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Found 36 results

  1. Hi all, Just to let you know: the company I work for, offers a free LEGO Spike Programming workshop at the RoboCup 2024 event in Eindhoven (17 - 21 July 2024). Kids in the age of 8 - 13 years old, can learn how to program a LEGO Spike Robot. More information can be found here: Lego Spike Workshop. Any questions? Please send an email to hans.odenthal@sioux.eu. Looking forward to meet you in Eindhoven! Warm regards, Hans
  2. So I was working on a simple rc program on my computer today with my new 51515 set and was trying to make it rc using the keyboard (up arrow=forward down arrow=reverse left arrow=left right arrow=right) But it is hard because there is no "when no key pressed" block to my knowledge. The robot I am using is THIS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  3. Hi. If this is the wrong question in the wrong place then feel free to direct me to the right place. I have the top gear rally car model which uses a bluetooth powered up controller app on a phone and that works. What I want to do is to find a generic controller library / software that I could run on a laptop or PC (windows or linux either is acceptable) to use to control the powered up devices without specifically knowing which model it is. What I want to do is to use it as an environment to teach about programming. Yes there may be better educational environments but being lego it will appeal and this is what I have so nice as it would be I am not about to rush out and spend more money on mindstorms or similar. I did find some very basic "generic controller" apps on the apple store but while they were able to drive different models, albeit with the same basic motors none of them seemed to be able to drive the main motor. Steer yes, but not the motor itself, even though the model specific app does work. Essentially what I would hope for would be a library of routines which really knows nothing more than channel and setting for each of the available channels on any powered up controller brick. Is there such a thing out there already? Thanks in advance
  4. Hello all, I'm glad to introduce my project I spent approx one year to work on. Those who follow my railway MOC model topic here, on Eurobricks, should be familiar with my work, and could know I do own a big station with additional storage yard (fig.1.) to store all my long, 1:45 scaled railway models. Fig.1.: My train station in BlueBrick layout software 1. Why and what? My station displays a renovated mainline station - not a dedicated one, just a station, which looks quite average on refurbished Hungarian double-track lines. A modern station comes with working light signals - and this need started my project. I owned two completed mainline signals back in 2013 (fig.2.), using polarity reversal bricks to switch four pairs of modified PF ledlights (modification allowed that only one of the ledlights turned on, depending on the applied voltage's polarity, this modification was nicely described be Viktor Péter Kovács in RailBricks #9). These signals were operated by hand, both turning them free and red after trains, which could cause a lot of error, leaving them accidentally free after a train passed. Also my station needed 5 entry signals, 11 exit signals and one shunting signal for my storage yard. It is easy to see, that without some automatisation these can't be handled light by light. It is important, that my project is about making a system which handles my station, giving play experience by setting routes and managing train traffic, but it is not about automatisation of the trains. Train drivers should drive their own trains (9V, PF, PU, custom) according to the appearing signal aspects set by the "station driver". Fig.2.: My old signals - both of them powered with two pairs of PF ledlights. 2. The real life prototypes Before continuing, I need to explain the Hungarian signalling system in short - and also the logic behind it, and the difficulties it causes. Excluding any branchline special signals, focusing on mainline block signalling, there are two types of signals - main signals (red-white-red pole, they give a speed order to pass and forecast for next main signal) and repeat signals (yellow-white-yellow pole, forecasting only if the corresponding main signal is free or not, these are used where the tracks' curvature doesn't give enough distance to note the signal aspect of main signals). Three colours are used - green, yellow and red. Red always means to stop, giving no forecast of the next main signal. Yellow allows to pass at the maximum speed permitted for the train by other conditions (track, vehicle), forecasting next main signal will be red. Blinking yellow allows to pass at the maximum speed permitted for the train, forecasting next main signal will be allowing passing by 40 km/h (speed for normal switches in turning