Category: LEGO

Last week a friend emailed: “Release 2 [of my pneumatic machine] should have some AI to know when there’s something to load and when it’s done.” He was teasing, but I liked the challenge. Today I got the AI working. Next, I’ll add code to operate the air valve with a servo motor.

Completed a proof-of-concept LEGO machine entirely powered by compressed air. Click through to watch the video. https://youtu.be/9D_PtmjexMU

The setting sun bounced off a prototype LEGO pneumatic machine I’ve been building. Today, I finally got it to go through all the correct motions. Now, comes refinement, which may involve taking the whole thing apart and starting afresh, yet again.

A mechanism was not working to my satisfaction this afternoon, so I worked on improving it. One step forward, two steps back.

It was time to get reacquainted with my LEGO and build a mechanism designed by Akiyuki, a brilliant young Japanese engineer. Realized I didn’t have 3 hard-to-substitute parts, so put in an order with BrickLink: soon I’ll be checking the mailbox like an excited kid.

Worked on my latest “science project.” I’m trying to move an arm smoothly to any angle using a pneumatic piston. This brings together LEGO Mindstorms and Pneumatics, as well as 3rd-party digital sensors to measure air pressure and angles. This is proving surprisingly challenging.

Spent a few minutes building a rig to evaluate a LEGO Mindstorms sensor that measures angles. Spent a few hours trying to read the angles from a computer program. Eventually a simple test suggested the sensor is defective. My next LEGO creation needs to “know” its joint angles.

Built a quick prototype of a pneumatic mechanism. The yellow baseplates are a new LEGO Technic part that makes it easier to explore a mechanism before incorporating it into a more formal beam structure.

Posted video of My First Great Ball Contraption.