Kevin has submitted a step-by-step guide to converting an NXT Light sensor to a Laser Pointer... check it out here.
Comments
Anonymous said…
God that is so fracking cool! I wish I had that skill level to make one but I'm going to at least try. If I remember correctly, the TV store (where u can buy things showned on TV) had a very small laser for about 10 bucks.
I've got a laser level that I grabbed from the clearance shelf at a local hardware store, and might try this. Even better, with retroreflector targets and the phototransitior still operational, you could have a laser target aquisition system, all in a nice small package.
One of my students asked if she could do something like this for the FLL challenge. Of course the answer was no since these would not be considered allowable parts.
Can you imagine how easy it would be for the student to aim their bot at each mission model?
...nail gun... yeah, there's the next logical extension of the DAZLR concept... :-). As to using the laser to align the robot, you're right, that wouldn't be allowed, but it would make things very very handy. It might be useful for a bunch of things like this (professional dead-reckoning robots, using the laser to align... or two robots using lasers to align along, leap-frogging a laser-straight path. Nifty.
I can imagine a future FLL challenge where teams are given the field layout specs on the day of the competition. Teams could take measurements but trial runs would not be allowed.
absolutely... I haven't heard an "official" answer about whether the Compass sensor will be allowed - will it be an "official" sensor because LEGO will be selling it and/or LEGO's partnership with HiTechnic? I imagine this year it won't be allowed, by maybe next year...
Jim
Anonymous said…
I hope that the compass sensor will be allowed. It would be very usefull in FLL, combine that with rotation sensors and you have a very good idea of where you are and what direction you're facing.
The laser project is cool, but I don't think that I'd get a whole new light sensor just so that I could add a laser to an NXT project. That is one of the problems with the new building system, you no longer have anything (lego) to encase your homebrew in. The only benefit of doing it this way is that you havfe a ready made RJ12 port that is compatible with the NXT wires (bad wires, bad wires!) Again, Lego overlooked homebrew when it chose the cable system. But it does have some posibilities, anything RJ12 wouldn't be that hard to attach to the NXT, I'll leave it up to you software people to make it work:-)
Comments
--
Brian Davis
Can you imagine how easy it would be for the student to aim their bot at each mission model?
-dl
Drills... circular saw... nail gun... sky is the limit!
jim
--
Brian Davis
I can imagine a future FLL challenge where teams are given the field layout specs on the day of the competition. Teams could take measurements but trial runs would not be allowed.
Jim
The laser project is cool, but I don't think that I'd get a whole new light sensor just so that I could add a laser to an NXT project. That is one of the problems with the new building system, you no longer have anything (lego) to encase your homebrew in. The only benefit of doing it this way is that you havfe a ready made RJ12 port that is compatible with the NXT wires (bad wires, bad wires!) Again, Lego overlooked homebrew when it chose the cable system. But it does have some posibilities, anything RJ12 wouldn't be that hard to attach to the NXT, I'll leave it up to you software people to make it work:-)