Andrew Page

I saw one of your WIP posts, and it encouraged me to make a Bricklink order for the new gearbox parts for my own design. Thank you for sharing the finished design.

For High power models the leaving the rechargeable battery plugged in does not work. I had a 5 NXT Pinball Machine. 4 were fine. But the one on the flippers would die about 3 hours into a show. So I kept a spare battery to swap in. For most people, this is probably not an issues. But for things that never stop the motors its something to think about.

I was at AWS re:invent this year, and spoke to the team. The told me LEGO was on their roadmap, so I'll keep watching.

I just tried the 10 foot piece of 3rd party tubing on my desk. I used a small pump, and it was just like having a tank in the system. Slow but worked perfectly.

They sell beads almost exactly the same size as GBC balls. Since you are leaving purist land they might be an option.

I teach with NXT bricks, and got some of the original ones with bad caps. About 17 of 22 screens died. LEGO replaced them all, no questions asked. Contact Tech Support. They will probably help.

I own several HiTechnic ones. It is not that easy. In order to work properly, you also want the CG to be in the center. Not easy to achieve. You could build one, but I cannot imagine it coming out that much cheaper.

I was able to buy one this morning in the USA. I was the first person to ask at the local store. The store said that they had received 20 and did not know if more would come. I am keeping it sealed to be fair, but I am traveling so I wanted to stop trying to find it on my cell phone.

Just to make my previous post clear (And try and tone this thread down before it gets locked) I think frustration and disappointment are too be expected. I would just like to see the AFOL community respond like the "United Breaks Guitars" guy, and not just rant and rave at the poor USA CS reps.

Then stop buying the product. I have to admit, I have followed this discussion for a while, and I am very confused how anyone could be upset. Yes, it is a bit disappointing that they are not yet available. But no-one has a "Right" to LEGO parts. When the motors are released, lets not confuse causation with correlation. Just because someone bugged low-level customer service folks, and sometime later parts are released, that is not proof that the bugging "resolved" the matter. Unless TLG tells the back-story we will never know. When they become available, I will buy a few. Until then, I will build something else. Simple enough.

I have found LEGO RMA to be great (At least the edu side) I placed an order for the NXT kits, as soon as they came out. I got a batch with bad capacitors in the display boards. The NXT bricks would work, but the display had a random pattern on it. By three years after I purchased them 18 of the 24 had broken. I called up support and they were replaced no questions asked. Total investment 10 dollars in shipping the bad ones back. Great service, but that is what you would expect.

This might let me remove the only non-LEGO part in my pinball machine :)

I am not so sure. Clearly the new daisy-chaining trick will not work as the old bricks lack a USB host controller But the old tricks using BT or RS485 should still be possible. Having done many multi-NXT projects I am VERY excited about the new feature, but I am still hopeful that the old ones can be integrated.

There are a bunch of opensource solutions for RCX that are WAY better than the LEGO software. The new NXT software is usable, but the older stuff was just not that good. The above link is a good start, but there others. The Wikipedia article for Mind-storms has the links. If you really want the LEGO software, Lego education has Robolab version 2.9 on sale for $22.95 while supplies last Andy

Since I have taught Lego robotics from way before Mindstorms, I am always OK with non-LEGO solutions. My first Lego robots used Handyboard computers, and hand wired sensors. In general, I like the challenge of using a 100% Lego solution. But I also like being able to teach techniques that are not possible with Lego sensors, like integrating over a rate sensor. At Brickfair, the rule seemed to be, no parts from Lego competitors. I used a number of sensors and wires from Mindsensors and HiTechnic for my pinball machine. I also, like all other working pinball machines I know of, used a non-Lego ball. I think that is fair. To each his/her own I guess.

I got Mine from Hitechnic, and they were in 2 packs for something near 40$. I built a basic 3 wheel design. They were fun to play with, and worked fine. The coding is not trivial, but not impossible. I started to work on some RobotC code to handle spining and moving at the same time, but so far it looks VERY drunk. More work is needed.

There is support in RobotC, Labview, NXC as well. I tried for hours on my last MOC to fit in a new light sensor before smacking my head and plugging in an old one. Works perfectly

Out of 1783 MOCs registered, there were 30 Technic MOCs, by 8 creators. They nominate 4 per category, and attendees vote. (In Technic they only nominated 3) Heck, I voted for it. It was up against a Mindstorms drawing robot and a simply jeep done by a 10 years old. Unfortunate, but understandable. Andy

I wonder which one will use the new servo. Still looking to pick those up.

