My lego photocopier

I got those lego minstorms that you can program to do whatever you want, I just made a photocopier entirely out of the legos that were included except for a Q-Tip I used as the printing pen. Basically there's the light sensor and a motor holding the Q-tip both on a cradle that moves from left to right, whenever the light sensor sees dark, it makes the motor lower the Q-tip on the paper. One problem is because of how I programmed it, it can't copy horizontal lines, that's why the bottom of the house in the copy is missing, I'll have to improve the program that controls it.


Video (1 MB):
http://auctionautobidder.com/legocopy.mpg

Haha, that's awesome. We got to play with mindstorms in our introduction to Computer Engineering class, they can do some pretty neat stuff.

Wow,.. cool! :D

Lego is getting dangerous!! Must hide lego from my son or he might get ideas about replacing his computer!

Way cool clickhere!

I must admit in that first video it wasnt 100% automatic, I had to slowly push the machine across the paper. It's now completely 100% automatic, it was hard because this needs 3 motors but the kit only comes with 2, so I had to make a complex mecanism that uses the cradle's left/right motion motor to also make the machine go forward a notch each time the cradle comes back.

Here's the new video, you see more in this one also:
http://auctionautobidder.com/legocopy2.mpg

Was that done with native Mindstorms code, or have you used one of the replacement OS'es available (like pbFORTH, or NQC)?

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

Lego is getting dangerous!! Must hide lego from my son or he might get ideas about replacing his computer!

Way cool clickhere!

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Noo, I have been thinking about making a gaming machine with lego's for the case. What is wrong with that?

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Originally Posted by Camaro80z

Noo, I have been thinking about making a gaming machine with lego's for the case. What is wrong with that?

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6 years olds dismantle lego from one thing and build it into another....

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Originally Posted by paraflyer

Was that done with native Mindstorms code, or have you used one of the replacement OS'es available (like pbFORTH, or NQC)?

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Yes it's from the native code, it's a very simple program.

Very nice Click. Big fan of lego here. Never got one of those programmable ones though.

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Originally Posted by TechZ

Very nice Click. Big fan of lego here. Never got one of those programmable ones though.

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If you can afford to lay out the $200 US, and you have kids with an engineering talent, it can be one of the best things to get them motivated.

Me and my youngest have built Mars Rovers (complete with temp sensors, camera, etc), robots that draw their own Spirograph-lke patterns.

I've added other kits I've had since I was a kid, and I'm working on such things as syncro drives....

For those interested, a good link to look into is http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics/

hehe, I'm the kid here, and my bro would love one of those programmable things, think I'm gonna convince him that we should get one (wont be too hard ;) )

I got mine on ebay for $175 (Lego Minstorms Robotic Invention System 2.0), but that was a pretty good price, its hard to find it that cheaps but im sure theres some at $180-190.

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Originally Posted by ClickHere2Surf.com

I got mine on ebay for $175 (Lego Minstorms Robotic Invention System 2.0), but that was a pretty good price, its hard to find it that cheaps but im sure theres some at $180-190.

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Brand-new at Toys-R-Us for $199.

That $175 on ebay was brand new, I very rarely if ever buy used things on ebay, 99% of what I buy on ebay is new.

Also, is that $199 at Toys R us for the new 2.0 version or the 1.0 or 1.5?

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Originally Posted by ClickHere2Surf.com

Also, is that $199 at Toys R us for the new 2.0 version or the 1.0 or 1.5?

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2.0

If you have the older 1.0 or 1.5, LegoDirect has the upgrade CD for about $25....

The brick's the same, it the firmware inside. The CD allows you to flash-upgrade the thing to 2.0.

Of course, if you know the command string to unlock the firmware, then you can use other OS's with it.

I have the 2.0, but arent the included parts different as well?

And what improvements did 2.0 add?

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Originally Posted by ClickHere2Surf.com

I have the 2.0, but arent the included parts different as well?

And what improvements did 2.0 add?

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I'm still running 1.5......

The 2.0 firmware allowed you to use all 32 varibles in the RCX coding, using the native Mindstorms programmer. Previous versions allowed access to either 2 or 4.

The theird-party OS'es were designed with the Hitachi H8 microcontroller (the "brains" of the RCX brick) in mind from the start, so they never had the limitation on variable stack access.

What I think is a shortcoming of the RCX is that you're only limited to about 6k worth of programming space....imagine the routines that could be programmed if there were double, or even quadruple, the active memory.....bank switching isn't an option with this controller, though..... :sad:, else I would kitbash something together.