, it would wait for the orange button to be pressed and then pull out of the spot on it's own. You can download the program at my blog. Autonomous driving This program would have the robot drive until it saw something (or the touch sensor got pressed), then back up, turn the heard to the left and the right, see which has more distance, then drive that way (if there was more than 20in of distance, if not it would back up and do it again) You can download the program at my blog. Assisted drive This program is remote controlled using the PSP-NX-v3. It is a normal remote control program using 1 joystick (up and down for forward and backwards and left and right for steering) but with one twist, when the ultrasonic sees something it slows the drive motor down to half of normal to allow for greater control. the ultrasonic turns left and right with the steering so that it's looking where the car is going. This was used in the last Smart Car also but there are a few improvements over that one, when going backwards the speed is not decreased, and when you click R1, it parallel parks. You can download the program at my blog. You can download full building instructions at my blog. My Blog: http://Mindstormspodcast.wordpress.com Google Plus page: http://bit.ly/mindpodplus Facebook page: http://facebook.com/MindstormsPodcast Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music

Hardware This hasn't changed much from my testing video since i din't get to get the parts that i wanted (like the air tanks) but i'm still happy with the design overall. there is 1 motor to drive, geared 2:1. 1 motor for steering. and one motor for the arm gears 1:5. You can see pictures at my blog. Program the program is what changed the most since last time. for one, i made it so that all the operations (steering, driving, arm movement, etc.) where in separate loops so that if one got stuck (like the steering wheels got stuck, which happened a few times during early testing) then the rest of the operations wouldn't stop and the driving and other things will still be controllable. the only problem with this is that this is almost too much for the NXT to handle so the response was not as fast at I would have liked, but the improvement that I liked the most with the up and down arrows for the arm. up reset it at the top. and down put it at the right height for picking up/dropping off the car, which made using the arm very easy. You can download the program at my blog. My Blog: http://Mindstormspodcast.wordpress.com Google Plus page: http://bit.ly/mindpodplus Facebook page: http://facebook.com/MindstormsPodcast Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music

This Robot dispenses 3 different color juices (red, blue, green) into a cup. Hardware The hardware is pretty simple, there are 3 motors, each controlling a different valve to release air into the different bottles (causing the juice to flow out). They are on a "stand" because the pipes aren't long enough to I had to move the motors higher up/closer to the top of the bottles. The dispenser is also pretty simple. It's holds the tubes over the cup and also holds all the sensors. the lever on the left is what you pull to have it pour water. the orange lever on the right is the emergency off lever, it closes the valves immediately and then ends the program. The ultrasonic senses when the cup is there. The color sensors senses the light reflection of the cup, if it's the correct cup (as setup at start of the program) then it will allow you to chose a juice then pour, if it's the amount of reflection, then it will tell you that it is the incorrect cup. Program This is what took the longest and i'm proud about. It's got a great interface and it's pretty big. Basically, first you have the setup screen - you place the cup in the dispenser and it sets the cup reflection amount for the whole program. Then it goes to the start screen which asks you to place the cup in the dispenser. then when it senses a cup, it will tell you if it's the correct sup or not, if correct, it then lets you chose a color, then you pull the lever to pour, then back to the home screen. You can download it at my blog My Blog: mindstormspodcast.wordpress.com Facebook page: facebook.com/mindstormspodcast Google plus page: bit.ly/mindpodplus Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music You can download and subscribe to me on iTunes at http://bit.ly/mindpoditunes

This is basically my pneumatic engine at first glance. I did change some things to make it run a bit smoother though. in the past day i have rebuilt this around 3 times. and then came back to this. i was trying to build a good studless design but decided just to go back to this original design. It worked pretty well but not as well as i would have liked. Facebook page: facebook.com/mindstormspodcast Google plus page: bit.ly/mindpodplus Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music You can download and subscribe to me on iTunes at http://bit.ly/mindpoditunes

This robot holds a camera and moves it up, down, left, right. It has 2 motors to move it up and down, they move a beam with wheels up and down with a 1:5 gear ratio. the turntable turns the camera with a 1:56 gear ratio using a worm gear. I manly used this for time lapses because it can turn very slow and controlled because of the worm gear. Programs Time lapse This program turns the turning motor a few degrees every 1 second. This was designed to work with the program on my computer to take a time lapse. I plug my camera into a video adapter in my computer (with a long wire through the back yard) and then use tilaphos to take a picture every second. The first two videos in the podcast used that program, the first one is played back at 210 FPS and the second at 150 FPS. The third time lapse was taking with an iPhone at 1 picture every 15 seconds using Gorillacam and played back at 30 FPS. You can download the program on my blog. Remote control This program was used to remote control the robot with my PSP-Nx-V3. It uses the right joystick to move it up, down, left right. You can download full building instructions on my blog. Facebook page: facebook.com/mindstormspodcast Google plus page: bit.ly/mindpodplus Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music You can download and subscribe to me on iTunes

This is the final version of the crane. as you can see the base was well improved from the last one, the turntable stays securely connected to the base, the worm gear slips less, it doesn't tip over as much and when it does it doesn't break as much. I also made a spot to hold the weight. Program: Nothing special about this program really but you can download it on my blog Hardware Base: The base was the hardest part to design because of how string it had to be, because it had to hold the weight of everything without tipping or breaking under the leverage. There is a 2 pound weight at the back to help ballance. Crane arm: The crane arm is moved by 1 motor geared down 1:5 and it is pretty strong, It can lift the whole Lego building in the video when the batteries are fresh (but they were dying in the video) The string it pulled by the pulley on the motor opposite the arm motor. Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music Subscribe to My blog, MindstormsPodcast.wordpress.com You can download and subscribe to me on iTunes