direction). Green indicated to pass at the maximum speed permitted for the train, the next main signal will be also allowing passing by maximum speed permitted for the train (so it forecasts next main signal being yellow, blinking yellow or green) Yellow-yellow (two lights) allows to pass with the maximum speed of 40 km/h (implying some switches in turning direction will be ahead), next main signal is expected to be stop. Yellow-blinking yellow allows to pass with the maximum speed of 40 km/h, next main signal will allow also passing by 40 km/h. Yellow-green allows to pass with the maximum speed of 40 km/h, next signal will allow maximum speed to pass by. As you look at my track configuration, you may see, that all these variations mentioned above should be considered when putting ledlights to my signals. Fig.3. shows my station with installed signals and the secured neighbouring blocks. This signalling logic also means, that I should know if zero, one or two sections are free after a main signal, including the route (turning on points, or not). Fig.3.: Shematic track layout of my station including the neighbouring signalling blocks, too. 3. System components Why are the neighbouring openline tracks considered? When I allow a train to leave my station (setting a free exit signal for it) it should mean that at least the first section is free and no other train is there. So I should have control over that section - detecting trains entering and leaving them from both direction. Train detection was also needed to turn the signals automatically back to red when a train passed, reducing the chance of accidentally leaving them free by manual operation. I chose the products of SBrick mixed with LEGO-elements. SBrick offer very nice, Bluetooth-controlled light hubs (SBrick Light), which can control 24 independent channels or 8 RGB channels, changing light colours. Since I didn't need the RGB-option (different colours are at different points in the real signals), I could use all the 24 channels of each hub (and since my signals needed 3 or 4 lights each and I have 24 of them, it was quite useful). The other SBrick product, the "+" smart brick can handle inputs and outputs - only for the Power Functions era. But besides train motors, technic motors, ledlights the PF-era had two types of sensors and I used the distance/moiton sensors to detect trains. These were never really put into commercial, the WeDo 1.0 elements were available for schools for education purposes. Fortunately Bricklink and eBay had them... And all these inputs (distance sensors) and outputs (SBrick light ledlights, PF M-motors to set points) are connected through the surface called SBrick Pro. I connect to the SBrick hubs with my PC, running the code simply from browser. You can write all your code on this surface, using some Scratch-based language (before this project I never did any programming). You can add scripts to different events (like if the distance sensors' values change, on stratup, pressing virtual buttons you added to your "remote control"), writing texts, and of course, managing the outputs. Each physical ledlight, motor or sensor is paired in the code with different variables (like strings describing the signal aspect, number values for distance sensor measurement, logical variables to store occupation of segments, etc). And yes, it took one year to write the code from zero (as I said, I never wrote any code before I started this project), collect the physical elements and building them into my layout. It was tested at five events this year, these events brought a lot of problems (and I had no option to test it before events since my layout is 11+ meters), but for the last event, our lugs annual exhibition at Martonvásár city (Hungary) finally it worked 2×10 hours at opening days without any major issue, so now I can finally proudly present it (fig.4.). Fig.4.: The remote control created in SBrick Pro for my station. I used the following components: 4 SBrick+ hubs + 2 WeDo 1.0 sensor on each 2 SBrick hubs + 5 PF M-motors on them 6 SBrick Light hubs + 88 SBrick leglights on them for different signals some PF extension wires 3 9V speed regulator to power SBrick+ and SBrick hubs from 230V AC. 4. How does it work? a) Setting a route Routes can be set selecting the big metallic buttons on the remote control surface (one button for each neighbouring openline section and one for each station track), while direction is selected with the top corner buttons (from left to right, or from right to left). If the route can be set (no occupied segment is involved and it is not conflicting any other existing route), the program: set the points via SBrick and PF M-motor, it virtually locks the points (no other routes can be set including the locked points), and after this sets the corresponding signals free. The buttons of sections involved in the locked route stay red. Removing a route (if you don't want it or the train already passed it) can be done with the bright blue buttons next to each route displayed the bottom left corner. Removing a route can't be accidental, for safety it requires "two-hand operation", keeping spacebar pressed while saying okay to the warning message. After this is done, a counter start giving safety time before the route and the switch locks get cleared. b) Motion sensors Sensors of WeDo 1.0 can detect objects in front of them from approx. 