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I was reading stuff about the Microscout that said it's light sensor would
not pick up IR light; however, I decided to try it out for myself. Using
mode 3 (as the easiest one to check), I started it running, and then pointed
the remote from my DVD player at it and pressed a button, and indeed the
Microscout stopped and started turning the other way (though it would keep
turning only as long as I held the button).
By experiment, I found it was most reliable when the remote was held within
a foot of the Microscout's sensor, and it had about a thirty-degree field of
vision. It also worked from further away, but I had to point the remote
directly at the sensor, with very little tolerance. In a dark room, it
worked more reliably up to a metre away.
I suppose the best use for this would be to try to program a universal
remote to produce the signals for controlling the Microscout in P-mode (i.e.
using the immediate controls), thereby giving immediate control of the
Microscout without the hassle of wires or probes.
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Hmm... Well, you could try www.mindstorms.com (or whatever it is) and look
fo the
configuration. I remember looking around that side and seeing some diagrams
and shematics. I have that set too, and I have no intentions of taking it
apart (lucily)
Car
In lugnet.robotics, Luke Rosenberg writes:
> One day, while there was nothing to do, I took apart my Microscout (came
> with the R2D2 droid development kit, or whatever). I had no idea how the
> motor assembly was connected to the rest of the unit, so this was probably a
> bad idea. Anyway, I took the motor off and can not reassemble the unit. On
> the plastic piece to which the motor was attached, there are two sets of
> thin metal strips that come in contact with the motor shaft. Does anyone
> know the correct configuration of these strips? I'm not very hopeful, but
> this is currently the only motorized Lego item I have. I'm looking forward
> to getting RIS 2.0 soon. I'd like to have a motor to play with until then,
> but if nobody can help me that's fine. And yes, I'm an idiot.
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The only thing that comes to mind is that the metal strips are acting like
brushes to connect the power to the commutator of the motor. I opened one of
mine and fear restrained me from entering too far. The battery connections
are direct to the PC board and the two wires from the board supply the
motor. Can you relate the metal strips to the electrical portion of the
motor? If you can get a picture of the parts, send it to me at
rfay@attbi.com and I will try to figure it out.
--
Bob Fay
THE SHOP
http://www.ozbricks.com/bobfay
"Luke Rosenberg" <Luke727@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Gvx4M7.GsM@lugnet.com...
> One day, while there was nothing to do, I took apart my Microscout (came
> with the R2D2 droid development kit, or whatever). I had no idea how the
> motor assembly was connected to the rest of the unit, so this was probably a
> bad idea. Anyway, I took the motor off and can not reassemble the unit. On
> the plastic piece to which the motor was attached, there are two sets of
> thin metal strips that come in contact with the motor shaft. Does anyone
> know the correct configuration of these strips? I'm not very hopeful, but
> this is currently the only motorized Lego item I have. I'm looking forward
> to getting RIS 2.0 soon. I'd like to have a motor to play with until then,
> but if nobody can help me that's fine. And yes, I'm an idiot.
>
>
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One day, while there was nothing to do, I took apart my Microscout (came
with the R2D2 droid development kit, or whatever). I had no idea how the
motor assembly was connected to the rest of the unit, so this was probably a
bad idea. Anyway, I took the motor off and can not reassemble the unit. On
the plastic piece to which the motor was attached, there are two sets of
thin metal strips that come in contact with the motor shaft. Does anyone
know the correct configuration of these strips? I'm not very hopeful, but
this is currently the only motorized Lego item I have. I'm looking forward
to getting RIS 2.0 soon. I'd like to have a motor to play with until then,
but if nobody can help me that's fine. And yes, I'm an idiot.
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I wrote a very small message to VLL converter with the Scout so that I
could play around with my 3 MicroScouts. The direct actions are useful
but the script mode is pointless.
WHY O WHY did LEGO make it play a stupid song BEFORE each motor
action??? It wouldn't have been so bad if it was concurrent with the
action (snip out the speaker etc.) but it just makes it useless!
Has anyone looked into reprograming the Microscouts? Maybe a nice little
ROM replacement?
Dean
--
Dean Husby
LUGNET Member #320
TFM's LEGO Workshop - http://www.akasa.bc.ca/tfm
The Vancouver LEGO Club - http://www.akasa.bc.ca/vlc/
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