Our community, 569 want it Our community, 212 want it Our community, 100 want it Our community, 140 want it Our community, 211 want it Our community, 137 want itThe page you were looking for is not available in this version of the documentation.You can use the search box or browse the products to find related information.You can also view archived documentation for prior releases. Choose your country to get translated content where available and see local events and offers. Based on your location, we recommend that you select: . You can also select a location from the following list:We’ve been doing some Lego workshops at Gold Coast TechSpace lately and with the older kids we’ve been spending a lot of time on Lego Mindstorms. I quite like the Lego NXT software that comes with the kits for a simple introduction, it’s easy to teach and there are plenty of resources available to help. However 2 things really irk me a bit about it: So I am embarking on a bit of discovery mission on how to work with Lego on a platform of my choice - GNU Linux, and for the sake of keeping things simple and accessible - Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (in my case Lubuntu - but it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this).
I’ll blog my discoveries here as I go along. There’s many alternative programming paradigms on Lego LXT, and as a Java programmer for many years you would think I might jump for something like LeJOS which runs a JVM on the NXT brick, but I did want to keep the NXT bricks with clean firmware so that they could be used with the stock software if necessary. I was a C programmer before Java and a lot of the kids seem to like Python so I feel myself searching for something different. I’ll start by installing the NBC NXC compiler from Bricx Command Center. The project is a little old and hasn’t had an update in a while, but appears stable and well used. NBC is a simple byte code like language similar to assembly language, NXC stands for Not Exactly C and is a C like like language that we will use on our way to Python. If you want to go to the exact version I downloaded - try here, just extract it to a directory somewhere and put the NXT/nbc executable in the path. You can also have a look at the source code.
It’s a shame the code isn’t in a source repository - if someone reading this knows of the source of truth, it would be good to know. Now that you have the compiler you can write little C programs that you can run on the NXT. Here is the classic Hello World example: You can then compile this up using Note: If you are curious to see what the intermediate NBC code looks like you can also use the -nbc flag to write it to a file. Now you need to copy your program to the NXT brick, but to do this you’ll first need to do a couple more steps. To test your NXT connectivity I use the rather excellent Next Tools. Even if you don’t want to program the NXT like this Next Tools is still a lot of fun, you can see all sorts of information about your NXT brick and even test all the sensors and motors in a more flexible way than the “Try” built in feature on NXT. I usually go straight to the music section to test I can connect to my brick. Running this tool would normally be a no-brainer, just plug it into the USB port and use it, and it is if you run as root via sudo, but to do it properly you should add udev rules to allow your user to access the USB port properly.
If you want a script that will do all of this, feel free to check out this thread, but I like to keep it simple and do the bare minimum of changes, so this is what I did: First run “lsusb” to see what the id of the NXT is, you should see a line of text something like this: Now create a file in the /etc/udev/rules.d directory with rules like this: You don’t need the 2nd line - but it’s useful for firmware updates, replace “dalts” with your own user id. Some of the examples on the web create groups and add your user to the group but I like to keep things simple and just add my regular user. You should now be able to run Next Tools from your own user id! Now you are ready to upload your program that you created at start. You have a few choices here. One is to use the file browser in Next Tools - there is an upload feature. Another is to use the nxt_push command that is found in the python-nxt package. To run it just install using then upload your HelloWorld program
You can then run the program using the buttons on the NXT Another final option is to use the the built in download feature of nbc, you can do something like this when you compile: This will automatically download a successful build to the NXT brick, there is also a -r option to download and run. In the next section, we’ll learn how to write NXT programs in Python - see you then!Tessa heading to Space CampFreyberg wins VEX Robotics Regional Final *UPDATE: Video of the team working on their robot over the holidays. Freyberg successfully secured a grant from Kiwi First and Boeing to enter and compete in the FIRST Lego League competition to be held in Auckland later this year. FIRST which stands for (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded by Dean Kamen, an inventor, entrepreneur, advocate for science and technology and the inventor of Segway! FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.
One of the robotics competitions that FIRST runs worldwide is the FIRST LEGO League. In the FIRST LEGO League teams research a real-world problem such as food safety, recycling, energy, etc., and are challenged to develop a solution. They also must design, build, program a robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS®, that completes 12 separate missions on a table-top playing field. Here is an example: It all adds up to tons of fun while they learn to apply science, technology, engineering, and math concepts (STEM), plus a big dose of imagination, to solve a problem. You can follow our progress at robotics.freyberg.ac.nz Orders $99 and up. View an excerpt from Chapter 10: "The Bike" The creative minds behind The NXT STEP blog are back with a brand-new collection of innovative robots. Whether you're just getting started with LEGO robotics or have been building and programming robots for years, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT One-Kit Wonders is packed with new and exciting techniques, advice, and robots that guarantee awesome results.
And best of all, you'll only need one NXT Retail kit to build all ten of them! LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders will make it simple for you to construct even the most complex of these ten robots, all while you learn the ins and outs of the NXT kit. You'll learn to build and program: PunchBot, a robot that you program using old-fashioned punchcards M, a robot that sorts your M&M candies by color NXT Dragster, a super-fast racecar that will take you all the way to the drag strip BobBot, a versatile skid-steer loader, equipped with a ball grabber or demolition claw RoboLock, a security system for your robots The Hand, a robotic replacement hand to protect you from those dangerous cleanup jobs, like picking up your brother's gym socks SPC, a robotic vehicle that can park itself between two objects using front-wheel drive The Bike, a two-wheeled robot that can balance and steer Armed with the knowledge you gain from this book, you'll be inventing your own amazing creations in no time.
