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I've recently gotten my hands on a Pololu motor controller which I can control from my Macintosh (see my (URL) tutorial> if you're curious). This has me dreaming of mounting my laptop on a mobile base; with a web cam, speech synthesis, big graphical (...) (19 years ago, 8-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) Well, you can build enormous and very strong structures out of Lego - there are people who've built life-sized dinosaurs and such. With enough Lego and careful construction, I have no doubt you could build something that would carry 50 or 60 (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) The Achilles heal is the bearing ability of a cross axle in a hole. Above a certain load, you will make a constant supply of ABS dust, which means you will have to replace a few key pieces from time to time. Beyond the actual bearing surface (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) Yeah - but you can add more axles and more wheels so that the load is shared across more axles. That keeps the distance between the axles small which helps out with chassis stiffness issues too - and since you'll probably want more than two (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) Right, at least with differential steering. I've been thinking that perhaps I would be better off with Ackerman steering (like a car). And while I'm at it, I wonder whether I might have the back wheels turn as well as the front wheels -- (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) Ah, sort of the 18-wheeler approach to carrying heavy loads. That's not a bad idea; certainly it solves the axle-support and skid-steering problems. But it makes the steering code a much harder problem, doesn't it? I can imagine my poor bot (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) It might work to make a robot that tows the laptop on a trailer setup? At a parent night at my school, I towed small children on a trailer (a couple of physics crash carts that they stood on like skatebaords), using a simple robot driven by (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | RE: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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What about mounting the laptop on a caster platform similar to the syncro platform mentioned earlier, but without all of the drive components. A single set of drive elements, mounted in the middle of the platform, could provide locomotion, while (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) Yes, that's not a bad idea -- nor is the synchro platform, except that that seems a bit complex (and expensive) for me. If I wanted complex and expensive, I'd be building the chassis out of Lexan or aluminum instead of LEGO. :) The trouble (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) I don't see how that solves any problems. (...) How? The trailer still has to have a bunch of axles in order to spread the weight - and when you do that, the trailer is (in effect) skid-steering. (...) That's the cool thing about using a (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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Apologies if this double-posts, Yahoo is in a mood. I solved your problem by purchasing the lightest laptop I could find, a Sony ultralight (PGC 161L, $800 on ebay). It's a hair over 2 lbs, and I've used it on a couple projects: (URL) has a built-in (...) (19 years ago, 10-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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Dan, I remember seeing this robot. I didn't remember that you built it, but its impressive. OT Comment: Can't use $ony products anymore though I think you underestimate the ability of Lego for strength. Construction techniques make it possible to (...) (19 years ago, 10-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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If they can build bridges that can take a few something like 28-30 kilos of weight, then handling a laptop is not impossible. It would really be a matter of doubling up load-bearing beams and supporting them with the right structure, being aware of (...) (19 years ago, 10-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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I built a laptop roving wireless web controlled robot 4 or 5 years ago. Check it out at: (URL) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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Amnon, Wow, you beat me to the goal by miles.... but I will still probably do this, just because... its a Lego thing :) (...) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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(...) very (...) Hi I've read the other messages in this thread, got ideas, wondered if I should reply to one of them, then decided to start a new branch instead. Ok, now some food 4 thought: (I never tried any of these, they're the result of some (...) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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| | Re: Heavy load on LEGO chassis over uneven ground
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(...) Another thing to consider when carrying so much weight is the gear ratio and motor power required. An under-powered robot with excess shaft friction will not drive in a straight line! I built a strong robot chassis a few years ago using 12V (...) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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The answer to the question "How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?" has got to be "Infinite" (assuming that you have infinite amounts of Lego as some people here appear to have!). How's this for a thought experiment: Build a perfectly (...) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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Those master RCX groups could always have their motor outputs setup to perform the act of pushing the on buttons on the other RCXs. The alternative would be a large mechanical switch mechanism made that could be operated, pushing levers down to (...) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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Definitely do-able Joe. I've made several mobile laptop platforms. Here's a crawler that I was planning to use in an bigger project. (URL) plan was to use 4 of them to make a platform like the one that hauls the space shuttle to the launch site. It (...) (19 years ago, 11-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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