15-20 cm. For the largest distance they have a value of 10, while if you put something very close (<1,5 cm) it gives the value of 0. Since they are mostly placed 2 cm from the tracks (to make sure wide steams can also pass), a value of 3 is set at treshold value, if the value given by the sensor goes below this value it is counted as detection. For first, the code checks if a train is expected to be there. All sensors check one position, but trains could arrive from both direction, the sensors can't decide, which direction the train came from. The program evaluates the logic variables - direction set for the section, is any route set for the involved sensor and the neighbouring signal aspects - if it finds out that the train shouldn't be passing the sensor, gives a high pitch warning on the PC, and also resets any free signals back to red which would possibly let a train to the section where an another train violated the red signal. If the train is expected to be in front of the sensor, the signal belonging to the route and direction will fall back to red. After the train passes the sensor, there is a safety checking - seven detection cycles ran with timing, all should find the sensor value above treshold before saying the train really passed. If the automated looping mode is turned on (letting trains go through the station), after the train passed the sensor and clearence timer is also out, the cleared section's signal will automatically set free. All routes can be resetted in once with the bottom right bright blue button. This is necessary if some errors pop up, or someone passes a red signal - in this case to clear the error message reset must be performed. A reset has also a clearence time, and all sections' must be checked if they are occupied or not and this information is asked by the software. Setting a section clear is also a "two-hand operation" to avoid making a section accidentally free while there is a train on it. 5. Experiences a) Problems I used this setup on five different events from this year's April. At the first three events there were too much false error detections - these were related to bugs in the code. Sometimes the routine for checking a train started twice or more times thus leading to "redrunning" errors. To find out, where my code runs into a bug, I started to write some values on the remote and also making error codes and messages for different events to spot out my errors. Later I left this parts in, since now these error messages clearly can point out, where and what happened in a case of redpass. The varying width of different trains and setting sensor cycle time was also hard to do - I must deal with 12 wide steams (with rods) and sometimes 6 wide short sets. The steam engines always crashed into my sensors, so I put them more far away from the tracks, resulting in non-detection of 6 wide trains. And if the sensor doesn't catch a train at all, it will go on error at the next sensors, since it won't expect the train to be there, if the previous one haven't counted it before. The code issues have been solved, but I don't now what to do with different widths - at least at our own events we have train varyings between 8 and 10 studs of width, there are no oversized models and no original LEGO set trains. Also setting too frequent sensor value writing to variables lead to out of memory error, while setting it less frequent brought the possibility of missing short and fast trains. b) Play experience It is really nice to manage the traffic! When it finally started to work properly (at the fifth event), it was really cool to leave it in automated mode (it lets trains going through the station, and if a section get's free, it lets the next train) or set an ending or starting route for arriving and departing trains. The best part was BSBT 2022 in Schkeuditz, most of the participants really liked, that they need to drive their own trains according to the appearing signal aspects and not only following an another train as close as possible. :P I also created a loop-operation mode for myself if I'm not collaborating with someone else to create a layout. In this case the two group of block signals are logically connected, forming a third section between themselves (fig.5.), creating a double track loop, with four sections of each (three openline, one station section). Fig.5.: My Stadler KISS EMU on the outer loop, between two block signals. The inner loop's block