pmichiel

brave man! hitting the water with PF like that! Nicely done though, looks great!

Newbie question to the GBC experts: I see most (all?) GBCs are using the same standard kind/size of balls. Are these a standard LEGO part?

I just wanted to say I've been following this thread and I am finding his awesome. I am definitely going to try to build one of these.

Yep Many hours. I underestimated the amount of work, but once I was half-way I had to finish it. The UBS is my favourite original MindStorms expansion, the parts were okay, but the building projects were excellent.

Great video!!! The world is going to run over by Evil Hamsters from Outta Space!

I found this thread when I went looking for the same thing a few weeks ago. That was a few weeks ago. I created this now: http://pbrick.info/2013/11/mindstorms-ultimate-builders-set-3800-instructions/ After 659 pages and over 50Mb I now deeply understand why nobody ever created these.

Oops - I need to learn to quote. I was referring to DrJB's post! Sorry

All of my 10+ year old RCX touch sensors still work fine. I'm wondering if using them as a switch for a motor like Blakbird DrJB suggested isn't precisely what's caused them to fry in the first place. Per Philo's motor characteristics page, a typical motor from the RCX age (43362) can draw up to 340 mA current (stalled), at the 7V the RCX output port produces. The RCX sensor ports give only 5V, and "The maximum current that may be drawn by “unpowered” sensors is 0.5mA" (source)

I'd be reluctant to use water, I very much suspect the pistons will start to rust eventually. I'm not sure what kind of washers are used inside the pneumatic pistons, but if they're rubber based then you need to stay away from vegetable oils as well as they contain acids which will ruin them. Probably best to use a mineral oil, which is what real hydraulic fluids usually are.

I thought it would be appropriate that my 10th post be in here Always been a LEGO fan, with long in-between periods of not doing anything with it. Now that I have a son that is really starting to become addicted to bricks as well, I decided to pull my old Technic and MindStorms down from attic. MindStorms is my personal favourite though, I'm less of a mechanic, more of a software kinda type. I've also noticed that a lot of info that used to be out there about the old MindStorms range is rapidly disappearing from the net, so I decided to start keeping a blog of all the stuff I find and things I solve. You can find it on pbrick.info. Not too much there yet, but I hope that will grow. Trying to put something on every other day. Cheers, Michiel

There's a really good deal in a toy store here this weekend only, Helicopter 9396 for only EUR 59,99. I wasn't planning on buying antyhing soon (i got the 9398 crawler not too long ago!) but this deal has got me thinking... should I?

Well guess where I found it It seemed appropriate after this thread

You have mail. Thanks again! Edit - problem solved. Thanks all who offered help and suggestions!

Mindstorms & Raspberry PI = BrickPi: http://www.dexterindustries.com/BrickPi/ The way I see it; PF is for remote controlled models. For this you need strong motors with speed. You need connectors that can just pass voltoage and a lot of current. Mindstorms is for Robotics. For this you need sensors and motors with precision control, i.e. the interactive servo ones. For this you need connectors that pass current but are also able to transfer sensor data at the same time. To me it doesn't seem like a marketing trick but a sensible decision based on the completely different product ranges.

Netherlands, Toys XL 3=2 on all Lego, between 12-oct-2013 and 27-oct-2013. So buy 3 sets, you get the cheapest set for free. http://www.toysxl.nl/toys-xl-home/3-2-lego

I'm in The Netherlands. Yep, know about the serial cable, I have one right here. I am keeping an old laptop that has a serial port, with just Windows on it and all the "Retro" MindStorms software (have RCX too). I'm not sure about the legality of making a copy. It is copyrighted software. However to me it seems that the software is rather useless if you don't have the hardware, i.e. at least the pbrick and the serial cable. I think a good analogy would be copying a printer driver - it's useless without the printer so why would the manufacturer prevent copying of the software? I could be wrong from a strictly legal point of view though... Edit - forgot to mention that yes, I do know about NQC and love it. But my son has started to take an interest in these sets and the original software just appeals to kids a lot more than a text editor does

Thanks for the link, Legolijntje, but it's not there unfortunately... The CD-ROM is this one: http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=chorman&itemID=38229174 That seller is in the US though and has a min buy of $30. Was hoping not to pay that much just for the sake of a CD. I've tried eBay, but these sets are only being offered at ridiculous prices. Unfortunately it's one of the MindStorms range that didn't become very well known, even though the bricks are fully programmable and have two motors, a touch sensor and a heap of IR sensors that actually allows multiple of them to detect each other and interact. They're fun!

Great! Thanks so much for taking the trouble to look it up

Hi, I know these sets are old... but they're still great fun. I have a set but am missing the original software CD-ROM for it. Does anyone have one (extra) lying around? (I'm not allowed to post in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum yet...) Thanks --Michiel