A new BrickLink order.

I got the first of four orders today in the mail. It was enough parts
to make one side of the tank. I had to make some revisions to the
suspension to keep the track tighter, but I finally got it.

Party time!

I think I just placed my last BrickLink order! It was the fourth one. People on BrickLink are not into Technic very much, and their stores are limited. That just means more shipping charges for me. :( Now, the real reason for the party, my new intelligent brick is arriving within 10 days! A new motor is coming with it, for the other motor on the tank, because, obviously, the MindStorm only comes with 3 motors and this project needs 4.

The new addition.

I added a top sprocket to the tracks that is connected to the original
suspension arm and moves up with it. The reason is to keep the tracks
taut constantly. This is my own design so please give me credit if you
use it. However, you are welcome to use it at any time on any
invention.

Lego tank.

This is the final version, (so far) of my Lego tank. It is a lot wider than I expected (The tank is 36 bricks wide from axle to axle and 33 bricks long.) I don't expect very many people to build it, as it is somewhat complicated and requires lots of parts. You are welcome to build it and add to it, just please give me credit for the original base design. The main reason I uploaded this file is for the viewing purpose, but build it if you want to! The old .LXF file is no longer available. The new version with track tension adjusters is here.

Final version of the tank.

This is the final version of my tank. It has full suspension and
doesn't need a spring-loaded sprocket at this small scale. I will
build it soon but I am waiting on LOTS of BrickLink parts.

Suspension System

It needs four more sprockets yet, (two on each side), for the main
sprockets, but the front one needs to be spring loaded so I am still
working on it.

My Bluetooth Project

The car is a past project now, and because I am getting another NXT, I
thought I should do a RC project. This is my next project, a tracked
vehicle with full suspension. I got the suspension from here,
Track Diagram. Just scroll down to see the diagram I use.


Does anyone else watch Howe and Howe Tech? They are the company that invented the RipSaw(R).
P.S. They have a TV show that shows every Wednesday.

After talking to Gus, he told me that the reason he used wheels and not a joystick was this quote.

"I originally planned to limit the travel to a specific range and to use
levers but I found that there were limitations in the LEGO firmware that
prevented me from doing so. It seems the LEGO firmware also detects that
the motors are in a stall position when trying to get back to a certain
target position and then it seems to move the current encoder base position.
When it does that and I attempt to straighten the lever, the lever is now
actually a few degrees off. That is why I went with the wheel inputs
instead of the levers to get around that problem since it is not problem if
the wheel does not return to the exact same position."

                       Typed by the fingers of Gus.



So, I decided to take the wheel approach, and have one wheel, (the steering wheel), sideways, and the drive wheel vertical, to make it seem like a steering wheel. The motors will be very simple to attach.

Instructions and the program.

I don't have a program yet for the BlueTooth control but since I might
not get another NXT, I'll wait until I get one to program it. The
instructions and the program are all here. Edit: I will soon get another NXT, within 3 weeks, so programming is finished for the accelerometer sensor, but is just starting for a 2 motor joystick that I designed on LDD, here. I don't know how to program a self centering joystick, so could someone help me?

Goal in mind.

NeXT, I have plans to build a joystick around another NXT, and through BlueTooth communication, make the car remote control. However, I don't have two bricks. I made plans tonight on LDD for the other joystick and posted the instructions on NXTLOG.

The program.

The program is very simple, and I included the comments on the program
so I wouldn't have to type it here! :) If you have questions, either ask them
here, IM me, or download the program at NXTLOG.

HiTechnic Accelerometer Sensor.

Lately I've been working on an NXT car that is controlled by an accelerometer sensor. I recently made instructions for it which can be found at the Lego NXTLog. My username there is NXT_TECHNIC. I posted the program there as well. Thanks to Gus, from HiTechnic, for programming help.

Welcome to my blog.

Hello and welcome to my new blog! Here I will post updates about me learning to use the Lego Mindstorm NXT! Hopefully someone will come here and possibly learn from my mistakes.