signal gives one green, indicating that the following two sections are clear. You can note the SBrick Light hub and SBrick+ blocks in the middle, the WeDo 1.0 sensors on the sides of track, between the signals of the group. c) System components Bluetooth has is limitations, and pushing 12 different hubs to this project was quite overkill and unexpected even from the SBrick-team - but it works. For first I had many connection issues, it was really lucky moment when all the 12 hubs went online and connected to my PC, but later I found a "wizard" option, which seemed to be doing nothing, but after quitting from it all connections got resetted and all hubs went online instantly. So no more angry waiting, pairing and swearing at it. SBrick lights are really nice, they can be powered both from internal batteries or 230V AC with power supply cable, for a use like mine the plug-in power supply is preferred. The option of programmed handling of 24 different channels is superb. SBrick hubs are now well-known over the world, they do well, the SBrick+ hubs can handle the input, unfortunately the newer sensors have no more PF-connectors, so these SBrick+ hubs work only with the rare WeDo 1.0 units, it is quite a hard limitation. You can see my system in action in the following video: ...and I felt really honored to have a mention from @michaelgale and Enrico Lussi at their articles from BSBT 2022: Michael Gale's article at BrickNerd Enrico's article at BMR 6. Future plans The system will be fully done, when the P40 switches of FXTracks will come out and I can replace all my old R40 9V points to fancy new R104 ones (fig.6.). I am too lazy to motorize all my 9V points currently, and when I competely rebuild my layout to incorporate the new points I'll do the missing motorisation progress, too. Fig.6.: Comparison of my current layout using R40 switces (bottom) and the future layout with FX Tracks R104 switches (upwards). Your comments and critics - as always - welcome. Feel free to share your impressions! :)
  5. On Wednesday 26 October ("Herfstvakantie Zuid"), Sioux Technologies organizes a 2 hour programming workshop in Eindhoven (NL) for kids in the age of 7 and older. As a tech company, we want to promote technique for children and Lego Spike is a great way to do this. And it is complete free of charge, we will even take care of drinks and food. Please note that the workshop is in Dutch as is the invitation. More information can be found here: https://www.sioux.eu/events/all-events/hot-or-not-the-next-generation-workshop/. You can also use this link for subscribing your kids. Questions? Just leave a message. Looking forward to welcome you and your children at Sioux. Hans Odenthal
  6. The last years, we have used a NXT brick for controlling the train. For Lego World 2017, we want to use EV3 bricks only. Since the RFID sensor is not supported anymore, we needed another way to determine the train location. I have build a proof of concept of a loco: Wheels are directly connected to a EV3 medium motor Location detection based on a color sensor (the combination of yellow, red and green makes a unique pattern) And it works fine! A video of this proof of concept: Of course, the train needs a bit (... ) of restyling ;-) Enjoy, Hans
  7. I'm posting this here as I've found few similar threads about file format conversion in this section, but I haven't found a tool that would fit my requirements. I'm looking for a way to batch convert whole library of parts into FBX or OBJ so the parts can be imported into the Unreal Engine 4 project. I don't want to import whole models, I want to import whole library of parts. I have implemented parser that can interpret the ldr file format, build the model structure of parts with transforms and partially draw those parts, but there are some issues with rotation in the transform (and I'm not a graphics/engine programmer), but more importantly this approach is a bit heavy on the performance. From the legal side of things, I need a way to distribute my projects without the parts, but there needs to be a way for the user to put the ldraw files there on his own. The closest thing that could be useful is this: https://github.com/Pomax/WebGLdraw but that's from 2012 and I've seen some basic shapes defined in 2016 so It might not be the best choice to invest into making a batch converter based on this. Any thoughts on how would you approach such issue?
  8. Hi, a few weeks ago I started a tutorial series on youtube. It's about how to program the lego powered up hardware with the Powered Up App (Lego Boost, lego Control+ and the wedo 2.0 sensors are part of the powered up hardware). The complete tutorial is 100% free. So far most of the stuff is pretty basic but it will get much, much, much more complicated later. I promise that ;) (People that saw the german version of the tutorial might know that already) There will be a new part each wednesday.
