The "Desert Offroader"

After about a day or two of building (approx. 4-5 hrs.) I finished my entry into the unoffical NXTLog car building challenge! The gear ratio of the driving mechanism is 1:1 I originally planned for the ratio to be 1:5 but that was way to fast and it couldn't go over rougher terrain that well.The steering is pretty much the same as HumvNXT but it has been improved. Their are also some realistic features such as a working steering wheel, a gas pedal and a spare tire on the back. It uses no sensors so it is controlled via another NXT. You can see some more photos and download the programs HERE.

Here is a short video a made of The Desert Offroader:

I wouldn't consider this one of my best projects but I still think it is pretty cool!

New Look!

I have redesigned my blog and was wondering what you think of it? I thought that plain black was sort of dull so I changed it to this! You can vote in the poll or comment! I am working on my entry into the NXT Car Building Challenge and should be posted in about a week.

Update: I have decided to change the changes back because after looking at it again I have to admit it looked pretty bad!

My Website and other News!

Okay so for the past week I have been working on my website! I still have alot of work but I hope to finish it soon! You can see what it looks like here (but there is nothing on it, I haven't published my changes yet, I will when I finish it). My website will be where I post my projects along with instructions, videos, ect.... Here will be where I post Mindstorm NXT news and other NXT related stuff!

Also just today NXTLog has released the winners of their "Crazy Contraption" challenge the one I entered "The Circulator" in, well I found out I won the "Best Technical Presentation" award xD! Here is what they said about my entry:

BEST TECHNICAL PRESENTATION:
  "We looked for NXTLOGs that best documented how the Crazy Contraption robot was designed, programmed, and functions in a clear, concise, and creative way."
"The Circulator"
Created by: nxtstep101
"The Circulator" is a minimalist designed GBC (Great Ball Contraption) that circulates small plastic balls through 3 different modules and ends up at the beginning, and starts all over again. nxtstep101 takes readers through each module in the NXTLOG with beautiful photos, descriptions, a video, and program file. Great work nxtstep101 on clearly documenting your robot's technical capabilities! "

To see the other winners click here.

One of the other winners was NXTLog and YT user: MySnailEatsPizza he entered a huge GBC into the challenge which he called "Circular Reasonings 2" here is the video of the GBC at work! I would say that this is one of the best GBC's on the web!

I am working on an entry into a car building challenge me and a couple of other people on NXTLog started it is a Car building challenge. Check it out and enter!

     After I finish entering I will get started on some of my more complex projects! So stay tuned ;-)

GBC Building Instructions!

After about 3-4 hours of building and and taking photos and another 30 minutes or so producing the video I present to you! "The Circulator" Building Instructions! So now you can build your very own gbc out of one NXT 1.0 kit and a 2.0 kit if you have extra gears and technic parts!

Enjoy!

Here is a link to the original project: http://nxtgeek.blogspot.com/2012/03/circulator.html

Tetrix and other updates!

A few weeks ago I got the Tetrix Education Base Set sold by Lego Education that is compatible with the NXT for my birthday! It is like a Mindstorm NXT on steroids! All parts are made out of aircraft grade aluminum (a strong lightweight metal) their is four motors and a ton of parts, it all hooks up to the NXT the controller. I will be posting some of the projects that I make with my Tetrix/Mindstorm on my blog, Although I won't be posting any projects this week because of a broken charger which should arrive sometimes next week.

Okay so my GBC "The Circulator" that I built got featured on the NXT Step(xD) and the blog editor asked me if I was going to make building instructions, I decided I would so I commented back and told him I would have them up in a couple of weeks. So as of right know I am putting the circulator back together from just the pictures I took and am aiming to finish building it by tommorow and hope to have the  instructions done sometime next week!

I have some awesome projects planned and am going to make them soon! So stay tuned for the next couple of weeks!


I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good RobotC tutorial that I could use? (I need it for programming Tetrix) Also how hard is it to learn the language?

New video on "Cyclops"

Here is a video that YT user "Semiaiceyam" posted of Daniele Benedettelli's Cyclops that he presented at the World Robot Olympiad this year! It looks pretty neat! I can't wait until he tells us more about it!

NXT Touch!

Late last night I got an email from one of LEGO Mindstorms lead technicians, that I know! Here is what he wrote:

" I just wanted to let you know that we just came up with a brand new NXT brick! It is just like an IPhone only it is a little thicker and has ports on both ends for the wires! It has twice as much memory as the current one, and the screen is a full color touch screen it also has a camera on the front to take pictures! It will be available for people to buy sometime this summer."   

He went on to say he wanted me to help out with beta testing! This will be awesome, He couldn't give me a picture because it had just been finished and he hadn't taken a picture yet! This is going to be the best thing LEGO has ever made!

More on this later!