Books, Books... everywhere
A new book has shown up on Amazon.com for the NXT, written by Michael Gasperi, Philippe E. Hurbain (our friend, Philo), and Isabelle L. Hurbain. Check it out here. There's not much detail given, but I'll check with Philo and see what I can find out...
Extreme NXT: Extending the LEGO Mindstorms NXT to the Next Level
April 2007 release date
400 pages
Extreme NXT: Extending the LEGO Mindstorms NXT to the Next Level
April 2007 release date
400 pages
Comments
Taking the LEGO Mindsorms NXT to the Next Level
By Michael Gasperi, Philippe Hurbain, and Isabelle Hurbain
Table of Contents
1. In The Beginning
a. RCX and the Robotics Invention System
b. Mindstorms NXT
c. Extremes
2. In The Box
a. Sensors
b. Motors
c. Languages
3. Connecting to the NXT
a. NXT Ports
b. Connecting to the NXT
c. Screw Terminal Breakout Box
d. Screw Terminal for Passive Sensors
e. RCX Compatibility Cable
4. Contact Sensors
a. Touching Wires
b. Electronic Surfboard Game
c. Switches
d. Parallel and Series
e. Antenna Sensor (robot with feelers)
f. Going Further
5. Resistive Sensors
a. Analog to Digital Conversion
b. Ohmmeter (measure salinity)
c. Temperature Sensor (humidity sensor)
d. Light Sensor (Theremin and Braitenberg Vehicle)
e. Two Switch Input
6. Potentiometer Sensors
a. Connecting to the Pot
b. Resistance Selection
c. Angle Sensor Construction
d. NXT Protractor
e. Pressure Sensor
f. Broom Balancer
g. Joy Sticks
7. Voltage Sensors
a. Design of a +/-5V Sensor
b. Constructing the Voltage Sensor
c. NXT Battery Tester
d. A +/- 15V Sensor
8. 4.3V Powered Sensors
a. Hall Effect Sensor (robot mouse)
b. Transistor Buffer
c. Infrared Rangefinder (wall follower)
d. Differential Light Sensor (digital sundial)
e. Enhancing the Transistor Buffer
9. Two-Wire Powered Sensors
a. Signals
b. Programming
c. Half-Volt Sensor
d. Current Sensor (hot wire anemometer)
e. Calibrated Pressure Sensor
10. Aftermarket Sensors
a. Mindsensors
b. HiTechnic
c. DCP and Vernier
11. NXT Motor Interfaces
a. The Clapper
b. The Etch-a-NXT
c. The Pneumatic Gripper
12. Beyond NXT Motors
a. The Motor Block
b. Lamps
c. Muscle Wires (demonstration lever)
d. Electromagnets and Solenoids (kinetic sculpture)
e. Doubling Outputs
f. Light Emitting Diodes (executive decision maker)
g. More Power (bipolar MOSFET amplifier)
13. I2C Bus Communications
a. I2C Communications
b. Digital I/O Port
c. Eight Outs (magic wand)
d. Four Ins and Outs (Simon game)
e. Relay Outputs
f. A/D and D/A (four analog ins)
h. Color Sensor (brick sorter robot)
i. Going Further
14. Cool Combinations
a. Data Logging and Spreadsheet (light experiment)
b. NXT and NXT (joystick controlled vehicle)
c. NXT and Video Camera (remote guided vehicle)
d. NXT and LEGO Trains (train station control)
e. NXT and Digital Camera (panoramic camera)
f. NXT and nxtRICedit (graphics)
g. NXT, Graphics and Four Analog Ins (pong video game)
15. Appendix A
Electronic Breadboard Construction Technique
16. Appendix B
a. References
b. Links
c. Sources
17. Appendix B
Complete Program Listings
- Tony, the hardware hacker
- Tony N