Hi guys. I am back! Our summer holiday just passed in a blink of an eye. And school time is what's gonna happen in two weeks. So now I am working on something pretty useful, and it should bring me a lot of fun and sadness when I am doing it. So what I am going to do is a drone, actually a quadcopter, with Arduino! Yep, Lego is probably too theoretic to build that thing. However, I will use Lego for my prototype. So I will be using a micro-controller, and probably a 12V rechargeable battery, some powerful motors, etc. Using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to control the speed of the motor with a transistor. So it will be a lot of fun and sadness. So I hope it will go well!
Some of you might have used Lego Digital Designer before. It is an awesome tool that allows you to build Lego on your computer, and it supports both Mac and PC. However, not all people who plays Lego have LDD, so when they are trying to view the building instructions, it might be quite hard for them. In this tutorial, you will learn how to export a PDF Building Instructions out of a LDD file. LabVIEW is a software created by National Instruments. It is a very powerful tool for programming. And NI(National Instruments) also created LabVIEW for Lego Mindstorms. It is very similar to Robolab.(Robolab was based on LabVIEW) LabVIEW gives support to third party sensors and motors such as Tetrix to Lego Mindstorms.
You can learn more about it here. You can buy it here Here are some pictures of it RCX is the earliest robot in Mindstorms. And it is the first robot in Lego that can be programmed to control Motors and get data from sesnors. The software for programming RCX is Robolab. And Robolab 2.9.4 is able to program NXT. Unlike other programming softwares below, Robolab is not free. You have to get it from Lego Store. Then you need to download the 2.9.4C patch. instructions are provided in the video below.
Robolab 2.9.4C Patch(Windows) You can also download it from here NXT is a powerful Lego Controller, and the reason it is powerful is that you can control your motors and do some very special tasks. Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is one of the programming softwares for NXT Lego developed. Today I am going to share this software with you. Note: All the resources below can be downloaded at mindstorms.lego.com or one of the FAQ posts
Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 for both Mac and PC Note: For PC users, it is an .ISO file, so you might need to burn it into a disk or use some special unzipping applications. Firmware 1.31 Lego Mindstorms EV3 Programming SoftwareThose of you who play with EV3, you definitely know the EV3 Programming software. Today, I am going to share you this software, but it is Home Edition, and you need to download some other blocks to program sensors in the educational set. Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition is a program software designed by Lego and LabVIEW(Which is from National Instruments), they made this software to be able to program Lego Mindstorms EV3 and Lego Mindstorms NXT. This is a very popular programming software because it is easy. I will provide the download links here for you to download. To install the programming software, you need Microsoft Silverlight, which is provided in a link below. Note: All the links below can be downloaded at mindstorms.lego.com Lego Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition Programming Software Click here to go to the download page Firmware 1.06 Firmware Blocks Gyro Block Sound Sensor Ultrasonic Sensor Temperature Energy Meter Note: This software can be download at www.microsoft.com Microsoft Silverlight Here is the instructions how you input your blocks into EV3 1. Open the software 2. Create a new program 3. On the menu bar, go to tools 4. Select "Block Import" 5. Click "Browse" 6. Select the .ev3b file 7. Click "Import" 8. Restart the EV3 Programming Software Power of CreativityPeople might get strongly affected when they heard toy, they might think that it is too childish for an adult to play "toys". Indeed, it is a toy, but not the toy you used to think. This kind of "toy" is designed for a third year old kid that just learned how to talk all the way to a father, or even a grandfather. The reason for this is probably a word called "Creativity". About ten years ago, when you go out and buy a toy, most likely that this toy has a definite instructions on how it can be created. But in Lego, all of the bricks are designed to fit in one of your own creations. Lego SetsLego is designed for almost all purposes from the little fire house with little people moving out and in to real robots that can do amazing task that even humans can't do it. Some lego sets are designed for artistic creations, and some are designed for engineering creations. Most of my lego sets are designed for real machines. For example, the Lego Mindstorms set, you can actually make a program on your computer to make your robots move. The City Set, you can make houses and cars and all kinds of stuffs. There are too many sets in lego, so I am not going to introduce them individually. Useful resourcesThe Lego official website is www.lego.com. Well, you can also access the official Lego Mindstorms website by mindstorms.lego.com. There are many resources on the Lego official website that you can download.
There are many other nonofficial lego websites or even forums. You can search for them on Google. For example, there is an awesome website that includes many free Building instructions, it is www.nxtprograms.com These movies are made more than 1 year ago, there might be some grammar or spelling mistakes. I am a Chinese, so these videos include some Chinese. |
CategoriesAbout meI am a 13-year-old kid from China who loves Lego, Science, Math, and a lot of other things. Who dreamed to be a writer, a scientist, a flutist, and a creator. Archives |