Jetro

Are you saying you had a 'broken' motor?

It has been brought up: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43895&view=findpost&p=789069 but doesn't seem to be the definitive solution.

Make it walk and you'll be the absolute winner

I was just reading it on LUGNET I particularly like the fact that there is no strain on the motor because it is not stalled Don't know of any autovalve where that is possible...

Check out some pictures of the 4481 hailfire droid ;) or just search for 'hailfire' on brickshelf:

Seem to remember a esign using the hailfire wheels and LEGO footballs... can't find the picture though.

In this particular case they can only be on the same side as they are not idler gears but connected to the drive shaft ;)

I had to carefully align mine when I first built the model. The trick seemed to be taking them to their top position and then going back just enough to undo the binding that occurs when you hit the limit. If the LA's are not properly aligned (more than about half a turn off) the stress that puts on the arm makes it really hard to operate. If yours was working fine before, maybe you extended to max length and the clutch kicked in. Unbinding from that position takes a different amount of force for each LA, so maybe that's where your model started to malfunction.

I have a couple of ideas about aligning the LAs al of which are not easily explained to a child building the model :( but as my excavator hasn't arrived yet I'll wait and test them before commenting in what is developing into a very interesting thread.

The hub and software come together in the complete WeDo package, but they can be purchased separately too. There is no overlap or interaction with the NXT The target age of the package is about 8-11. The activities cover things like pulleys and belts, gears and simple programming. You can find more information here: http://www.lego.com/education/news/default.asp?pagename=press_kit&l2id=17_1

Well, that depends on how much you are used to... Anyway, I'd also prefer to see a moderate amount of PF and as much Pneumatics as I can get my hands on

Nice model, and welcome to the forum!

So I'm not the only one with this 'problem' :) Finding the right part aometimes takes a lot of time, especially if you're not even sure it exists in LDD. I'm curious to see what LDD4 will bring...

You've done it again! Feels like home...

Simple but graceful. Who said MINDSTORMS needed to be mindbogglingly difficult!

Congrats for the module and for geeting your LUG to start doing GBC. My first GBC was just 3 modules, but it got other AFOLs inspired and the next year we had about 20!

Do you know a¡many really careful kids?

Thanks for the links!

I forgot the PDF you can download at Issuu (also for free) is lighter! (images at 180ppp instead of the 300ppp of the 'official' download)

We had low res and high res version at the beginning and the low res were never downloaded... I'll look into the possibility of making them a little bit lighter though. Actually it's only the P part so far, I & D are for the next issue... Keep in mind that Hispabrick Magazine isn't a MINDSTORMS magazine so it is important to present an attractive mix of articles, but we I will loo into the possibility of doing a (short) overview of some of the more important languages that are available for the NXT.

May the gods hear you. It was actually Lluis who posted the announcement in all our names. We worked very hard to include a lot of MINDSTORMS and Technic material in this issue. There is - An article explaining the MCP ("the ambassadors of MINDSTORMS) - three interviews with current MCP members - the first part of a PID tutorial - an article on NXT actuators - a long interview with Eric Albrecht (a.k.a. blakbird) - a retro review of the 8860 SuperCar - part 8 of the LDraw tutorial (about ghosting) and much much more... We really appreciate any feedback and suggestions you may want to give!

Can't believe there wan't a GBC topic on this forum We had a nice setup for our last LUG event in December for which I got some help from several sources. Here's a video: It includes some copies of Philo's excellent GBC models and a couple of modules I'm particularly proud off, like the 100% pneumatic excavator (fully pneumatic logic sequential control): and a NXT controlled train module (NXT on-board): Anyone else here build GBC modules?

I did exactly the same with the two parallel LA's on the Front Loader. A small misalignment can cause enough friction to not let the arm operate properly.

Thanks for the link - so far I had only seen a couple of dark pics and the creator's description on NXTasy.

Neither did I- will have to keep an eye on that one... From your description I get the impression you used the "all-in-one" installer from the LDraw website which is very outdated: most programs have moved up one or even two versions. You may want to have a look at this tutorial and the rest of the pages on this site: http://www.holly-wood.it/mlcad/setup-en.html