DrJB

Eurobricks Dukes
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Everything posted by DrJB

  1. DrJB
    Very interesting indeed and for sure would love to see more 'integration' of Arduino/RaspberryPi/Lego. I, myself, have made the switch/jump to the two platforms and those 'teach' real life programming skills. In all honesty, I find programming for Arduino/RPI way more 'intuitive/rewarding' than doing a block-diagram with Mindstorms. Now, not sure how the Arduino/RPI platforms will compete/co-exist with the Mindstorms, though an Arduino/RPI is way more affordable. If anything at all, maybe TLG will see the benefits of developing this option seriously (Arduino/RPI), rather than their own language/platform/hardware ... etc. Good Luck with the project :)
  2. DrJB
    Your best bet here is to study Akiyuki's and Philo's various mechanisms and learn from them. Keep in mind that the original GBC Specification states that balls are to travel at the rate of one ball per second. This is done to ensure no modules are starved while others have a huge backlog of balls. Again, the best way to learn is to watch 'attentively' what others have built.
  3. DrJB
    I was is New York a couple of weeks ago and paid a visit the Lego Store near Rockefeller Plaza ... To my surprize, their prices are HIGHER than the official Lego MSRP. Granted, they had all/most of the latest/largest Technic sets on display (Porsche/BWE) but they were easily $20/$30 more than the list price. I asked one of the sales people and of course, he could not explain the disconnect. I wonder if they do that to offset the rent of the store ... prime location as they say.
  4. DrJB
    If I recall, eBay now charges a listing fee whether or not the item sells ... Wonder how much that was.
  5. DrJB
    I hope it's ok to ask. I'm looking for PDF manuals for the old Dacta Sets (no longer in production), primarily those that run with InterfaceB/RoboLab, such as Control Lab Center, Intelligent House, Amusement Park, ... Anyone got leads on where to get them? I scoured most of the 'instructions' web sites but found very little/incomplete scans.
  6. DrJB
    One aspect we might have overlooked ... Doesn't eBay charge a 'listing' fee proportional to the 'Buy It Now' Price ? Though, for a publicity/advertisement stunt, that's a rather expensive one. ... unless the seller put few extra zeros, inadvertently.
  7. DrJB
    Watch out for DBG technic parts with brown stains .... for sale on eBay. If you can't pass up the deal, they must sanitized!
  8. DrJB
    I've been wanting to setup a dedicated home computer for my EV3/NXT bricks, and with the cheap (and small foot-print) RPI, this sounds very appealing. Now, after some googling I found ev3dev but my understanding is that it's a whole different development environment. I ultimately want the same EV3 environment as that on a windows machine. Anyone knows how to achieve this or if anything is in the works?
  9. DrJB
    9 pages and not a single picture??? Speculation (and wishful thinking) has become the rule-of-the-land in this forum
  10. DrJB
    Every now and then I stumble upon a rare set on eBay that ... I must have. Once it arrives, it must get 'sanitized'. What I do is, disassemble totally, immerse in hot water, and pour a generous amount of dishwasher soap on the parts, then I mix/stir the whole thing few times and let it 'bathe' overnight. The dishwasher soap has a tendency to 'eat-up' the dirt so, in general, no brushing is needed. I've 'read' some people throw the whole thing in a clothes washer ... but with small technic pieces, one needs a fine mesh bag of the sorts. This also applies to assembled sets that have been sitting on a shelf for some time and accumulated few microns of dust as well. What 'technique' do you use ... and have found to work best?
  11. DrJB
    There are many rare parts that were released in one or at most 2 Technic Sets. One possible reason is it's TLG's way to boost sales of specific sets. Yet, I find it difficult to believe a company of such reputation using such 'tactics'. What possible other reasons can you think of? Sample parts I'm thinking of are: 1. Wheel rim covers on the Ferrari GTB Fiorano - 2 sets only 2. Cylinder brackets on DZ and crane - 2 sets only 3. Pneumatic cylinders on 8455 Not that rare, after all 4. X-Large motor on crane truck - 3 Technic sets + 1 non-Technic 5. LA Bracket on Telehandler (though not sure how useful such part is) - 2 sets only 6. PF Lights - 2 Technic sets only 7. Yellow shock absorber - 1 set only 8. ...
  12. DrJB
    Except that in Bricklink, the parts' IDs for flex axles are NOT the same ...
  13. DrJB
    That is why, if you buy old sets from eBay, the first thing you need to do is sanitize/disinfect/wash thoroughly .... :)
  14. DrJB
    Try to look up a thread I started a while back, called 'nails & glue'. I came up with a similar conclusion that, if you add all pins, and bushings, the number is sometimes higher than 1/3 rd.
  15. DrJB
    Glad you found a solution to the issue you identified earlier. People in Robotics would tell you that the initial mechanism was not valid because it has a singularity in its Jacobian Matrix ... If I recall correctly, I think Akiyuki used gears to link the motions of the various axles, though I can't locate the video now.
  16. DrJB
    Fully agree with this. Would be nice to have an EB contest where no wheels/tires are allowed!
  17. DrJB
    Reminds me of a Meccano humanoid, that came out only few months ago. Though it does not have the same 'flexibility' as building with Lego, it has a promising 'brick' and 4 servos ... and you can get it on sale at some Walmart stores for barely $40. http://www.amazon.co...s=meccano robot
  18. DrJB
    I saw them a while back, though I felt that, at $1.00 a piece, they were rather expensive, especially that they were plain orange and no added cost due to printing (as for the soccer/football balls).
  19. DrJB
    Yesterday I took the kids to this yearly event, and there, almost everyone was carrying these white and blue brickloot boxes. Apparently, if you had bought your tickets through groupon, you get one free box. Brick-Loot also had a display area where they were selling such blue boxes for $25, claiming a value of $40.00. After getting home, we opened the box, and granted, there were 4 mini sets in there. One was made with genuine lego parts, all other 3 were cheap china-made replicas. Needless to say I was very disappointed, as the value to me was $5-10 at most. How can a company such as this be admitted in an 'official' Lego venue, and be allowed to make $$$ off 'unsuspecting' lego fans? This is simply unacceptable, and a shame to the organizers!
  20. DrJB
    For those interested, BrickWorld Chicago is taking place this weekend, at the usual location (Renaissance Schaumburg)
  21. DrJB
    Thanks. I just downloaded the MPD. You guys are fast!!!
  22. DrJB
    Near 2:50, there is a module called 'Wheel & Steps', and I do not recall seeing that in the past from Akiyuki. Of course, there were other similar contraptions by others, but it's the first time (I see) an Akiyuki version.
  23. DrJB
    I like it a lot! I have many of those buckets (50+) and been contemplating building something similar, as in LDD renders below. Note that the bucket per say is not available in LDD, and hence, the use of 'generic' parts.
  24. DrJB
    Was there ever a Porsche in the 007 movies? ... Maybe a spy version of the car could be an option.
  25. DrJB
    Is this possibly a remake with 41999 ... or TLG looking for inspiration ?