Subject:
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Re: New Syngress RIS 2.0 Book!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.books, lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 12 Nov 2002 04:23:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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253 times
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> > It is essentially a really thick constructopedia that contains 10 Amazing projects you can build in under an hour. I can't say how "amazing" the projects are, but most of them
can be built in under an hour.>>
Hi Dean,
I agree with your opinion above. I almost didn't agree to write for the
syngress 10 cool project books because I didn't like the idea of a
step-by-step construction book. I like thinking up a problem or a machine
and then designing a robot that meets my needs.
Several people convinced me that there are some people that need and enjoy
the examples of step-by-step instructions to understand some of the building
and design techniques before they could begin to apply them to their own
robots. I think the syngress books do what they say - give you 10 cool
projects to build in an hour. I really love the Ferrari brothers book and
Don Wilcher's book is a jewel. I think these 10 cool project books make a
bridge between the constructopedia and Ferrari.
I'm really glad that I participated in the project. My 7th grade son, Alex,
designed and built all of the robots that we submitted. I wrote the text
trying to give the reader hints and ideas for additions or extras. Alex and
I had a great time working on these robots. We tried to create robots that
adult/kid teams would enjoy building and would maybe get something out of
the experience AND could be built in an hour. The fact that your daughter
loved the safe and you came up with a better combination dial and a more
secure vault is exactly what I was hoping for - inspiration for
individuality and revision.
Thanks for sharing!!!
Tonya Witherspopon
PS - If you have any pictures I'd love to see them.
In lugnet.books, Dean Hystad writes:
> I did a little review of the "10 Cool Projects" book from Syngress for the
> Dark Side Developers kit (DSDK) a little while ago. I suppose I should
> supply another review for the newer book based on the RIS V2.0 kit. Here goes:
>
> "10 COOL LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 2 Projects" is the second
> in the 10 Cool Projects series of books from Syngress. It is essentially a
> really thick constructopedia that contains 10 Amazing projects you can build
> under an hour. I can't say how "amazing" the projects are, but most of them
> can be built in under an hour.
>
> The book was developed using LPUB from Kevin Clague. The same LDraw to
> photo-realistic imaging software that was used on the DSDK book. The
> instructions are very crisp gray scale images with some descriptive text
> included. The construction images are easier to follow than those supplied
> by LEGO. The added parts for each construction step are hilighted by
> "ghosting out" pieces added in previous steps. K'nex uses this technique in
> their instructions, and I think it really helps when building complicated
> machines.
>
> I had a beef with the DSDK book in that it was really just a fancy
> constructopedia. I was hoping for more general purpose building
> information. I'm happy to say that the second book contains a few perls,
> but I still recommend buying the Ferrari book if you really want to learn
> LEGO robot building. This is a project based book.
>
> Projects:
>
> The Bug - An embarassingly simple (it's mine) two wheeled differential drive
> robot that has highly cambered wheels to increase stability. This robot is
> on the upper right corner of the cover.
>
> Funky Chicken Techno-Walker - A neat looking two legged walker of the
> overlapping footprint variety. Any hardcore Mindstormer has built more than
> a few of this type of robot, but newbies will find it increadibly cool.
> This robot is on the lower left corner of the cover.
>
> Missle Turret - A gun that shoots small LEGO bricks mounted on a rotating
> turret. It has a hammer that you load against some rubber belts. Releasing
> the hammer causes it to slam into the projectile, flinging it into space. I
> had a few problems with this design. The geartrain used to cock the hammer
> had a gear-skipping problem. To fix the problem I replaced the suggested
> belts with more elastic rubber bands.
>
> The next four projects are not so much finished projects as they are
> starting points for your own projects.
>
> MINDSTORMS F1 Racer - A car with a rear differential and front wheel
> steering. Lacking any sensor feedback this is more of an RC car that you
> can control using the LEGO remote than it is a robot. The instructions for
> this chapter didn't turn out really well. It uses lots of flexible parts
> that are really difficult to model. If anyone knows of a good way to
> generate LDRAW files for bent ribbed hose please let me know.
>
> The Three-in-One Bot - A differential drive platform you can modify for
> creating different kinds of robotic vehicles.
>
> LEGO Arial Tram - A design for those who like to suspend their RCX from a
> string. Actually it's pretty safe. There is almost no way that the RCX can
> fall off the cable and crash to the floor. However, I did run into some
> slippage and derailing problems with the cable guide.
>
> LEGO Safe - My 5 year old daughter thinks this one is cool. It is a safe
> with a motorized door. You use touch sensors to enter the combination for
> opening the safe. I modified mine so the combination is entered using a
> spinning dial (which is monitored by a light sensor). I also reworked the
> safe such that it is really hard to take apart unless you have access to the
> interior.
>
> ULK (Useful LEGO Knowledge) - Anyone familiar with Jonathan Knudsen's
> O'Reilly book will recognize this robot as a modification of his "Minerva".
> ULK is a mobile robot with an arm that can pick up small objects (like LEGO
> bricks). For ULK, finding bricks to pick up is definately a hit or miss
> proposition. It uses a light sensor to aid in task, but a brick has to be
> almost directly in front of the robot for it to be seen and successfully
> picked up.
>
> Spinner Bot - If you enjoyed building the ULK you'll definately love Spinner
> Bot. Function-wise these two are essentially the same. It is kind of an
> interesting study in how two builders approach the same problem in different
> ways. Spinner Bot is much more successful than ULK at finding and picking
> up its targeted object.
>
> RIS Turtle - This robot draws pictures. It has a motorized pen holder for
> raising and lowering the pen. The same motor controls a shifter for the
> robots transmission. The transmission ensures that the two drive wheels
> always rotate at the same speed, but allows you to drive the wheels in the
> same direction (for travelling straight), or in opposite directions (for
> turning). The mechanics are truly a marvel, but this is one picky robot.
> It takes a bit of adjustment to get everything working just right.
>
> A big problem with the last book was that the contributors were not given
> credit for their creations. The acknowledgments tell us who was involved,
> but not what designs they created. That is corrected in this second book.
> Now it is easy to find out that Dean Hystad (me) is the idiot who told you
> to wire the motors backwards on the first robot. Or that Dean Hystad should
> have spent more time testing ULK so he would know that the right axle starts
> to bind up after the robot has been running a while. Other contributers,
> who are much less fallable, are Luke Ma, Jeff Elliot, Rob Stehlik, Tonya
> Witherspoon and CS Soh.
>
> If you only buy one LEGO book this year, make sure it's the Ferrari brothers
> book. If you can afford a second book I would suggest Dave Baum's book, or
> maybe Jin Sato's. After that I would suggest Don Wilcher's Mindstorm
> Interfacing book. But if you are going to buy at least 6 LEGO books this
> year you shouldn't miss "10 COOL LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 2
> Projects."
>
> Dean Hystad
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: New Syngress RIS 2.0 Book!
|
| I did a little review of the "10 Cool Projects" book from Syngress for the Dark Side Developers kit (DSDK) a little while ago. I suppose I should supply another review for the newer book based on the RIS V2.0 kit. Here goes: "10 COOL LEGO Mindstorms (...) (22 years ago, 12-Nov-02, to lugnet.books, lugnet.robotics)
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