So the forklift worked pretty well, since the last testing video I made a few physical changes but i mostly made programming changes. The other change is the instructions for NXT 2.0. Programs Forklift programs for NXT 2.0 These programs are made for the forklift when using the building instructions. In each program it limits the top and bottom so that you can't break anything. You can download them at my blog (in .zip format) Forklift programs for modified forklift These programs are made for the forklift but with 40 and 8 tooth gears as shown in the video instead of the 36 and 12 double bevel tooth gears giving a 1:5 ratio instead of 1:3 and it skips less than the double bevel gears. You can download them at my blog (in .zip format) In each zip there are 3 programs, both sets of programs are similar but have different limits the modified ones have an m in the front of the file name 2 button forklift control For use with using 2 touch sensors (plugged into ports 1 and 2). the touch sensors are used for driving and then you press the enter button to change the direction, the right arrow for moving the forklift up and the left arrow to move the forklift down Fork control This requires the PSP-NX-v3 (plugged into port 1). This uses the right joystick for speed and direction (up and down) and the left joystick for turning (left and right) I prefer this way as opposed to using one joystick for both (like in the next program down) because it is easier to go perfectly straight and it is also easier to control turns (once you get the hang of it). It also uses R1 to move the forklift up and L1 to move the forklift down. Select resets the forklift at 0 and then ends the program. Fork control single joystick This requires the PSP-NX-v3 (plugged into port 1). This uses the right joystick for moving the robot and the left joystick for moving the forklift, one of the nice things about this program compared to the other programs is that you can control the speed of the forklift moving up and down as opposed to the other ones where the speed is fixed. Select resets the forklift at 0 and then ends the program. Instructions Instructions were made using the LDraw suit and is similar to the last instructions I made. You can download the PDF at my blog you can download the MLCad files at my blog.

Building instructions for the Off-Roader. Completely build able with NXT 2.0 set. Adding bigger wheels and PSP-NX-v3 is recommended. Go to http://mindstormspodcast.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/off-roader-building-instructions/ for a PDF of the instructions, programs and more information.

This was my first attempt at an off-road vehicle and I think it came out pretty well. it is build-able with 1 NXT 2.0 kit (minus the wheels) and if you change the gears, you can build it with NXT 1.0. Hardware: I used only a NXT 2.0 kit along with 4 wheels I borrowed from a friend, this worked without borrowing wheels but these wheels make it work much better. I focused mainly on function not aesthetics since I'm not good at aesthetics anyways. in the back there at 2 motors next to each other and connected and then geared down about 1:2 (see Moment of Genius!!) with the wheels being so big, it was the same as 1:1 with the normal wheels in the end but it was still strong enough. my main problem with found while testing this was how it tips over easily because it doesn't have a very low center of gravity ever since I added the big wheels. the other problem was that I don't have a differential (and it's hard to simulate one with 2 motors). when you turn to sharp, instead of turning sharp, it just goes straight (or slightly in that direction), especially on dirt. it was fine when I only turned slightly though. Program: I made 3 programs for this robot. 2 for people with a PSP-NX controller and one for people with just an NXT 2.0 kit (or NXT 1.0 with and extra touch sensor) Off Roader PSP-NX 2 joystick: Someone suggested to me that I should program it to be controlled by 2 joysticks instead of one (one for steering and 1 for speed) since it would be more controllable and thinking about it, many video games are similar to that (for example, I've seen people play assassins creed and to walk to use the right joystick and to turn/look around you use the left joystick and in racing games the throttle is button and the steering is a joystick). I decided to try it and it works great. I still like the single joystick better but that's because I'm used to that and I feel that I could get used to 2 joysticks easily. This program works by first having you set the center point of the steering with the D-pad and then speed is controlled by right joystick while steering is controlled by the left. Instructions are on the screen. Off Roader PSP-NX joystick: This is the normal program that I would use for most things.it uses the right joystick for all of the control. This is the control I used in the video. This program works by first having you set the center point of the steering with the D-pad and then speed is controlled by right joystick along with the steering. Instructions are on the screen. Off Roader touch sensor: I made this program for people who only have an NXT 2.0 set. This uses 2 touch sensors as the remote which are both connected by the 50cm (20 inch) wires. Both buttons pushed makes the robot go straight forward, holding the left button makes it go left and holding the right button makes it go right. you can also select the speed on-screen (in increments of 20%). Instructions are on the screen. Go to mindstormspodcast.wordpress.com for links, pictures, downloads, and more information Thanks to musikConomy for intro/outro music

The up and down is geared 1:5 with two motors power it. The turning motor it not geared. D-Pad control This program lets me control the robot using the D-pad. Left and right to turn the fan and up and down to move the whole thing up and down. Analog control This program lets you control the robot using the analog stick which make's variable speed possible. left and right to turn the fan and up and down to move the whole thing up and down Automatic This acts like an oscillating fan. It resets everything to about the center and then you set the up and down positioned using the D-Pad and then it automatically has the fan go left to right. My only problem with this is that it went to fast. I could not make it go any slower because putting any less power just had the motor not move or stop halfway. I had the power on 10% Thanks to musikConomy for intro music For more information and dto download the programes go to Mindstormspodcast.wordpress.com