|
|
| |
Howdy!
TexLUG Houston will be having a meeting this Saturday the 22nd of April. Feel
free to come on by and have some fun!
Who: TexLUG Houston
What: General Meeting
When: Saturday, April 22, 2006
Where:
19525 Wied Road, Suite #106.
Spring, TX 77379
Why: Why not?
Time: Setup - 11 AM. Start - 1 PM. End - Cook it 'till it's done.
Phone: 281-651-7747
See you there!
--Anthony
|
|
| |
Folks,
The Austin chapter of the Texas Lego Users Group
(TexLUG) is holding a robotic line following contest
on June 11, 2006.
In this line following contest, robots attempt to
complete a specified race course by following
a black line on a white background. The robot
completing three laps of the course in the shortest
time is the winner.
There will be two age groups for the competition,
under 13 years old, and 13 years and up.
Complete rules may be found here:
http://www.io.com/~rueger/lego/texlugaustin/line2006/
as well as helpful links to other line following
robots.
-Tim
|
|
| |
All,
The next Austin TexLUG meeting will be this coming
Sunday, April 9. Come on out and show off what
you've been working on!
If you have questions about Mindstorms NXT, come
by and we'll see if we can help you with the
answers. (The library's wifi is A Nice Thing.)
See you there!
-Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: The second Sunday every month (next meeting 4/9/06).
Time: 2:30pm-5:30pm
Location:
Austin Public Library, Little Walnut Creek Branch
835 W. Rundberg Ln.
Austin, TX 78758
(Just west of the Lamar/Rundberg intersection)
Phone: (512) 836-8975
URL: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/little_walnut.htm
(has map link)
Come on out and join in the fun!
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
| |
Folks,
Attending the 3/12 TexLUG Austin meeting were:
Louis Davis
Lee Rahe
Tim Rueger
Ed Southerland
Ed brought a few more of his custom minifigs, but most
of his MOCs were really nice xpod-based spaceships. I
really liked his stylings in various space themes,
including Blacktron, M:Tron, Ice Planet 2002, Spyrius,
and Life on Mars.
Lee proudly showed off some excellent-condition pieces
from his recent vintage Lego acquisitions. I, for one,
was very impressed with the details that Lego's
injection molding was achieving in the late 50's and
early 60's.
Louis was a first-time attendee; he got a Mindstorms kit
around Christmas, and was looking for help and ideas on
what to do with it.
On that note, I showed a simple line following robot
from Jonathan Knudsen's O'Reilly Mindstorms book to
demonstrate an upcoming line-following robotics contest.
Look for rules and schedules to be posted in the next
week.
Adminstrivia: I'd mentioned to a few folks that the
Little Walnut Creek library was scheduled to be closed
for remodeling in May 2006. However, the remodeling has
been delayed some months, so I'm working on extending
our 2nd-Sunday meeting slot reservation there for as
long as possible.
Please keep in mind that we will eventually have to find
a new place to meet. If you have any good suggestions,
please pass them along (either to the list or by private
email).
Play well,
-Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Brickshelf gallery:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=174175
Lee, Louis, and Ed:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682709
Ed's MOCs:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682715
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682716
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682717
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682718
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682719
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682720
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682721
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682722
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682723
Lee's vintage Lego:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682710
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682711
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682712
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682713
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682714
Jonathan Knudsen's simple line following robot:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1682724
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lmstorms/
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
| |
All,
The next Austin TexLUG meeting will be this Sunday,
March 12. It's been a few months since we've
gotten together, so come on out and show off what
you've been working on!
I'll be shortly announcing and posting rules for
a line following and maze solving robotics
contest, just to keep y'all sharp while we await
Mindstorms NXT. Look for a demo at the meeting.
I'll also be bringing the mountains that I
provided for the recent display in San Antonio,
along with my photos from the event.
See you there!
-Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: The second Sunday every month (next meeting 3/12/06).
