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LEGO PF elements now avaliable

LEGO Shop-at-Home has updated their products recently. Perhaps most interesting there are some new PF elements among them, as well as the existing PF motors but you can now buy them on a "piece by piece" basis. It seems there is also a "hybrid" PF cable, that appear to function as both a PF extenssion cable as well as a cross-over cable to the older 9V system. The grand Technic Bulldozer may not be available... but at least now all the PF parts are (they've also been added to LEGO Digital Designer for that matter. It appears I need to browse S@H more often... and after I already put in my last order, too. Oh well, perhaps I need another order... For folks wanting new sensors, there's a lot of offerings at S@H as well: the standard four (US, light, sound, & touch), but also the Acceleration, IRSeeker, IRLink, Gyro, Color, & Compass sensor.

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Brian Davis
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David Levy said…
I've been using the IRLink sensor from HiTechnic to send signals to the PF remote receiver. This requires a special NXT-G block to program the PF motors (downloadable from hi-technic).

The hybrid cable seems like a better solution in the cases where the PF motors and the NXT brick are components of the same robot.

I suppose that the hybrid cable could be connected to a NXT converter cable ( supplied with the EDU Base Kit) so that that the NXT brick can operate the PF motors. Of course, a custom NXT-G block would have to be made available...
I wonder if that type of configuration would offer a little more control of the PF motors then the IR Link solution. I.E. with the IR-Link there is a bit of a latency between running the PF motors and stopping them even when you place a PF stop command block directly after PF run block.

There have been some really good reviews on the PF motors from bluetoothkiwi et al.

try googling ( bluetoothkiwi and pf )

David
Dec 28, 2007, 12:30:00 AM
Anonymous said…
Why is the LEGO TEchnic bulldozer no longer available?
Dec 28, 2007, 1:13:00 AM
Anonymous said…
David:

I didn't try it but it should be possible to do this (using two converter cables) and this will make the latency problem go away. You should also be able to adjust the power to the motors. I don't think it will require a new block; the block that allows you to use legacy 9V motors should be fine for this.

Sivan
Dec 28, 2007, 4:53:00 AM
Anonymous said…
It is still available, just not in the usa it seems. I think(this is Just MY Jaded thinking). when it was first released it was about 149.99$ in US currency. It sold out rather fast, seemingly over night as it was. During that period the US currency fell in value, or should i say "dropped like a rock, falling off El cap". Instead of the USA having to see a price hike that would have set that set to over 200$ they stopped selling it here. Now we can get the PF parts but they are almost 100$ if you add it up. This opinion is my own. But all in all the motors are a good deal 7-10$ is alot better than the older RIS they are going for 17 at Lego ED. I like them much better as well. theyare very compact and easy to itergrate.
Dec 28, 2007, 8:20:00 AM
Andy said…
And too add to Mac's great words about the PF motors, they are also much stronger then most other LEGO motors, and again, that makes it even more worth the 7-10 dollars. :-)

Andy
Dec 28, 2007, 9:05:00 AM
Anonymous said…
Amazon.com is selling the bulldozer in-stock in the the US for $199.99
Dec 28, 2007, 2:45:00 PM
Anonymous said…
I wonder if Lego might be reading some blogs? Well today Bulldozer is back for sale as Backordered at Shop at Home! So dont spend that 200$ (scaplers) and put your order in though it will be april when it comes.
Dec 29, 2007, 5:56:00 AM
Anonymous said…
"I didn't try it but it should be possible to do this (using two converter cables) and this will make the latency problem go away. You should also be able to adjust the power to the motors. I don't think it will require a new block; the block that allows you to use legacy 9V motors should be fine for this."

I just tried it and it worked beautifully! I used two cables...the NXT converter cable and the hybrid cable (I had it in my Science and Tech Kit from LEGO Education). I used the legacy 9V motor block.

LEGOmom
Jan 11, 2008, 7:57:00 AM
Anonymous said…
I just wrote a simple program. It has legacy motor block, followed by wait block for time (5s) then legacy block set to stop. At the moment I pressed the run button w/ my right hand, I pressed a timer counting down from 5sec. When the motor stopped, I noted the time. It was 0sec or -1sec depending on if I hit the timer at the moment I hit the orange button or tried to wait for the split sec when the motor started (a fraction of time between hitting the orange button and the motor starting).

Anyhow, I'm not sure how much of a lag time you were seeing w/ the IR system but this seems great to my non-engineering mind.

LEGOmom
Jan 11, 2008, 8:11:00 AM
Anonymous said…
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Apr 23, 2008, 4:50:00 AM
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