  9. I did program something with two "own Blocks" wich work together, but for that I need to check if the text entered in the text parameter of the first block matches the one of the second block. Basically I need to know how to check if "Text variable one" matches "Text variable two". Please comment if you know how to do that, or if you have any good alternatives, currently I use numbers, but that's hard to keep track off. Edit: I program in Mindstorms Ev3 with the Ev3 brick
  10. Did you know that any standard EV3 brick is capable of controlling the LEDS separately? And that the display is capable of displaying 4 shades of gray? No, this extra functionality is not available via the standard programming environment that Lego provides. But if you use low level programming (I used EV3DEV in combination with C++), you have. See the example below. You can read my article at our blog here: https://siouxnetontrack.wordpress.com/2020/04/25/lego-mindstorms-ev3-with-an-image-with-4-different-shades-of-gray/ Or have a look at the Youtube videos. Enjoy. Hans
  11. A new video has been uploaded to our Youtube channel. In 2019, lots of new elements have been added to our layout. To name a few: the warehouse, able to store 60 containers with candies, with two independent stacker cranes, the four candy circles, and an updated delivery station. Also brand new is the PC software that connects everything. We have worked hard to get the software working stable and with success. You can see the result in the video. Enjoy the video! -- Hans
  12. Hello, Almost all of us use Sbricks as just "long range remote control with smooth speed control", right? It take time to know more about Sbrick functions that can be programmed using Profile designer. New possibilities, opened with Sequence and Circuit, was not presented and described well in guides (SBRICK Team should do a detailed guide and how-to manual). So I have to learn them by myslef. Car is just a mule for all functions we planned. So no need to describe design. We did it with my son for robotics contest in his School in January. Functions Independent suspension openable doors, including motorized rear door Rear wheel drive and steering Auto turn lights (+ manual buttons) Auto emergency lights (+ manual button) Auto backward drive light (+ manual button) Daylight and rear lights powered with solar panels All electronics 2x L motor for propulsion Servo motor for steering 2x LED for turn and emergency signals 2x LED for front and rear daylights 1x LED for backward drive signal M motor for trunk door opening WEDO tilt sensor for safe/dangerous drive control 1x LiPo batery 2x Solar panels 1x Smart Brick 1x Smart Brick PLUS Control profile is a mess of buttons. I think I need a real designer to design something nice in designer profile Small buttons are circuits, that are ON on the start, and no need to press them. So that's why I make them small (May be, hiding them is the better design decision) For example, circuits was used to make aut turn light: left or right turn LEDs are on depending on SERVO motor rotation direction. Circuits are like "IF" functions, that can be linked any port of Sbrick, but it is not described in Manual, so I have to expore it by myself. Round sequence buttons work like ON buttons but with programmed timings and power. So I can do blinking lights with described intervals of LED on and pauses between. The same I can do with motors. When driving, you can see that some sequence buttons on the iPad turns ON automatically (I don't press emergency, backward or turn rights at all) Another experiment: solar panels. They work well with LEDs. They even make work Sbrick. But too weak for motors. I saw some moving cars on YT with one solar panel and one motor under bright sun, but I can't name that "CARS" - just some liftarms and wheels with solar panel and M motor. My car is too heavy. Almost all functions can be done only by Sbrick. Sbrick PLUS is only used for connecting WEDO Tilt sensor. Tilt sensor detects "agressive driving": fast acceleration or brakes, crashes, shaking and roll over of course. Then circuit sends command to emergency lights. Another function I planned, but failed: automatic rear door opening detecting hand or leg under the rear bumper (like modern cars do). Unfortunately, I can't set up WEDO distance sensor. It should detect leg and open door only at small range. But everytime it detects surface under the car - it opens the door I also have to do some tricks, for example "all off" circuit, to prevent manual turn off emergency and rear drive light after every auto turning on... I think, this can function can be useful for big supercar scaled models or truck, especially for events. But Sbrick team shoud do a user friendly predesigne profiles for that and do a detailed manual for every function in profile designer. And I am also waiting for iOS support drivers You can turn on english subtitiles in the video. Describing how to programm all that buttons in Designer Profile need a separate video. Thanks.
