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LEGO Mindstorms: The Master's Technique
I devoured the book, performed all of the challenges and even amazed my friends with a few inventions of my own. From time to time I would see some inventions spotlighted online. I would marvel at the time and dedication people would put into these. I would wonder, like many others, how someone would conceive such things as a copier or a Rubik's Cube solver. Now there's a book that explains LEGOS from the mind of a master and an engineer of 25 years: Jin Sato's LEGO Mindstorms: The Master's Technique."
When I first looked at this book I was so excited. It would give me the excuse I would need to play with my LEGOS once again. It even has a cute LEGO doggie on the cover. Wait a moment, that cute doggie uses two LEGO Mindstorms kits. It has two RCXs. I only have one. Is this book going to be of any use to me, the casual LEGO builder? Simply put, "Yes!"
Jin starts the book at the most logical place, the beginning. A quick one-page history, one short chapter on the LEGO bricks themselves. This includes info on what they are made of, some of the evolution of LEGO into TECHNIC pieces, and how to assemble them in different ways to create strong connections using minimal pieces.
Chapter 3 starts with the good stuff, motors and gears. What would LEGO Mindstorms be without motors and gears; just a lump of art. In just a few pages the Jin explains everything a first-year mechanical engineering student needs to know about gears. He steps you through creating a gear test bed. This shows you, using a single motor, how all the gears operate and work together. At this point I was wishing I had started reading this book at home near my LEGOS.
I could write in detail about the wonders of each chapter. To keep from writing a review that's the same size as the book, let me summarize some things. This book is filled with lots of examples. Not so much a beginning to end to create a single project, but more a process of creation. Anyone can follow a step-by-step approach for creating a single LEGO project. I have several of those at home sitting on a shelf covered in a thin layer of dust. I call them LEGO art. But with this book, each example evolves you into the next more complex example. The nice thing about these examples is the comments scattered through out. There is a bit of theory explaining how it should work before you get into the construction. This really helps you understand why you are building each part. Eventually you build up to building MIBO, the LEGO doggie on the cover. Personally I couldn't build MIBO since I only have a single RCX, but the concepts he explains gave me new ideas and a drive to build with my current resources.
Every LEGO Mindstorms enthusiast should have this book next to their LEGO storage bin. It's a great reference book when you are in a creative mood.
You can purchase LEGO Mindstorms: The Master's Technique at bn.com. You can read your own book reviews in this space by submitting your reviews after reading the book review guidelines.
Why that's simple, you can buy a Lego Mindstorm at lego.com! :-)
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Back when I used to go to RTLToronto meetings, Jin always brought along some of his creations. I've seen that Aibo-looking dog up close, and it was pretty awesome: IIRC, the two RCXs communicate to each other in order to walk. His two-legged walker is interesting as well.
More links:
Jin Sato's Mindstorms website
RTLToronto, a LEGO enthusiasts group for the Southern Ontario area
A nice photo (JPEG) of Jin's table at a previous RTLToronto get-together.
->www.chuma.org, ranting and Newtons, what more could you want?
LEGO.com has a builder on their site.f that doesn't get you there go to LEGO.com and go to games and you should see the brick builder app.
https://club.lego.com/build/brickbuilder.asp
I
How about Lego software so kids can build virtual structures?
I think you want this. It's relatively inexpensive and rather amusing.
-Fascist Christ ... No real account yet, too busy smugling felt tip markers into the USA.
At my school, we used lego mindstorms for class projects. This was for honors freshman engineering classes. In the first semester class (a general engineering education class), we had to make them go through a maze, using the lego programming language. In the second semester class, a C/FORTRAN programming class, we had to make them go to assigned spots in specified amounts of times, programming them in C. Certainly wasn't easy. Biggest problem was that the lego parts weren't dependable to perform the same every time.
I believe that the existence of women is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy
placement of holes and such are used to implement h, the planck unit of action.
then ram them together to get a first order approximation of what they'll find during a (much more expensive!) accelerator run..
OMFG - moderators actually take this pseudo-intellecualist crap seriously?! Look at this guy's history page - he does this all the time. I've responded before when he came up with some crap about gcc implementing "just-in-time assembly" - and he got a +4 informative for that. Do some people just mod up when they see big scary words?
If you're going to moderate this guy, I'd suggest +5 funny. It's amazing just how successful he is at spewing total crap and getting gullible moderators to believe him. An excellent troll (troll in the old usenet sense of the word, not the "BSD is dying"/goatse.cx slashdot kind troll), a true master of his trade. Those who know anything about any technical matters whatsoever are in on the joke, while those who are clueless just nod and smile.
Ah, yes - news for nerds. Refreshing.
Here is a Lego Copy Machine that is one of the coolest Lego Mindstorms projects. I don't know who made the first Lego copier, but whoever did is cool as hell. Basically, the only non-lego part is a pen, which moves up or down, depending if the light sensor sees white or black.
pretty damn cool.
For a variation on the theme, here is a scanner , which uses only rubber wheels in addition to the other Legos.
make world, not war
I've gotten lots of piecs from Pitsco. They sell parts in bulk and interesting sets.
You can find all sorts of Lego pieces, including the racks you're looking for at http://www.pldstore.com. Go to the "Spare Parts, Tools & Resources" department. I've never ordered from them myself, but I know they've got LOTS of stuff to choose from!
This book uses more technic style legos, cheaper, and easier for kids to get their hands on.
Lego Crazy Action Contraptions
Check here:
http://www.1000steine.de/english.htm
They've got a bulk auction site link off the main page. If you've got time, check out some of the pictures - simply amazing.
best place to get parts mindstorms/technic/ or just plain brick
http://www.bricklink.com/
as an old fart who got back into lego recently
this is by far the best place to get parts
after getting my kit I figured out that a lot of the time you need either another RCX brick(the lego computer) or another motor, to do anything--the easiest, and cheapest way to get these is to get something like the droid developer kit, which has a scout brick in it, which has some sensors, and a motor. It is also controllable from the RCX. There are a few similar bricks, all of which are MUCH cheaper that the RCX brick (like half price. I have seen the droid kit on Ebay for as little as $30.
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
We don't have to stop at the Book. You can use this nifty little JAVA SDK to create a LEGO Robots that do all sorts of stuff. Infrared Communication, Voice Recognition, and Robotic Vision Oh My......
JavaTM Technology and Lego Mindstorm Robots
Robotics Developers Kit