Ever wonder exactly how to use a servo motor? How about 16 of them from a single serial connection?

Make Magazine’s Blog dug up an interesting way to accomplish this. To update servo positions, a host sends a serial signal to an Amtel microcontroller. The Amtel remembers the positions and generates 16 different control signals. (One signal for each servo). The data is sent as follows:

• Byte1 = Sync (255)
• Byte2 = Servo# (0-15)
• Byte3 = Position (0-254)

The host is either the serial port of a computer or a single pin of a master microcontroller. Therefore, a PC program similar to his own can be used to find the exact servo positions necessary for the application before the code is embedded on a microcontroller in the robot.

Schematics and code are included. Other than that you are on your own.

I am a huge fan of the original LEGO® Minstorms™. The platform seems to be dead lately, in spite of the FIRST LEGO® League and ongoing hacks of the RCX. Personally, building custom sensors and hacking on BrickOS were the only things that attracted me. The standard components and programming enviroment were better suited for children, but too complex and boring to keep their attention.

However, LEGO® Mindstorms™ NXT is poised change everything and bring the joy of hacking to less experienced LEGO® users through 3rd party support! Everything has been revamped and a team of four major Mindstorms™ community members contributed to the new design. NXT corrects several major downfalls and encourages hacking.

The Troy, NY company that invented a mechanism for powering a vehicle with square wheels has been all over the web lately. Their idea is obvious, but ingenious. The square wheels are turned by a rotating mass mounted atop the vehicle. Everything is angled precisely causing each wheel to successively roll flat as the mass rotates around the vehicle.

Several LEGO maniacs decided to try this on their own. (Video included in the first link.) The results are simple and successful.

Philo’s Solution (with video)

Alexander’s Solution