  13. The Delivery Station unloads the train, separates the candies from the containers and delivers the candies to the visitors. The 2017 consisted of four parts: Push mechanism: pushes the containers-with-candies from the train Roller mechanism: rolles the containers-with-candies to the lifts Lift mechanism: lifts the containers to separate the candies from the containers Locker mechanism: candies are stored in lockers, to be opened with the ticket reader The order of the candies needed to be kept, so every visitor received the candy in the color he requested. You can watch the 2017 here (starts at timestamp 2m39s): For 2018, we keep the Push mechanism and the lockers. The part that will take care of separating the candies from the containers, is completely redesigned. The push mechanism however, was rather slow and - as you can see in the video - it needed quite some space due to the slider. So, that needed a redesign as well. You can see the new version here (click on the photo to go to our Flickr page): And of course a video: Enjoy, Hans
  14. are there here users of ev3basic here ? i m a great fan of basic [ i use it +-33y ] the only problem is that in smal basic the char's of the IDE can not be bigger i got the following working test.sb : a = Buttons.Current EV3.SetLEDColor( "ORANGE" , "PULSE" ) While a <> "U" a = Buttons.Current EV3.SetLEDColor( "GREEN" , "NORMAL" ) Program.Delay( 500 ) EV3.SetLEDColor( "RED" , "NORMAL" ) Program.Delay( 500 ) EndWhile EV3.SetLEDColor( "ORANGE" , "PULSE" )
  15. Hello everybody. Recently i found a segway program on ntx with extension .rbt. I need to convert it into .ev3.I tried, but it didin't work. Who can help me?
  16. Let me introduce you my biggest and most complex MOC so far - COFF3 BOT. Once I was contacted by a man from HP (Hewlett-Packard) and he asked me: "Are you able to build LEGO robot that would supply Nespresso coffee machine with capsules?" It sounded interesting to me so I set meeting with him to know more. He explained me that they got coffee machine with bluetooth so you can turn it on from your smart phone. The problem was that you have to insert capsule manually into coffee machine and they were looking for some "remote control LEGO solution". Soon I began working for him and it took me about 3 months to finish this robot. It was built mainly out of LEGO Mindstorms Education and LEGO Technic Bucket Wheel Excavator. It contains about 2500 parts. The most difficult part of development was building this robot. Programming was piece of cake. Robot in stand by position. It has 3 storages for 5 capsules so you can load it with up to 15 capsules. Robot without coffee machine. Notice the rail that helps robot to stay with coffee machine. Detail of three mechanisms that insert capsules into slot on the top of coffee machine. Detail of gearbox - there are three parallel gearboxes that switch large motors between operating storages and movement of robot. I had to use gearboxes to avoid using another EV3 brick. This series of gearboxes is part of robot that causes most of its failures. EV3 brick works also like counterweight for jib. I've attached it in such way to keep access for battery charger. And how it works? You turn it on and it moves to stand by position. Then it waits command from some bluetooth device that determines number of storage - you can choose out of three different capsules for your coffee. When robot receive it, it turns over coffee machine and opens its slot for capsules. It does it by pulling little lever on the top of coffee machine. Then it releases chosen capsule into slot and closes it. When it is done it sends you message that you can turn on coffee machine. I will add link to video when HP releases it (I am not allowed to upload any video of this robot). And finally one fun fact: cost of this coffee machine is about $200 and cost of LEGO bricks for this robot was about $800 (excluding my work).
  17. Not really, but I found out that the motors in my GX EV3 peform better in IR Control mode than how they do in my program, and I believe that it is because the motor power is different. Each block in the EV3 programming software that moves the motors has a digit for how much power each motor should have. I'm wondering what this digit is in IR Control mode, because the motors act much better in this mode than how the do in the program. If anyone here knows the power of the motors when the EV3 brick is in this mode, please reply as soon as possible. It would be very appreciated.
  18. Hello friends, It is I, elrid from india, and I am of having difficulty sending sounds over bluetooth to a second NXT. I have a master-slave relationship between two of my best NXT specimens, but one of them does not have working speakers (even the startup noise doesn't work my friends!!!). So, I am of trying to get the first NXT to signal one of another NXT with speakers work over bluetooth connect. I use BrickxCC language. Any help is appreciate. Thank you friends! I am see with my eyes there is individual named DR_SPOCK who is very helpful and handsome. Hopefully he can help.
