Hey look! The robot's disassembled! Well, what do we do? Build another one and code a program! Robots of any kind function by using code and coded programs. In the last one, I programmed a sound function when I released the orange button in the center. It's basic programming, I know, but it's usually what people start with. The MINDSTORM kits come with 3 servo motors, motors that are controlled by the main brick, a couple of Ethernet-style cables that link the servo motors to the main brick, and other things like buttons, a color sensor, a shooter, so on and so forth. I built a car with this kit with instructions off of http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/race_car/steps.html with pictures below. Why? BECOZ RACECAR! Education is important, but Racecar is Importanter! But, we shall start with the basics. If you want to pick one of these up, as of writing these things are over 600 dollars on Amazon. It's expensive I know, but they have to make all the pieces, all the sensors, the brick, the servo motors, all that jazz. While these are fun to play with, building and coding take a long time. The car took me like 90 minutes to build, mostly finding the little pieces I had made. I'll be talking about that later. 619 pieces are in this thing! "While the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit consists of 619 pieces, the heart of your robotic creations consists of a handful of key electronic components." (Ford 3) But, let's go over the basic components you'll need to start robotics!
BASIC PARTS:
A. Servo Motors- These "motors"usually drive a certain function. Whether it be driving the power to the wheels, the steering motor, or powering the functions of animatronics. NO, the servo motors will not lock up if they're turned off for too long, Five Nights at Freddy's has TOLD YOU WRONG! Servo motors can lock up on RC cars- happened to my little Halo Warthog (basically a Jeep) and I haven't fixed it yet. Basically, these drive out mechanical forces, mainly driving belts, wheels, etc.
B. Buttons- They do things when pressed. What do you think a button does? It depends on coding; if programmed to turn left or right when pressed, they'll do it.
C. Color Sensor- This little sensor is part of the kit. It senses color on an RGB interface, kinda like Hexadecimal. Example with the car- when it drives over a certain color, it turns, stops, slows down or SPEEDS UP!
(See above) Main Brick- This brick is probably the most expensive part of this whole kit. It takes SIX AA batteries, has a USB Port, and houses all the "ethernet" ports. These ports transfer information from the brick to the "ethernet" cables to the servo motors. This is where the programs are stored, within the bricks memory unit. Plug in your USB cable that should have come with the set and get going with coding! (I'm so sorry that rhymed.)
"Ethernet" Cables- I call these things Ethernet cables because that's what the end (tip) looks like. This sends data from the main brick to the color sensor, touch (BUTTONS) sensor, or Ultrasonic sensor.
Ultrasonic Sensor- I haven't experimented with this too much, but it's basically the ability to see objects to determine their distance. It looks like eyes on a head.
Race Car! I'll edit a video someday lol too lazy.
If you want to dig into robotics, what will you start with? If you start with one of these, you'll be on the right track. If you start with actual computers, java coding, so on and so forth, you win.
Pictures-
Servo Motor (Race car)
Color Sensor (Race car)
"Ethernet" Cable
Ultrasonic Sensor
Button
0 comments:
Post a Comment