Would not be that difficult. You could even put some self-learning to "aim" The same sensor could be used for scoring the in-lanes. It would make a good demo, and give me a chance to run to the bathroom during public hours.

The special theme at BrickFair Virginia this year was Fire. I have always wanted to build a pinball machine, so I figured the LEGO NXT would be a good platform. This is what I came up with Turned out OK, but served more a lesson for version 2. Some Statistics: I have no idea how many bricks it uses. I purchased a 10197 Fire Brigade set, a case of RED 2x4 bricks and 5 to 6 PAB cups worth of parts. I also got a 4208 4x4 Fire Truck for extra tree parts at the last minute. It used 3 NXT bricks, 7 touch sensors, 6 motors, 3 lights, and 1 light sensor It used some of the Mindsensors flex cables, and one of their Digital Port Spliters Other than the Mindsensors parts, the only non-LEGO part was the ball. I used the ball from an old computer mouse. The NXT bricks are connected on Port4 to the Digital Port Splitter. They use R485 for communication. It was programmed in RobotC. All three programs total slightly over 700 lines if memory serves. I had some fun and made my own font for the NXT. (It was based on a free Truetype flaming font) Here is a pic from under the playfield The controls for the machine were on three 1.5 meter long cables. This let me hand the controls to the public without letting anyone touch the machine. The front NXT took the flipper and ball-launch buttons, and controlled the Ball-launch and flipper motors. The Left NXT at the top controlled the game state. It took ALL inputs, managed the 2 play-field motors, and the ball-return motor. It detected the ball had drained using a light sensor. It then used some lift-arms to place it on the shooter lane. Every-time the ball drained, or a something was scored it sent out a 1 character message on the RS485 bus, and the other 2 NXTs reacted as needed. The last NXT was mainly used for displaying 2 score digits. It also managed the lights on the center target You scored points by lighting the three center lights. You could also make the house in the upper left spin if you hit the left switch. If you hit the tree, the NXT motor saw the movement, and spun to act kinda as a pop bumper. (Both the spinner and the 3 light target were based on the NXT pinball built at the university of Windsor) Lessons Learned: (In case anyone else tries their hand at pinball) This was my first large MOC. I learned several important lessons. These things take time. I started this about 10-12 days before the convention. I had to commit at that point to get the table space and MOC card. I had done some very limited testing but way under-estimated how long it would take to finish. I had to take some time off of work to finish, and it consumed 100% of my free time. I was forced to bring the machine to BrickFair in a VERY unfinished state. So I had to spend most of the convention working like a mad-man to get it done before the public hours. I missed all of the talks I wanted to attend. I wanted powered flippers. This allowed me to put the controls on a remote control. I also had to work out an automatic ball launcher. Both worked OK, but not great I made it 30 inches deep so it would fit on a table. But that was really too small for the size ball I used. The game ended up simpler than I wanted. Most Mindstorms pinball machines do not include a backglass area. Therefore most tilt the whole frame by using short lets in the front. This makes attaching the backglass very hard. A normal pinball has 4 of the same size legs, and tilts the playfield using internal rails. This makes the connection between the main cabinet and the backglass square and stable. This should also make designing a folding mechanism much easier. While I though the mouse ball would help keep the bricks from getting dents, I forgot the rubber coating is slightly sticky. This left a slight trail of rubber, and slowed the machine down over the course of the weekend. I forgot to leave room for something to take the ball from the shooting lane to the main playfield. I had a triangle, but it did not work well. It required constant adjustment to keep the ball from draining right after launch. Clearly I wanted more on the backglass, and the programming could use some more work. That will have to wait for a rebuild to version 2. Andrew Page

I just finished the build with my 6 year old. It was very fun. I was able to pick the set up from the LEGO store using the Brickfair discount. Made the price a bit easier to handle. But I did end up missing the shortest tube piece. No big deal was able to cut extra from one of the longer ones. Now all I have to do is rebuild it with the NXT :) Good luck. Andy

That is crazy small. I spent some time looking at the Faller car system for model trains and thinking about how to redo it in LEGO. This is 90% of the way there. Nice job Andy

Love the way the body panels came out. I often do not love stud-less Technic bodies, but this one is great. Nice job.

Welcome. I also like Technic and Mindstorms.