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Subject: 
Re: Lego Breaks
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Thu, 17 Aug 2000 20:32:45 GMT
Viewed: 
677 times
  
in article 85669FE51E37D411B97900B0D022E9C407227A@mail.medivation.com,
Wilcox, Doug at lego-robotics@crynwr.com wrote on 8/17/00 10:58 AM:

I'm on carpet, which makes using a rear caster tricky (the 'bot has trouble
straightening out). Seems that using as narrow a wheel as possible seems to
work better. Any other ideas about improving its performance?

Why not try getting rid of the caster altogether and use a skid?  On
short-pile carpet it might work better, and it should definitely improve
pointing accuracy since you're getting rid of the caster cranking effect.

A couple of ways to make skids:

1) Use the cylindrical 2x2 piece and fasten the flat hemisphere piece with
the bumps on the top to the bottom of the cylinder.  I've seen this done on
some models on the Mindstorms site.

2) Use those little L-shaped beams.  The short leg of the L rides on the
carpet.  This is what I used for my first bot - which ran around the oval
course included in the Mindstorms kit.  Wheels and motors at the back of the
RCX, skid at the front, and light sensor stuck out in front pointing down.

Ideally, Lego will release a spherical caster some day.  Until then, you
might try using (warning: non-Lego pieces ahead) the top of a roll-on
deodorant bottle.  This tip is from the "Mobile Robots" book.  Fastening it
to your robot is left as an exercise for the reader.


Doug Wilcox
Senior Web Developer
iMcKesson Provider Solutions Group-Needham

"You see, I had this space suit. How it happened was like this ..."
(Opening lines from Robert A. Heinlein's _Have Space Suit--Will Travel_)



--
Doug Weathers, http://www.rdrop.com/~dougw
Portland, Oregon, USA
Don't spam me - I know how to use http://www.spamcop.net
"On a clear disk you can seek forever"



Message is in Reply To:
  RE: Lego Breaks
 
That's funny--I didn't remember that the Lego privileges [It's darned awkward at times to construct sentences without using the word _Legos_!] were taken away ... just the fact that all the engineers were into them. We are a fairly small company (or (...) (24 years ago, 17-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)

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