Imagine Create Share Play

Some thoughts after last year's FLL season

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

FLL ROBOT ISSUES/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS/WORK FLOW

The first thing is to test to see if your robot goes straight. Everything else follows.

Second - figure out how to make a consistent 90 degree turn and share it with the group.

Stop the insanity! If you don't start at the exact same place every time, don't expect the results to be the same.

First things to check before running a mission. Is the battery fully charged? Have you checked the robot to see if its sturdy, the wheels are aligned, everything is plugged in, the mat is flat, the playing field is set up?

Program one step at a time, don't change more than one thing at a time.

Don't “fix” things that are working just because it doesn’t work once.

Don’t be a "robot hog". Only the person who will be running the mission at the competition should be lining up the robot and pushing the button.

Keep your programs organized and don’t forget to save them with a backup.
Don't delete anything. Save it as a different name.

If you want to "improve" an attachment or program - Make a copy of it. The proof is in the pudding - have a contest to see which one is better.

Once an attachment is finished - put it in the vault (envelope) , so it doesn't get taken apart by accident.

Learn fast - find out if something is not going to work early so you can try something else.

Time is real. There is only a certain amount of time available and at some point you just have to go with what you have. The day of the competition is not the time to be making changes.
Respect the work of others. Don't come in after missing a meeting and start questioning the work of others. Don’t touch anyone else’s attachments or programs unless you have their permission.

Before making a change to the program. Run the mission a few times. Figure out if it really is a problem with the programming or something else.

Is the robot running/turning too fast? Too fast and the wheels slip.

Learn the difference between “braking” and “coasting”

Make and use a measuring device to measure rotation and speed up your programming time.

Use alignment jigs and the game board to your advantage to line up your robot.

Learn to use sensors and incorporate sensors into the robot’s design

Be willing to give up your ideas if the team has a better one. The goal is for the team to do well, not for your individual idea to be used. If you are convinced your idea will work better - prove it.

Think stupidly simple. Think about the quickest, easiest way to accomplish tasks. There are not points awarded for complexity.

Focus on the tasks you have been assigned. When you have mastered your missions then you can help others.

Learn from watching other teams but don’t copy them. How do you know what they are doing is any better than your ideas?

Get down to “points per second” analysis to judge which missions to complete.

Free images for use in educational presentations or reports

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:45:00 +0000

Free images for use in educational presentations and reports.

If you are a designer, here you can download high resolution RF stock images for free.
If you are a photographer, the heavy traffic of this section offers you the opportunity to achieve great portfolio exposure by offering free images.

Out of the box thinking from Nintendo with the new Wii U

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:38:00 +0000

The "U" is for you - a more personalized Wii to capture the causal gaming market. More:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Nintendos-Wii-U-Touchscreen-Controller

How I fixed the flickering screen on my NXT robot

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:38:00 +0000

Hey it worked! I fixed one of the NXT robots I use in my AVA classes! I'm so proud of myself. ;-) Now we'll have an extra NXT brain in case something happens to one of them.

Here is how I did it in case it happens to your Mindstorms Nxt - http://hubpages.com/hub/How-I-fixed-my-Lego-Mindstorms-NXT-Robot

Text to Speech Movie Maker

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:12:00 +0000

At my last Scratch class I was asked if Scratch could do text to speech instead of recording vocal tracks. It can not...but I did recently find a text to speech movie making software that allows one to create rather robotic but usable text to speech animated movies.

link

Lego Mindstorms NXT Repair Tips - Screen Shows Lines

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 27 May 2011 11:37:00 +0000

Here is a common problem with the Lego Mindstorms NXT - lines flying around the screen. All is not lost - here is the solution:

http://forums.nxtasy.org/index.php?showtopic=2713

Lego Mindstorms NXT Repair Tips - Screen Doesn't Work

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 27 May 2011 11:14:00 +0000

I've been teaching robotics with the Lego Mindstorms NXT system for several years now. I have core of four NXT units I use with up to eight student and I have two other NXTs in need of repair. The NXTs are tough but they are not tough enough to be dropped several times. One of my NXT works but the screen doesn't light up. I found this repair procedure that I'm going to try to revive it.

