Ramblings

The HelloSpoon project, which I wrote about the other day now has a live campaign on Indiegogo.  This great project has the potential to change every day life for many with motor issues. Go check out out the campaign page, become a contributor and make this project a reality!

Great ideas that can improve people’s lives don’t necessarily need to come from big research labs.  The HelloSpoon project is a great example of a project that can help improve people’s lives. What is it? It’s a robotic arm that can spoon feed the infirm, sick or elderly without needing help.  Rather than having to depend on another person, the ...

Can I still call something a “Cool Kickstarter” if it’s on Indiegogo?  Of course I can, this is my site! Deepak from OpenElectrons and Mindsensors let me know they’ve just started a very cool Indiegogo project: a BeagleBone Wiress Console or BBConsole for short.  Not unlike a previous project they did for the Raspberry Pi, this allows you to connect to your BB ...

It’s not often that I get a shout-out like I did when Eric Smalls mentioned me in his TEDx talk. How do I know this young man?  It all started back in 2010 when he posted a question on the forums He never stopped asking questions and I tried to help him as much as I could.  Thanks to his ...

A little while ago I was asked to write a robotics article for the British Design & Technology Practice magazine.  I chose to cover the basics of programming a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT omniwheel based platform, and the mathematics behind it.  ROBOTC is used as the programming language, but I am sure the principles apply to other programming environments, too.  Although, I ...

Deepak and Nitin Patil from Mindsensors have created another awesome Kickstarter project under the OpenEelectrons.com flag: the PiUPS, an uninterruptable power supply for the Raspberry Pi in a very compact package. It’s an inline power supply system that constantly charges the backup batteries when it’s connected to the mains or another external power source.  When this external power source gets disconnected, ...

If you are involved in LEGO Education, then this may be the perfect place for you to discuss with your peers.  Below is a copy and paste of the original invitation.  The target audience includes parents involved in FLL and people with a general interest in learning and using LEGO in learning, so teachers and other educators.  However, due to ...

These files have existed for a little while now but I never got the official OK to distribute them.  However, one of my readers (Marius Steffen) was given two Dropbox links via LEGO Customer Support to these specific files.  That must mean that the documentation is no longer under NDA and so I now feel no reason not share them ...

I downloaded most of these background pictures from the LEGO EDUCATION website via some Google searching.  They’re very nice high-res images of their models.  The reason I picked the LEGO EDUCATION images is because they’re less busy than the retail ones and have a beautifully clean, uncluttered and white background.  Both these themes are essentially the same but one uses ...

When Damien Kee asked me to write a review for his latest book, the first thought that came to my mind was “Uhm, I am not a teacher! How am I supposed to have an opinion on this?”.  Truth be told, I have done quite a few workshops in classrooms with kids, adults and a mix of both.  So while ...