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Lego Mindstorms + Lasers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the robots-with-friggin-lasers dept.

hamsan writes "My brother just hacked a laser pointer into an NXT light sensor and fully documented the process. From the page — 'Total Project Cost — $16.99 plus shipping. Time Required — Approximately 2 hours of tinkering. Having an Alpha Rex with a Laser — Priceless!' Of course, the usual warnings about voiding warranties and avoiding lasers apply."

5 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Small Child + Lasers by nead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do you explain to a small child not to stare into a laser beam? The little guy in one of the last pictures obviously couldn't read or understand that safety label.

  2. [Nearly] Pointless Hack by runlevel+5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not to sound like a naysayer, but honestly the laser adds almost no functionality whatsoever to the Mindstorms kit. In a course I am taking we are designing and building ten different kinds of robots out of these kits, and there isn't one that would benefit from having a frickin laser beam on its forehead.

  3. Ummm.. by ian_mackereth · · Score: 1, Insightful
    I'm a hardware geek, but I don't really see why a laser pointer in the robot is so great?

    Now, if it was a green laser, with a visible beam, that would be cool!

    Mind you, you'd have to put a '1' in front of the price tag...

  4. Earn money through slashdot. by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1. Build something extremely nerd-friendly out of items found at Amazon.com 2. Create website explaining how to do it (complete with amazon referal links) 3. Submit website to Slashdot 4. ??? 5. Profit!

  5. LEGOS by Zabu · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Searching the comments for "legos" didn't return any results
    I must be hallucinating, has the /crowd finally learned that LEGO is the plural for LEGO? or should I expect the people in white suits to take me away while I sleep tonight?

    --
    It's all good.