Article on Scratch

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:21:00 +0000

When I was in high school back in the early 80s personal computers were just becoming available to the average person. The school still managed report cards using punch out cards feed into a huge mainframe. The only programming we were exposed to was BASIC on Apple II computers. Today's kids can learn programming as soon as first grade depending on their natural ability using a simple, easy to use programming "language" called Scratch....

http://hubpages.com/hub/Kids-Learn-to-Program-with-free-Scratch-software-from-MIT

Teach the Controversy

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:05:00 +0000

“Teach the Controversy” t-shirts

Mindstorms NXT Pole Climber

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:44:00 +0000

I gave Caffrey a challenge to build a robot that could climb one of the classroom poles...

This is at my Mars Exploration class at the AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH. We have a great space to work with, eight computers plus a teachers computer with digital projection. High speed internet. Plenty of room to spread out and build Lego machines, robots, rovers. Currently I am running a class on robotics and a class on Scratch programming. I'll have two sold out summer camps this summer. Planning out my fall offerings.

Lego Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Robotic Zoo and MoonBots

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:04:00 +0000

I'm currently teaching a class on NXT Robotics at the AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH. I have two more summer camps this summer at the AVA - both are sold out.

I also have a few kids working on the MoonBots challenge from Google.

Teaching - Upcoming Classes at the AVA Gallery in Lebanon NH

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:04:00 +0000

I'm currently teaching a class after school on Thursdays on creative programming with Scratch. You can still sign up for the next session. This spring and summer I'll be doing some cool robotics classes.

AVA Gallery and Arts Center
info@avagallery.org
11 Bank Street Lebanon, NH 03766

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The Robotic Zoo

April 29 - May 27

Thursdays, 4:00-5:30pm

Residents of a distant moon base miss the wild creatures of their home planet. Build and program wonderful creatures to fill their "Robotic Zoo!" Using Lego Minstorms NXT robotics systems, participants will create autonomous robots that seem to have a life of their own.

Robotics — Mission to Mars

July 12 - 16

Monday - Friday, 1:00 - 4:00pm

Participants will design and program rovers to complete missions on the surface of Mars, including delivery, retrieval, and activation using Lego NXT robots. Taught by an experienced First Lego League mentor, this course is a perfect introduction to Lego robotic systems as used in the First Lego League competitions.

Edward Fielding

Robotics — The Mayan Temple

July 5 - 9

Monday - Friday, 1:00 - 4:00pm

What secrets lie hidden in the recently discovered Mayan ruins? Using a simple programming language in AVA's Digital Arts Media Lab, participants will build Lego NXT robotic explorers to unlock these ancient mysteries! Taught by an experienced First Lego League mentor, this course is a perfect introduction to Lego robotic systems as used in the First Lego League competitions.

Vibrobot Family Workshop at the AVA Lebanon

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:35:00 +0000

Oct. 17th 2009 - Vibrobot workshop at Lebanon's AVA Gallery and Art Center.

The kids with help from their parents made some really cool Vibrobot creatures. Vibrobots are little robots made from recycled materials and powered by tiny cell phone or pager motors.

The kids brought their imagination to the table full of 3v batteries, pager motors, wire, solder, sticky table and a lot of hot melt glue.

Arduino + Processing - Serial Communication

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:40:00 +0000

It's surprisingly easy to get Arduino talking to Processing via Serial Communication. You can send sensor readings to Processing and make things happen there or send data from Processing to Arduino.

A good start is the Virtual Color Mixer project. Very simple and quick. Just remember after loading the sketch to the Arduino to shut down the software on your computer before running the Processing sketch otherwise the Arduino holds on to the port and won't let go!

Next step is I want to get a couple of sensors on the Arduino to represent the x,y cords. of a mouse. I'm going to start here: Lucky Larry's Arduino + Processing

Arduino Wave Shield

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:12:00 +0000

I recently built and have been playing around with a Adafruit Wave Shield for the Arduino. Basically you are building your own iPod type device although it plays low quality wave files and not MP3s but it's an iPod that can respond to sensors and provide outputs.

