So, this year my main LEGO Project is a large LEGO Humanoid, one that can see items, point to them, talk and listen. It will take me a while to build and I am already massively behind on it due to VEX projects. But here is how I am doing so far
I have already overcome some issues. The hole in the chest is for a tablet. The project needs to be complete for July
If your in London this weekend, why not pop along to Brick @ Excel
I have brought the LEGO Wheelchair out of retirement, and some new stuff to show off!
I have known John for a few years now due to him doing a write up on my LEGO Wheelchair for Make, back then he was working on a book that covered using LEGO and Arduino’s together, called Make: Lego and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics. It’s a fantastic book!
His new book, Hacking Your Lego Mindstorms EV3 is on a similar theme but of course for the EV3, not the NXT. It also covers making your own parts via 3D Printing and Laser cutting which I found very useful.
The book features nice colourful based instructions to build 5 projects and then how to hack each one (e.g change the EV3 for a Arduino or Pi). Like the previous book, this book uses products from Wayne and Layne e.g the Bricktronic Shield however also includes hacks / projects using the Raspberry Pi. I would of liked to have seen the introduction to Electronics chapter added to this book which exists in the previous book. I believe this book is more designed for beginners than the previous book.
If you own a EV3 and want to take it to the next step by using another controller, this book is a very good introduction for you.
The Skills show is a massive careers show at the NEC, it has over 70,000 + people visiting and boy it’s busy. It covers everything from hairdressing, welding, fitness to joining the army.
The O2 / NSPCC / The Lab had a awesome display and we stayed pretty busy throughout. The LEGO displays went down like a bomb!
Got to have a chat with VEX UK and Studica Ltd (who do Tetrix and Fischertechnik). It was really nice seeing all the different types of robotics platforms for kids to learn on.
I loved the fact that Forensic Science was next to the butcher area.
Great event to take the kids to!
So, using your phone while driving is becoming a huge killer around the world. So I thought I would make a LEGO model that demo’d this.
This is programmed in Lejos and uses an Android Phone
I have always fancied building a pair of LEGO Roller Skates. So Friday Night I did 🙂 2 EV3’s per leg, 8 NXT motors, programmed in EV3-G
Here is another example of bringing my 2 favourite hobbies together, programming and LEGO.
This time round I have made a voice activated (iOS Siri) LEGO garage.
So the lovely people at SBrick sent me their awesome creation. A brick that is a similar size and look to a power functions PF receiver but works with your iOS and Android devices. It even supports 4 motor ports! AWESOME!
This year is already starting off pretty well on the LEGO front, I have been invited to take the LEGO Skateboard / Hoverboard to LEGO WORLD in Copenhagen. Super excited to go and catch up with some old friends. This was not a thing I thought I would be going to so I had to rush out a new version of the board.
Hope you like it
A full Flickr album can be found here
Starting 2015 in a epic way, here is my first new project (prototype), a LEGO Skateboard / Hoverboard that can move my weight (85Kg) and you can powerslide it!
It uses 8 NXT’s powering 16 LEGO Mindstorm motors, these are connected to 8 Rotacaster Wheels.
Pictures can be found here