Time: 2:30pm-5:30pm
Location:
Austin Public Library, Little Walnut Creek Branch
835 W. Rundberg Ln.
Austin, TX 78758
(Just west of the Lamar/Rundberg intersection)
Phone: (512) 836-8975
URL: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/little_walnut.htm
(has map link)
Come on out and join in the fun!
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
| |
Hi, everybody!
For the past 3 months, I’ve been working with folks from Gortons Seafood on a sculpture of the Gortons’ Fisherman (as seen in
their logo.)
Alone, he’s not such a big model -- but I was asked to build EIGHT of them!
See photos on my MOCpages site
Six of the models will be touring the U.S. over the next month, in conjunction
with their new “Build dinner around Gorton’s” campaign. They will be visiting
about 100 supermarkets across six metro areas: Los Angeles, Chicago,
Indianapolis, San Antonio, Harrisburg, and Charlotte. (There’s a
full schedule on my web site.)
The remaining two models will go on permanent display in Gorton’s headquarters
and their marketing firm’s headquarters.
I hope folks get a chance to get out and see the model sometime over the next
few weeks! Unfortunately, I don’t live near any of those cities, so I won’t be
able to see any of the finished models “on site”... If anyone happens to snap a
photo of it while they’re there, I’d love if you could e-mail me a copy!
Each model is 2 feet tall from the waist to the head, and contains about 6,000
LEGO elements. It’s a straightforward “sculpture”, using almost entirely
studs-up construction and just basic LEGO bricks and plates. (I had to giggle,
actually, that one of few places that I actually used some SNOT was... on his
nose.) :)
As some of you know, I just moved back to New York City, after spending a few
years in Texas. What fun it was to move 2000 miles in the middle of a giant
commission! I’ve been working out of boxes and in a very temporary
makeshift-workshop for the latter half of this project... I’m looking forward
to finally being able to set my space back up! :)
Oh, and oddly enough: midway through this project, I was coincidentally
commissioned to build Nemo and Marlin
from Disney’s “Finding Nemo”. What are the chances I would be asked to build a
fish & a fisherman at the same time? :)
I’ll part with a “fun-fact”... If you stacked the LEGO bricks from all 8
Gortons’ Fishermen one on top of another, they’d go higher than the Empire State
Building! :)
Sean
- - - - -
Sean Kenney
LEGO Certified Professional
http://www.seankenney.com/lego
|
|
| |
Folks,
My wife and I will be traveling 12/29 to 1/9,
so I won't be attending the TexLUG Austin
meeting on Sunday, 1/8. (I tried to find an
alternate venue and/or time, to no avail.)
The procedure for the meeting room at the
LWC library is very easy; whoever gets there
first, just ask someone at the front desk for
the key to the meeting room. Also, make
sure the room is back in its prior state when
you lock up to leave.
The next following scheduled time is Sunday,
February 12.
-Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: The second Sunday every month (next meeting 1/8/06).
Time: 2:30pm-5:30pm
Location:
Austin Public Library, Little Walnut Creek Branch
835 W. Rundberg Ln.
Austin, TX 78758
(Just west of the Lamar/Rundberg intersection)
Phone: (512) 836-8975
URL: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/little_walnut.htm
(has map link)
Come on out and join in the fun!
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
| |
All,
The next Austin TexLUG meeting will be this Sunday,
December 11. It's been a little quiet lately
in TexLUG land, so come on out and show off what
you've been working on!
I'll be bringing photos of this Saturday's First
Lego League meet in Austin. Come by to see
what the teams came up with to solve this year's
Ocean Odyssey challenge:
http://www.firstlegoleague.org/default.aspx?pid=70
I'll also have an 8455 Backhoe Loader to demo.
It's an out-of-print set that I finally got
recently. It's a pneumatic marvel.
See you there!
-Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: The second Sunday every month (next meeting 12/11/05).