Couple of handy links:

Interface class for the Arduino Wave Shield

Free sound samples

Mistake of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:43:00 +0000

I was building a Wave Shield for Arduino (available from Adafruit ) and of course nothing worked the first time.

I checked all the solder joints, went online looking for software problems, checked the sound files, formatting of the SD card etc. I looked at the serial output of the program and everything there checked out. Finally I starred at my board and the picture of a completed board on the website and DUH! I saw the problem. I had put one of the capacitors in a spot where an LED was suppose to go! I was so busy trying to make sure I had the polarization right that I wasn't paying attention to the component description.

In any project a zillion things could go wrong. Best advice is to take your time and double check everything.

Amazing Yard Sale Find!

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:36:00 +0000

Lego Mars Rover - found at a yard sale for $5. What an incredible find! My son was focused on building this all day!

Got some spare time and a bunch of Legos?

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:49:00 +0000

Spelling Fun with IPod Touch

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:51:00 +0000

We've been having fun with our new Ipod Touch. Its an amazingly simple to use device. This has to be the future of computing. Maybe Microsoft will get a clue and realize that the Iphone type of operating system is what people would like to see computers do. That is start up instantly, provide quick and easy to applications.

The Ipod Touch has all the capabilities that probably 80% of the computer users out there use. If it had a bigger screen, a real keyboard and Quicken it would be perfect for most household computing tasks.

I wait for the day when one of these things is mounted in every room of the house in the place of wall switches. Networked music, light controls, security, access to information from where ever you are etc.

Anyway, one unexpected plus for our household has been access to some neat educational apps. We've been playing with some spelling games and math games to give our fifth grader a little boast in those areas. Its certainly more fun than the worksheets that have been coming home as homework.

How to Fix a Dead IPod Touch 2G - The Secret

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Can I tell you how much I hate technology?

An upcoming trip to Europe pushed us over the edge to buy a Ipod Touch 2G. We figured it would help out with entertain us, give us the opportunity to perhaps get email on the run and use some cool apps like maps and travel guides as we tour London and Paris.

Well, yesterday was a very exciting mail delivery day when the new Ipod Touch arrived from Amazon. Right out of the box I marveled at how easily it came alive and synced up with my Itunes software and a few games and apps I had downloaded. I was praising Apple for its advanced usability compared to my very much hated underpowered Vista laptop which is the only computer in the household that works with Itunes. My old reliable desktop computer running XP never can load Itunes because it won't install Quicktime. But anyway back to the story.

So everything was peachy keen that is until I was tempted to upgrade my Itunes software for $9.95. At first I was a bit outraged at the idea of upgrading for money but I went for it anyway.

Then my brand Ipod Touch 2G simply dies. Blank screen. No reaction to any button pressing, wouldn't even be recognized as a USB device. But this story has a happy ending and after hours and hours of trying to revive it let me just jump to what worked for me.

First I tried the following suggested methods of reviving a dead Ipod Touch:

http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch/troubleshooting/ipodtouch/

But I had better luck with the "DFU" method:

DFU mode is a mode where the iPod Touch/iPhone will be made to force a restore of the firmware into whatever version firmware it is given.

Getting your iPod Touch/iPhone into DFU mode is somewhat tricky, and it may require some patience/practice because timing is essential to get it to DFU mode and not into recovery mode.

1. First, Open up iTunes, plug in your iPod Touch/iPhone to the CPU's USB port. Turn on your CPU's speaker and make sure it is loud enough that you can hear it.

2. Hold down the Home button (top left for iPod Touch and top right for the iPhone with the screen facing you) and the Power button (located on the front bottom of your iPod Touch/iPhone) simutaneously, until the screen goes black and the device turns off. (past the red slider/slide to power off screen)

3. Now let go of the Power button, but continue to hold the Home button. Your iPod Touch/iPhone should have turned off and the screen should not be on.