Requirements: One LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set (#8527) About the AuthorBlueToothKiwi lives in New Zealand with his partner and four children. He has an electrical engineering background but is now working in the banking industry. He has been building robots with MINDSTORMS NXT for two years and especially enjoys building outdoor robots that go places too dangerous for humans. BlueToothKiwi is a contributor to The NXT STEP blog and Brick Journal. He is also a member of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners (MCP), a group that assists LEGO with testing and growing the NXT product. He also teaches local school children how to build and program NXT robots and mentors a Robocup team. He would like to thank Christine, Robert, and Daniel for all their help in the development of the Candy Picked (Chapter 1) and The Bike (Chapter 10). Martijn Boogaarts is a freelance technical trainer on integration technology. In 1986 he started a LEGO "robotica”"club at his school and has since built many robots.
Martyn was one of the initial organizers of LEGO WORLD, and he built several large demonstration models, including the Road-Plate-Laying-Machine, a working car factory (27 RCXs), and a Pinball machine. In April 2005 he contributed to the AFOL-MINDSTORMS tournament in Billund, and later that year he was asked to join the MINDSTORMS Users Panel (MUP2). Martyn contributes to The NXT STEP blog and shares knowledge about the NXT to show that you can build it, too. Eric D. Burdo is a grown-up (okay, a big kid) working as a computer programmer in Maine. He's been infatuated with robotics and creating with LEGO bricks since he was a little kid. When the RCX kits were produced, he purchased two. His wife bought him an NXT kit as a birthday gift in September of 2006, and he became a contributor to The NXT STEP blog a few months later. Eric likes to tinker with hobby electronics and teach his six-year-old how to dissect old electronic toys. He also teaches computers and LEGO robotics part time.
He would like to thank Adrianne, Jacob, and the rest of the students of his Robotics and Engineering class for helping with the testing and building instructions for his robot contribution, The Hand (Chapter 7). Jonathan Daudelin has been building LEGO MINDSTORMS robots as a hobby for six years. He enjoys using CAD software to render his robots on the computer. He also helped start and was a member of a FIRST LEGO League team, Built On The Rock. In their second year of competing, he and his team won first place in the Robot Performance and Innovative Robot categories at the World Festival in the 2007 Nanoquest challenge. His team's robot achieved perfect scores in all three of its rounds, which had occurred only once before in World Festival history. Jim Kelly is a freelance writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. He received an English degree and an Industrial Engineering degree—an unusual combination, but very helpful in his career. Jim was accepted into the LEGO MINDSTORMS Developer Program (MDP) in early 2006 and helped to beta test the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit and software.
He is now a member of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners, a group that continues to assist LEGO with testing and growing the NXT product. For this project, Fay Rhodes has taken on the role of cat herder—otherwise known as manager and editor. With the help of the staff at No Starch, she has taken pains to translate the excellent instructions from our authors into language comprehensible to the average American 11- to 13-year-old (and his or her grandparents). Fay was a contributor to The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book (No Starch Press, 2007) and is the author of The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Zoo! (No Starch Press, 2008). She is also a member of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners (MCP) and is a strong advocate for using the MINDSTORMS NXT as an integrative teaching tool in schools. She is a recent immigrant to Perry, Oklahoma (from Massachusetts), where she is mentoring public school students on two new FIRST LEGO League teams. She would like to thank her husband, Rick, for discovering and introducing her to the MINDSTORMS NXT.
Matthias Paul Scholz (from Freiburg, Germany) has a degree in mathematics and has held IT-related positions in various companies in Germany over the past 12 years. He has been an active member of the LEGO MINDSTORMS community since 2000, was one of the developers of the open source leJOS platform for the RCX, took part in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Developer Program, and is presently one of the 20 members of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Partners Program. Furthermore, he wrote Advanced NXT: The Da Vinci Inventions Book, contributes to the popular The NXT STEP blog, and maintains the German-speaking sister blog Die NXTe Ebene. Christopher R. Smith (a.k.a. Littlehorn) is a Senior Quality Assurance Inspector in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He invented an inspection tool recognized by NASA, which honored him with the prestigious Space Act Award. He has been designing LEGO MINDSTORMS robots since rediscovering the LEGO product in 1997.
As one of the pioneering moderators asked to host the Official LEGO MINDSTORMS Website Community Forums, Chris has volunteered there for the last nine years to cultivate one of the safest online communities. He was again honored when LEGO asked him to become a member of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Developer Program for the NXT system. He is a member of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Partners and is a contributor to The NXT STEP blog. Laurens Valk is a resident of The Netherlands. He got his first MINDSTORMS kit in 2005 and has been a robotics enthusiast ever since. Two months after he got his first MINDSTORMS NXT set in 2007, he was invited to become a contributor to The NXT STEP blog. Laurens enjoys creating computer-aided design drawings of his creations and is responsible for the creation of the clear images in this book. He would like to thank Philippe Hurbain and Jaco van der Molen for helping him with some of the problems that occurred during the building image generation process. Laurens is the designer of the SPC (Chapter 8) and GrabBot (Chapter 9).
Look for more of his design on the Internet. Watch Laurens Valk's video of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders robots in action: Chapter 1: CandyPicker: a candy-picking robot with built-in generator and remote control Chapter 2: PunchBot: old-school programming using your NXT Chapter 3: m: the m&m sorter Chapter 4: NXT Dragster: The NXT STEP Dragster Challenge Chapter 5: BobBot: an NXT version of the bobcat Chapter 6: RoboLock: a security system for your robots Chapter 7: the hand: a robot for those dirty jobs Chapter 8: SPC: self-parking car Chapter 9: GrabBot: a robot that finds, grabs, lifts, and moves Chapter 10: the bike: an NXT bicycle that can steer and move autonomously View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF)Reviews"LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders delivers awesome project ideas without forcing builders to scramble for parts, and offers ideas for further exploration once more parts are acquired." "The book is full of fun projects, and gives kids tools to help create their own designs."