Subject:
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Re: [Fwd: Mindstorm Mall Trains]
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf
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Date:
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Fri, 27 Oct 2000 17:48:38 GMT
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Original-From:
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David K. Z. Harris <zonker@certaintysolutions.com+avoidspam+>
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Viewed:
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852 times
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Paul Gyugyi wrote (in part);
> I'd sure like to. Having a job gets in the way,
> but it would be nice if we could coordinate an
> evening or afternoon.
I'm interested in helping in Fremont on Saturday
or Sunday, but Friday would be difficult for me,
unless it was Friday evening...
> Any ideas for an RIS controlled train display?
> Log mill? Coal mine? What would work well? There's
> enough time to build something, and it would look
> nice around the christmas tree...
I don't have a mindstorms yet, but I saw one in Seattle
at the PNLTC event. The Vancouver club brought a 4645-type
locomotive, with an RCX on one end. Thomas Refert's son
(Rustin) used the LEGO remote to run the train around the
layout before the track had power. He basically had a
"forward", "stop", and "reverse" buttons, so you had to
coast through curves, or modulate forward-stop-forward
to slow down for the curves. We finally put a few cars
behind it to limit the top speed.
We brainstormed a bit, and thought that we could build
some type of swing-arm in front of the train, with a pair
of the small rail wheels on it. As you went into a curve,
the swing-arm would move left or right from the center
position...you could use an optical sensor to detect
when this happened, and slow the train to 70%, and
return to full power when the swing-arm returned to
the center position, automatically. We didn't have
any bricks to try hacking with the idea at the event.
The unit was a bit top-heavy, with the RCX mounted
above the train body plate, so going into a curve at
high speed did cause a problem. We minimized this by
putting the RCX on the non-leading end of the train.
(That is, the end that attached to the cars, instead
of the end that hit the curve first. :-)
I believe GMLTC also built an RCX-controlled round
house for their layout.
-Z-
--
David K. Z. Harris Member of Technical Staff
Certainty Solutions, formerly Global Networking and Computing (GNAC)
999 Main Street, Redwood City, CA 94063 vm) 650-569-4645 x-4723
"Certainty in an Uncertain World"
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