April 2014 - The Technic Gear

The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Laboratory Review

Apr

30

2014

The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Laboratory is one of the best books about Mindstorms that I have found and not because of their robots but because of their great recipes and lovely ideas. Well played. I have recently been reading a new book about LEGO Mindstorms EV3 written by Daniele Benedettelli and my eyes have been ...

HOWTO Install leJOS 0.8.1 on LEGO Mindstorms EV3 22

Apr

29

2014

LeJOS is a programming environment to program your LEGO Mindstorms robot using Java. Yes, Java. Yes, that means real variables, arrays, bluetooth, TCP/IP, files, etc… Stop drooling and read with me how to install it on the EV3 brick. You can watch the videotutorial about how to install LeJOS in the EV3 brick Install Java ...

HOWTO Remove MicroSD off EV3 Brick 2

Apr

27

2014

I really don’t know the reasons behind not adding that f#$% spring on the MicroSD slot so that the card can be pushed out. So as LEGO decided not to add the spring, here is my tutorial to help you take your SD card out of the EV3 brick. Hope it has been useful. Please ...

LEGO MOC: Two storey LEGO Train Station

Apr

26

2014

After building (something very close to) the upcoming 60050 Train Station with LEGO Digital Designer I decided to order the missing parts that I need to LEGO. Finally when the parts arrived and I started building I realized that I can build something cooler and bigger than their pesky train station :) My very first ...

HOWTO Build your own 3-Wheels Holonomic Robot using LEGO 4

Apr

24

2014

A in-depth tutorial about how to create your own three wheels Holonomic Robot using LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and a bit of Maths knowledge. An holonomic robot is a robot that can move on any direction and even rotate over itself while moving. Do you want to create a holonomic robot? Well, let’s me explain what ...

LEGO 60001 Fire Chief Car Review

Apr

23

2014

Today reviewing yet another small (cheap) LEGO Set. A few days after Christmas, LIDL came with a interesting offer of 12 LEGO Sets for €7.95 each. And you know I hardly can say no… So here it is the first one of them, the LEGO City 60001 Fire Chief Car and Cat with tree. Pretty ...

LeJOS working on my EV3

Apr

23

2014

Finally I got LeJOS working on my EV3 with WiFi. As you can imagine I am writing just another tutorial about how to install it on the brick and how to configure Eclipse to work with the brick. Pretty excited! In case you don’t know LeJOS is a programming environment for the EV3 using Java ...

HOWTO Motorize LEGO Toy Story Train 1

Apr

22

2014

So do you want to motorize the 7597 Toy Story’s Western Chase Train? Well, let me explain how I did it. To motorize this LEGO Train we have to challenges to solve, first we need to correct the wrong proportions of the train by making it shorter and then we need to add the PF ...

Stand up! Save the Robot!

Apr

10

2014

The coolest idea I have had! Don’t let the robot down! Soon with instructions and program. I am really excited with this one because it is small, fun and extremely playable! LiRob is built with a single EV3 and the thread from 42006 Excavator. So I think it is quite easy to build another one ...

Poor Man’s IR Ball: The Ultimate HOWTO

Apr

8

2014

If you have seen any Robocup game, you will have notice that in some of them the ball is a special one like this. The above ball is a HiTechnic Infrared Electronic Ball. It has 20 LEDS to cover the whole surface of the ball and several operating modes. It has 75mm in diameter and ...