Time: 2:30pm-5:30pm
Location:
Austin Public Library, Little Walnut Creek Branch
835 W. Rundberg Ln.
Austin, TX 78758
(Just west of the Lamar/Rundberg intersection)
Phone: (512) 836-8975
URL: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/little_walnut.htm
(has map link)
Come on out and join in the fun!
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
| |
Folks,
Due to an event conflict at the Little Walnut Creek
library, there will be no TexLUG Austin meeting this
coming Sunday.
Our next scheduled time is Sunday, December 11.
-Tim
|
|
| |
All,
Here's a recap of last Sunday's TexLUG meeting in
Austin. Our building theme was castle; we also put up a
Great Ball Contraption and held a robotic sumo contest.
The meeting was well-attended, despite the last-minute
change of venue from National Instruments to the Little
Walnut Creek library. Among the regulars were Ed, Kurt,
Laura, Lee, Mark, Pat, and myself. Also attending were
three sets of kids/parents who entered the sumo contest:
Evan Ryker and his mom, Michael Johnston and his dad,
and Joey and Gavin with one of their dads.
Ed and Lee brought in a nifty set of castle MOCs. Ed had
a number of small scenes with some of his as-always cool
customized minifigs. Lee's black castle was also
stunning. (I wish I'd taken more time to admire and
photograph them, but I was swamped with GBC and sumo.)
Kurt brought in his fleet of Texas navy ships. It was
really cool to see them all on display at once; he has
done a fantastic job maintaining style and detail across
his various sailing ships. His cutter is still in
progress; I and others had a couple suggestions for
working out a few details on his railings.
Laura and I showed off a small Great Ball Contraption,
which got a lot of crowd attention. Laura brought in
her scoop lifter module and James Loftus' ball counter.
I had a rather free-form multipart construction, which
Laura eventually managed to work into a loop with the
other two modules. She was justifiably miffed at my
lack of adherence to GBC module standards; next time
I'll make my things fit.
James' ball counter dutifully registered a total of 1465
balls while we ran the loop. The mpg of the GBC is a
little shaky (I used the movie mode on a small digital
camera), but it captures the ball movement nicely.
The sumo contest was well-attended, and got lots of
great reactions from the crowd. There were four
entries, so there were six round-robin matches in all
(two points were awarded for a win, one for a draw):
Y J M SoF Total
Yokozuma (Evan) - 1 0 0 1
JoJo4000 (Joey & Gavin) 1 - 0 1 2
Michael10000000 (Michael) 2 2 - 0 4
Son of Flatliner (Tim) 2 1 2 - 5
Evan's Yokozuma was a low-speed caterpillar tracked bot,
while both JoJo4000 and Michael10000000 also used
caterpillar tracks and ran somewhat faster. My bot was
an unabashed rework of Steve Hassenplug's Flatliner
sumobot which he showed at Brickfest:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1352550
My enhancement was using rows of teeth (vs. Steve's
flags) as the edge of the wedge surface. I also had to
fit it inside the 30x30 stud dimensions required by the
rules. (I'll post more details shortly.)
The two tie matches were the most fun: Yokozuma held on
for the full 3-minute duration of the match against
JoJo4000, and was pushed off the arena only a few
seconds after time elapsed. Son of Flatliner's match
against JoJo4000 ended quickly when both bots spun off
the edge of the arena simultaneously.
I also gave a brief talk about my Brickfest sumo contest
experience, and demonstrated my super-slow, uber-complex
Remington sumobot.
All in all, a fine meeting, especially considering the
last-minute difficulties in bringing it off. Many
thanks to everyone who helped make it a success.
-Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Brickshelf gallery:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=149377
Castle MOCs:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434156
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434157
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434158
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434159
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434160
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434161
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434175
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434176
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434177
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434178
Baty's ships:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434162
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434163
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434164
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434165
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434166
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434167
GBC:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434168
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434169
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/trueger/Texlug051009/hpim0210.mpg
(1:04 mpeg movie, 12MB)
Sumo contest:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434170
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434171
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434172
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434173
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1434174
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1436549
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1436550
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
