Mindstorms Podcast Videos

Episodes

1. 27

   Double-Tracked

   Double-tracked is my attempt at a robust tank using the rubber treads. I used the rubber treads instead of the hard plastic treads since they have much better grip (and I have no plastic treads). This worked very well. The only down side to this is that there was no suspension. Also, the gears...

   Jul 7, 2013
2. 26

   Truck with Precise Control

   You've probably noticed that I've changed the name from racing truck to just truck. this is because there was too much friction and it was too big that having a fast gear ration didn't work well. So I did a 1:1 gear ration and focus on how controllable it was since the two motors were linked with…

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   Jun 18, 2013
3. 25

   Half-Track

   This is my half tracked vehicle. It is remote controlled by the PSP-NX-V3. In "normal" mode it is driven by one joystick, it has no differential but when turning, the back two motors go at different speeds, simulating a differential. When you hold down the R1 button, it goes into "two joystick"...

   Apr 20, 2013
4. 24

   RoboWaiter 2013

   I was a little disappointed about my results this year but I still did better than my first year (2011). I only got 1 trial correct but that one trial was the best trial I’ve gotten ever, but, due to chance/human error, trial 2 and 3 were a fail, lowering my score. Trial 2 seemed to fail due to a...

   Apr 9, 2013
5. 23

   Stair Climber

   Hardware There are two driving motors. One in the front and one in the back. It is 4 wheel drive but it cannot turn. The drive motors are not geared. The third motor is used to control the arm. that is geared down 1:5. The arm lifts up the front wheels, it drives foreword to get the front wheels…

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   Feb 19, 2013
6. 22

   Snow Crawler

   Hardware This has two main parts (the front and the back) on the front there is the PF battery box, front driving motor, and the steering motor along with PF LED lights. On the back section there is the back driving motor and the NXT. The two parts are connected by one axle, which stays in...

   Jan 13, 2013
7. 21

   Card Reader

   Hardware This is simple - just some wheels geared down 1:3 to move the card in and out over the color sensor. The touch sensor senses whether the card is being pushed in. and I also had a touch sensor and motor for the door but that was only to prove that the card reader worked. Program I...

   Dec 26, 2012
8. 20

   Rocket Launcher

   Hardware This uses 3 motors and 2 sensors. On the controller it uses the Touch sensor as the trigger button and the color sensor as an indicating light. There is also a motor on the controller that controls the angle of the launcher. It s linked with the motor that moves the launcher up and down....

   Dec 12, 2012
9. 19

   Beam Shooter

   A simple robot that shoots beams and other things that are the same thickness like pencils and bushings. Hardware There are 2 main motors geared up 32 times it's speed - which makes up o 4000 RPM output. shooting the beams very fast and pretty far. At the back there is a gear box (from and OLD...

   Nov 22, 2012
10. 18

    Light Alarm

    This is a simple robot that turns on the lights after a certain amount of time. It turns a dimer that is connected to extension cords. Overall this is pretty simple - I only made one program and that program counts down till the alarm then goes off when time is up. You can download the program at...

    Nov 11, 2012
11. 17

    "Smart" Car 2.0

    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...

    Nov 6, 2012
12. 16

    Drink Dispenser

    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…

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    Oct 16, 2012
13. 15

    Time Lapse

    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...

    Sep 30, 2012
14. 14

    Crane

    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:...

    Sep 18, 2012
15. 13

    Forklift

    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...

    Aug 30, 2012
16. 12

    Off Roader building instructions

    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.

    Jun 6, 2012
17. 11

    Off Roader

    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...

    Jun 2, 2012
18. 10

    Fan Stand Final

    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...

    May 14, 2012
19. 9

    "Smart" car

    This is my entry into the NXT Car Building Challenge! Steering The steering mechanism is based of of the "racecar" off of NXT programs. there is also a ultrasonic sensor on it (as you can see to the left) the ultrasonic sensor is always facing the direction of where it is going thus, making it…

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    Apr 26, 2012
20. 8

    Runaway tissue box

    I built this robot int a tissue box. it is skid steering and the back wheel goes up and down to lift up the back of the robot and the back of the box. uses PSP-Nx-v3 for controls.

    Apr 20, 2012
21. 7

    PSP-Nx controler

    I got the PSP-Nx Combo with Wireless Controller for my Birthday. This Comes with a PlayStation 2 Wireless controller and the PSP-Nx converter which you can plug a PS2 controller or wireless receiver into and get a Sensor output for the NXT. From that you can receive from the 16 buttons (Triggers,...

    Apr 11, 2012
22. 6

    RoboWaiter Update 2

    2nd place!!

    Apr 4, 2012
23. 5

    Robowater Update

    I’ve setup two testing areas, first on the deck with a carpet but the carpet made the turning unreliable so i was not able to test the turns well. Then i set it up the in the kitchen and i got it to work after playing with it. The only downside with the setup in the kitchen is that it has to come...

    Mar 8, 2012
24. 2

    Episode 2

    Today we talk about vehicles. Tim built 3 tanks and faced them off and Jared built a lawnmower-like car. We also talk about Lego iOS apps. iNXT Remote: connects to a computer on your network though WiFi. You need a computer running the server program on MAC or PC. You can control it using a…

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    Nov 16, 2011
25. 1

    Episode 1

    Finally, our first episode has been created. In today’s episode we talk about Tim’s Ball shooter and Jared’s Door closer. We also talk about Lego® Cuusoo, a service created by Lego’s® Japanese partner. There you can upload a project and if 10,000 people support your project then Lego® will review...

    Oct 14, 2011