  19. I wanted to tell you about this new (and cool if I may say) program that is being developed by a company with more than 30 years of experience in robotics for education called Intelitek. This program, called CoderZ, is all about teaching kids STEM through robotics and programming. This program enables an entire team to have a robot for each participant/member. How? Well, CoderZ is a fully operational robot simulator. Right now, Intelitek is giving FLL teams a free trial that lasts until the end of June, this is a great opportunity for all teams to hone their developing skills for next year’s challenge. You can easily register and start using CoderZ by clicking here: bit.ly/2pq0LnA Feel free to share your thoughts with the CoderZ team after registering and trying it out at http://gocoderz.com/.
  20. For our Sioux.NET on Track project (see https://siouxnetontrack.wordpress.com), we not only write a PC application in Microsoft.NET (C#). But we also write quite some code that runs on the EV3 bricks. In this article, you'll find programming tips & tricks for the Lego Mindstorms EV3 programming environment. Is it possible to have two or more EV3’s in Daisy Chain mode and use WiFi to connect to the PC application? Yes, you can. Read the full article how you can achieve this at the blog: https://siouxnetontrack.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/how-to-ev3s-in-daisy-chain-mode-plus-wifi You can use two or more threads in parallel to run on an EV3. But how do you synchonize them? Read the article how to do this at the blog: https://siouxnetontrack.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/how-to-synchronizing-two-threads/ More to come later. Enjoy, Hans (moderator of our Wordpress blog Sioux.NET on Track)
  21. Hi ! Some students and me create a new exercise for other students. This time we constructed a robot using mecanum wheels. Students should learn how to control this robot using mathematical equations and implement them in Java leJOS. Have fun! Andreas
  22. Hello fellow train builders, I would like to share my most recent project theme; Lego Trains & Internet of Things. Basically, I make connected trains and train related stuff. My aim is not to be 100% realistic or copy existing real world trains. My goal is to bring Lego into the IoT movement, learn many great things along the way, and eventually help the next generations to get interested and pick up the necessary skills for a better world through technology. Let's call this STEM through Play.(STEM=science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Sounds like a mouthful, huh? but that's what I want anyway ) Without further ado, here's what I have built so far; Automated Lego Railroad Crossing Lego Train Voice Controlled Lights via Amazon Echo Lego Train Controller App Please bear in mind that this project is new and under development. I welcome any sort of feedback and questions I will also update this thread but if you'd like to keep up, here's my website which aggregates all the social channels related to this project: Legongineer
  23. Hi all, since I recieved Mindstorms EV3 set 31313 few days ago I've decided to start my first project. I call it CLEV3R CAR and as you can guess it's about car. I've just finished building it and I'm about to start programming it. So let's talk about model first. It looks like Mini Cooper, chassis is inspired by RAC3 TRUCK and I've finished it in just two days. It features two large motors for driving, medium motor for steering, IR sensor instead of radiator and rear bumper with touch sensor. I wanted to build it as small as possible but it became pretty big. I've paid attention to many details so you can easily remove EV3 brick (for example to change batteries) and there is enough space under it so you can use it with original rechargable battery as well. It's also pretty sturdy, I plan to program several modes for it: Automatic - independent driving with avoiding obstacles RC - remotely controlled from IR beacon with driving assistance (for example if you drive it against wall it will stop before it) Search for beacon - independent driving to beacon By the way does anyone have experience with programming searching for beacon? I can imagine how to do it for tank (or other tracked vehicle that can turn on the spot) but car with classic steering is something different...
  24. Sioux.NET on Track presents the Ticket Dispenser Unit (TDU) Two articles about the Lego Dispenser Unit can be found at our blog: https://siouxnetontrack.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/ticket-dispenser-unit-reader/ In this article you can read how tickets are read using a four-color based number system. This article was written before the dispenser part was created, so it is only about the reader part. https://siouxnetontrack.wordpress.com/2016/12/28/ticket-dispenser-unit-complete-version-2017/ In this article you can read about the upgraded version that will be used at Lego World 2017. Click on the following picture to see more pictures: A video of the working TDU 2017 can be found here:
  25. At our Flickr page you can view the photos of our visit at Lego World 2016 in Utrecht: https://flic.kr/s/aHskMd9EAj. A video is also available: Enjoy, Hans