Hackszine.com: LEGO Archives

Archive: LEGO

November 11, 2007

Lego Autopilot

Chris Anderson came up with a kid-hackable UAV, the GeoCrawler 2, using an RC aircraft and a Lego NXT:

Features: In GPS mode, unlimited pre-programmed waypoints, with programmable options such as circle and hold. Ability to integrate other sensors, such as ultrasonic, compass, gyros, accelerometers, or barometric pressure (altitude). With optional bluetooth cellphone integration, control via text message, including dynamical-changed GPS waypoints, "come home" and "circle" commands, etc.

Instructions for the GeoCrawler 2 project are available at Chris' DIY Drones site, a growing social network for folks interested in building unmanned arial vehicles.

This is really an underexplored area of amateur robotics, primarily because it's been so cost prohibitive until very recently. I'm excited to see what people come up with over the next year or two. I expect it will be mind-blowing.

GeoCrawler 2 (Lego Autopilot) Instructions - Link
DIY Drones - Link

February 1, 2007

NXC: C Language for Mindstorms NXT

It looks like a lot of work has been done in the last month toward building a C-like programming environment for the Mindstorms NXT brick. While ditching the graphical programming environment isn't the best thing for everyone, if you've used NQC for the original Mindstorms, you know how many hacking opportunities it exposed, even with it using the same underlying firmware. And frankly, for a lot of us, C is just a more comfortable programming language.

Not eXactly C (NXC) is a high level language, similar to C, built on top of the NBC compiler. It can also be used to program the NXT brick. NXC is basically NQC for the NXT. If you are just getting started with programming, then graphical environments such as the Mindstorms NXT software or Robolab may be better choices for you. If, however, you're a programmer and you prefer typing a few lines to drag and drop icon programming, then either NBC or NXC may be perfect for you.

There's a math library available for download and it now supports multi-threaded apps. If you need to go lower-level, you can use the NBC assembly-like compiler that NXC is built on top of. It'll even let you check the battery level in code, which is currently impossible with the LEGO software. Check it out and shoot us some NXT programming ideas in the comments!