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Claude Baumann | 11 Oct 2011 11:13
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Cavern exploration robot

Hi all,

those who would like to follow our new project, please go to

www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RoboticsIntro.htm and follow the "Casemates project blog".

The idea is to design and program a robot that can navigate through the
casemates, which are sorts of caverns beneath the city of Luxembourg, left
behind by old military occupants (French -Vauban 17th century-, for instance).
As our boarding institution is built upon an old vestige of a fortress, we still
have an access to some casemates that have never been explored. In this project,
we will combine metallic Tetrix and LEGO Mindstorms parts, as a very robust
construction is needed to overcome the difficult topography. (Note that Tetrix
robots may be Mindstorms-controlled and is compatible with the geometry of the
LEGO parts.) 

http://www.tetrixrobotics.com/
http://news.legoeducation.us/Newsroom/Item.aspx?art=2752

(Also note that the blog is entitled "Boulette Institute of Technology", a funny
student usurpation of the great East-coast institute's name. To explain
"Boulette", this is much more complicated... you need to understand French, and
know parts of the boarding institution's history.)
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David Schilling | 12 Oct 2011 03:07

SMART's BrickCon Display

I want to thank everyone who participated in this year's SMART display at
BrickCon. It was absolutely amazing! We couldn't have done it without everyone's
help. Every element was crucial, and worked amazingly! Named "BallMageddon"
because either it was going to be a catastrophic failure, or a spectacular
exhibit that everyone who saw it would remember for a LONG time! I'm very
pleased to say it was the latter!

Here's who contributed:

Gus designed the display and an amazing 'wave' that carried the balls in front
of the display.

Kyle built the final lift that brought the balls into the display, as well as
the sorter that took the balls coming out of the display, and returned them to
their proper bins.

Andrew built the "rainbow stairs", one of the two most commented on parts of the
display, which took the balls coming out of the display and gave them their
initial lift to get them rolling towards their destination.

Sean built a wonderful ball escalator that took the balls from near ground-level
and got them all the way to the top of the bins where they got sorted by Kyle's
sorter.

Of course the wonderful and beautiful hoppers built by Dan were essential. I'm
not sure how many versions he built before creating one that wouldn't jam. Now
he understands the many ways that balls will form voids when you try to pull one
out of a pile. I'm not sure that he entirely believed us when he volunteered to
build the hoppers. Also worth mentioning here is Doug's interesting pattern to
stretch bricks to allow such large bins to be built with a limited supply of
(Continue reading)

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Tom Cook | 29 Oct 2011 01:37

Re: Help vintage 1093 Interface A

In lugnet.robotics, Dino Baldi wrote:
> Ciao to all,
> I need your help concerning the vintage 1093 Interface A.
> I found the 9750 version, with no interface cable and no software :-(
>
> Is possible to build-up a parallel cable for PC ?
>
> I have noticed that it is compatible with Apple II, IBM PC, and BBC Micro.
> I have all these 3 computers but no software...
>
> Please help, I have the idea to present an old computer with the Interface at
> next lego event in Italy.
>
> Dino Baldi

I have constructed a cable to use a PC Parallel Port and have written a small C#
program to control the 9750 / 1093 Technic Interface A.  I have a description of
the cable and source code on http://lgauge.com.
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Gmane