Want to help out!? LEGO ROBOTS!

I needed a simple basic robot for my students to learn to program with, so here's the design I came up with.

Make a GREAT BIG MESS:



Sort parts into kits,



and BUILD BUILD BUILD!



I changed my simple sensor bar on the last one and have since converted them all over. The new version holds an ultrasonic sensor, light / color sensor, and a third motor that can act as an arm for lifting things.





Once I got it figured out, it took about 5 minutes to build each bot. Should be pretty easy to maintain. Still need to buy 5 more kits and build 7 more robots! Anyone want to put some money towards a good cause?

Here's the old ones we are replacing.




PLEASE HELP ME OUT!!!  Share this page, or this link:  http://www.donorschoose.org/project/welcome-to-the-next-level-ev3-lego-robo/1747807/?rf=link-siteshare-2015-10-teacher-teacher_2238585&challengeid=373576

And donate to a great cause!  I've had some great donations already but still need $600 more.  You can try the promo code "spark" and it may double your donation, but I think its expired...

Thanks in advance for your help!

Lego Engines!

Try this on for size! This was built by one of my 7th grade students. It's powered by a Lego Mindstorms NXT and actually runs pretty darn smoothley!



Square piston and crankshaft.



Interesting spoked flywheel and the "electric start".



Intake / exhaust port at the bottom of the cylinder.



Video of it in action!



He said he just kinda started putting stuff together and this is what came out of it. Very impressive!


Now, I could have sworn I posted this one somewhere but can't seem to find it... So here it is (again?).

This was built by one of my 8th grade students that was also building my wobbler air engine.  Same story- he was playing with legos and this sort of emerged from the chaos.  This one even RUNS on compressed air.  It takes a LOT of it though-  lots of leaks through all the gaps.







Kind of hard to see but if you look to the right of the little square lego piece you can see the air intake port.



And of course a video of it in action!

Cookie Dough and Lego Robots.

Well, the cookie dough fundraiser is almost over.  I've been keeping track of my students sales and if they are about average for the rest of the school it looks like I'll be getting a nice bit of money to help update some stuff in the shop.  I have a list of things I'd like to update- and if I were to add everything up I bet there's over $50,000 worth of crap on my wish list.  Ain't gonna get anywhere near that much, but its fun to dream.

In the mean time, one of the top items on my list is new Lego robots.  I've got 12 extremely well used Lego NXT's.  Pulled them out this morning to use in class and two, yes TWO of the 12 screens worked.  Not a big deal, we can work without the screens- just means more headache for everyone involved, and its a common problem with a fairly easy fix.  So I spent my prep, lunch, and a few minutes here and there while students were working trying to get them fixed.




Managed to get all but 3 of them working, and it looks like those three are finally toast.  Might try and find some new resistors and give that a try, but for now they're just going to have to live with it.

Lego came out with a new version- EV3- last year.  I really only need the "brains" and maybe a couple of the new sensors, but by the time you buy the parts individually you're already almost at the price of the complete kit.  Not that I need all the extra legos- we've got boxes and boxes left over from past FLL tournaments and the 12 kits we already have.

The kicker-  the district won't let me surplus the ones I currently have and re-invest the money in my shop.  So, they'll probably end up in some closet somewhere for the next 20 years, and some teacher down the road will toss 'em in the dumpster (along with the table saw and disk sander I "surplussed" a couple years ago).  Great plan guys.  Guess I just have to hope I got enough cookie dough money to upgrade the robots and get the new curriculum from Carnegie Mellon that goes with it.

Counting money tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed.  Anyone wanna buy some cookie dough!?

First Lego League 2013- Natures Fury! (NOT furry)

So Lego League is underway again.  We've got a decent mix of students this year and for the first time EVER, I have helpers!  The local community center has offered help both financially and with volunteers, and I've got a couple of Walmart employees that come in to do service and help earn me some extra money!  Hoping it'll be a good year.  The table looks awesome, but there are some really difficult missions. 

Really hoping that with the extra money / help this year, along with our school fundraiser, I'll be able to get a few sets of the new Lego Mindstorms robot- the EV3.  Speaking of fundraising... Anyone wanna buy some cookie dough?!

If wishes were fishes...

Student Projects

Just finished up the Lego Robotics unit with my Tech and Design 2 class.  They did a great job for how little time we had to build and program!  Wish I could have had them work more closely with my FLL Teams, they could have taught each other a lot.






I let them do a demolition derby before we took them apart... They quite enjoyed that part.




Also got the first batch of air engines done!  We have several up and running, but they were dissassembled for welding.  Mine is the one on the left, the other two are students.  Not bad for a bunch of 8th graders!




The end of the tri marches ever closer.  Just started leathers in one class and bicycle repair in another- LOTS left to do!

One last thing- real quick update on the Mendelmax 2.0.  I got an email from Maker Tool Works the other day saying they had discovered a bug in the beta kits and were in the process getting parts made to fix it. I opted to have the original parts shipped now so I can start assembling- the new parts will be free of charge other than shipping- part of the deal with it being a "Beta" kit.

The kit wasn't even originally supposed to ship until yesterday, so they aren't too far behind. I understood up front that the printer is still under development and that this was a possibility, so I'm not too worried. Still havent seen hide nor hair of the drivers and controller board though... getting a little worried about that.  Hopefully more info coming soon!

Edge Forming.

I suck at it.  Had an idea for a quick little project to try and get better at using my edge forming machine.  I gave up after practicing with a few scraps but the project came out great anyways!


Usually things like this end up as scrap when I touch 'em.

Drew up a shape on a piece of paper real quick, traced it onto some aluminum and hacked it out.



Ran it through the slip roll to give it a bit of a curve and tried it on with some duct tape. I did run a bead around the edge with the edge former, 'bout the only thing I can do with it.





Did a little creative measuring... Made some brackets to mount it to the headlight ears, and viola!









Now maybe someday I'll start on the tank...

In other news, I get to wake up at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow, sit in a car for 2 hrs with a bunch of 8th graders, spend all day at a lego robotics tournament, and then come home.  Yay.  Ahh, who am I kiddin, its going to be fun.  I'm sure I'll have pics to share of the event in the next day or two, hope they do a great job!

FIRST Lego League 2012- Senior Solutions

Today was the Pocatello Qualifier for our FLL robotics teams.  I had two teams again this year- one of 7th and one of 8th graders.  It's been a looonnnggg couple of months prepping for this- most of which felt like I was talking to myself, but as usual, the teams managed to really pull it together in the last week.

This years challenge was centered around Senior Citizens and problems they may have as they get older.  The competition has four parts- Core Values (teamwork), Research Project, Robot Design, and everyones favorite, the Robot Competition.  Neither team did well in the Robot competition- the 8th Grade team "The Old Farts" could have gotten a boatload of points if everything had gone perfectly, but they had some sensor and battery issues that kept them in about the middle of the pack.  The 7th grade team (S.L.O.- Senior Lego Organization) didn't have any working programs at game time, but over the course of the day managed to get a few working between rounds.

The Old Farts even managed to win one of the Core Values awards, and are going to the State Tournament in Twin Falls!  Hopefully the extra month will give them time to work out the bugs in their programs.

Some pics from the day.

Setting up in the pit.



Furiously writing and testing programs...




In the ring.






Final score, Old Farts:  135.



Final Score, Team SLO: 85.

Best run of the day:  325 points!!!




Old Farts receiving their award.

 

Long day, glad its over and everyone had fun.