Sensors

I’ve played around with various vision systems on the MINDSTORMS, even the Pixy Cam, using an adapter.  However, now Charmed Labs have created a version of the super popular Pixy Cam that will work pretty much out of the box with MINDSTORMS. So, what’s different about this version and the standard one? Well, for one it comes with an adapter ...

I was wondering if a one of the 3rd party sensor companies was ever going to come up with an EV3/NXT adapter for the Grove System.  Not sure what it is?  Grove System is an interface standard that allows you to connect all sorts of peripherals to your microcontroller.  There are adapters for Arduino and RaspberryPi, but not for the ...

Deepak from Mindsensors told me they have a new device coming out soon: a Sensor MUX for the NXT and EV3. What makes this one different from the MUXes out there?  Well for one, it’s very compact, only 42 mm x 48 mm, with mounting holes in a 4 x 5 studs square.  Other features include: Support for all EV3 sensors (UART ...

Mindsensors have released a new sensor, or rather, a new edition of one of my most favourite ones: the LineLeader v2.  The v2 has a new, better, processor inside and has been optimised to work better with the rather, ehm, tempestuous I2C implementation on the EV3.  That means that you can be sure that it will operate just fine.  Other ...

Tristan from Tris10.com (yeah, very clever domain name!) sent me a FindBall NXT and EmitIR to play with and write a ROBOTC driver for. The FindBall NXT The FindBall NXT is a sensor specifically made to locate a 40KHz modulated IR signal, as used by the RoboCup Junior balls.  Tris10 claim that it is currently the best sensor for this ...

You read it right. Not even 3 weeks after the EV3 has started shipping, Mindsensors are working on getting ready to release another cool gadget for it.  This time it’s an EV3 Sensor adapter for NXT or Arduino.  It seems to allow you to connect the new EV3 sensors to your NXT or Arduino.  I don’t have any if the ...

Dexter Industries have unleashed another sensor into the wild, the dLight.  I sort of ran my mouth a little, when I released my previous version of the Driver Suite by mentioning it then.  However, it’s out now and available from the Dexter Industries website. So what exactly is the dLight?  Other than a name that springs to mind many a ...

Now that both HiTechnic and Mindsensors have a SensorMUX, it may be a good opportunity to highlight some of the differences between the two. The HiTechnic SensorMUX This one has been around for a few years now and is well liked with FTC teams everywhere.  It allows you hook up to four supported sensors, which are automatically polled by the ...

Mindsensors are about to release a Sensor MUX of their own!  This one works very differently in that instead of doing the polling of the attached sensors for you, it allows itself to become a channel to said sensor.  So, in essence, you send it a command, like “give me access to the sensor attached to channel 1” and then, ...

I wanted to come up with a fun project for the new Mindsensors GlideWheel-AS Angle Sensor.  I wracked my brain as to what I could make that would be fun and not something obvious.  Maybe it was my man-flu/Ebola induced fever, but I came up with an idea: a weighing scale, one of those old fashioned pendulum letter scales. It’s ...