Bot Bench I'd Rather Be Building Robots

If you’re a fan of the NXT as a programming platform but would like to control something beefier than just an NXT motor, you used to either have to resort to using relays or concoct your own controller board to handle the extra current. The latest offering from Mindsensors, the NXTRelayDriver, is about to change that. It’s not really a ...

Over at Amazon.co.uk they have the Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit on sale. You can get it for just £176.79, down from £234.99. For those in the Euro zone, that’s down from €266 to €200. My North American readers can get a discounted one at the Amazon.com website where it’s priced down from $279.99 to $256.95. Use the links above to ...

During a games night at our good friends Simone and Stu, the topic of LEGO came up (who would’ve thought it possible, right?) It was brought to my attention that a new LEGO store had opened in Rotterdam, whereupon my reaction was “WTFBBQ? Why didn’t I get the memo?”. So after several death threats and a promise of torture and ...

The NXT webserver has been up for a few days now and it’s really cool to see so many people logging into it to make the motor move.  When I created it, I had no idea that it was going to be used as much as it has been.  I’ve had almost 1200 views on the UStream channel and blog ...

I am currently streaming a live feed of my NXT on UStream.  You can easily control the motor on my NXT using URLs like: http://xammy.demon.nl:81/MOTA=0 – stop the motor http://xammy.demon.nl:81/MOTA=100 – run the motor at 100% clockwise http://xammy.demon.nl:81/MOTA=-50 – run the motor at 50% counter-clockwise. The power to the motor can range from –100 to 100, with 0 being “brake”. ...

Laurens and I were asked by LEGO to give a Mindstorms NXT demo at the Microsoft Tech Days Geek Night last Thursday, so who were we to refuse the almighty TLG? It was great fun, Laurens brought his awesome Segway robot that impressed a lot of the hardcore geeks that were present that evening.  His Manty robot was, as always, ...

After many, many months of stalling, I’ve finally got my act together and finished up 2.0 beta 1 of the Driver Suite. I’ve made a LOT of changes, mostly internal but I hope you like them.  Keep in mind that this is a first beta release, so I need all the feedback I can get.  My email address is in ...

This year at the St Louis FTC finals, Team 4466 (R.A.B.B.I.) will holding nightly FTC practice field sessions as part of their after pit activities. On Wednesday they will also be organising workshops and lectures and a Q&A session with your truly. I’m going to have to get up at the ungodly local time of 4AM to be able to ...

Among the things sent to me by Dexter Industries was also the latest incarnation of the dGPS, a GPS sensor for the NXT. This latest one is equipped almost exclusively with surface mounted components, making it a lot less likely to knock off one of the capacitors and giving the sensor a very professional look.  The mounting holes on either ...

The mailman brought some shiny new toys this morning, one of which included the all-new Dexter Industries WiFi sensor.  I don’t have all the technical details for this one yet, but like the NXTBee, it uses the NXT’s RS485 port for high-speed communications. It has a clip to hold a 9V battery on the back, the red and black wire ...