4. After around ~10-20 seconds, you will hear a noise (beep/ding) from your CPU as if it had just recognized a new hardware device, now iTunes should recognize it in DFU mode.

5. After iTunes recognizes the iPod Touch/iPhone, let go of the Home button otherwise it will go into recovery mode and you will have to do the entire DFU process over again.

6. You will know when you have put your iPod Touch/iPhone correctly into DFU mode when the display is blank and that you do not have anything on your device.

My problem was first that it took many many tries to get into the DFU recovery process and when it did get started it would stop about half way through and give me an error message (error 6 to be precise).

MY SECRET FOR FIXING A DEAD IPOD TOUCH

The solution I found for fixing my IPOD Touch was to do all the above BUT with my Zone Alarm virus checking software turned off. It seems that during the Ipod Touch restore process that it needs to communicate with Itunes headquarters about half way through and the security software was blocking the connection. With the security software turned off I had no problem restoring my Ipod Touch.

I hope this helps anyone out there with a dead Ipod Touch especially anyone thinking of throwing theirs against the wall. Did I mention I hate technology?

Meet the Arduino Electronic Brick

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:33:00 +0000

I've been working with Mindstorms NXT robots for a few years now and I'm just getting into the Arduino open source microprocessor platform. Trying to learn all about it has been exciting as well as confusing will plenty of forehead slapping moments of DUH! its a lot easier than I thought.

With the Lego Mindstorms NXT you had one software package (well there are a few other ones available) and the familiar Lego building system to work with and it was available from a single manufacturer. Even the prices of the hardware seems to be fixed in stone.

The challenge of Arduino is that it is an open source platform which means that any one can design their own version of the product. So there are official versions and tons of modified versions of the main processing board as well as a ton of things called "shields".

Shields are basically add on boards that help to interface with the Arduino boards. There are all kinds of them, prototyping shields, robotic shields, Ethernet shields. Each adds features to help out with various projects. But you still have to jump into the electronics workbench type stuff like soldering or using solderless breadboards. Believe me this is the path I started down, collecting a bunch of stuff for my workbench until I found a shield that makes working with Arduino a lot like the plug and play sensors and motors of the Lego NXT world.

The Electronic Brick Sensor Shield attaches to the Arduinio board and provides jacks for a series of Electronic Brick components. They simply plug in without breadboards or soldering.

"By using electronic bricks, you may connect Arduino compatible boards easily with various digital, analog and I2C/Uart interfaces. These the breadboard-less firm connection are prepared to extensive modules like poteniometers, sensors, relays, servos...even buttons, just plug and play.

Each terminal module has buckled port with VCC, GND and Output, which has corresponding port on the sensing board, with a plain 2.54mm dual-female cable you may start playing already. Buckled brick cables are like cement for bricks, make the connections easier, secure and more professional looking."

The Electronic Brick, an Arduino sensor shield for an easier Arduino hardware interface for beginners and even old pros.

This is great for beginners or kids learning to put together Arduino projects. It simplifies the hardware end of things but will raise the costs of the project. The Sensor Shield sells for $20 and the individual components cost more than loose parts would but they can easily be reused like the parts in the Lego NXT robotic kits. Perfect for schools or workshops.

There are a wide range of sensors and components (leds, push buttons) available including:

Sharp distance measuring sensor(Analog)
PIR motion sensor(digital)
Multi Rotary sensor(analog)
Temperature sensor(Analog)
Mercury tilt switch(digital)
Light sensor(Analog)
Playstation2 analog joystick(Analog)
Lighting Emitting Diode(A/D)
Small push button
Large push button
Capacitive Touch module
Buzzer
Sound module (microphone with amp)

2pin plugable terminal module(digital) This brick is a simple plugable terminal module, you can easily plug some other stuff into this wiitout connect the wire to the terminal every time.

ADXL330 Acceleration sensor(analog)
Carbon monoxide Sensor(MQ7)
Electricity meter(Analog)
Gas sensor(MQ5)
Rotary angle sensor (Analog)
Smoke sensor(MQ2)

5V Relay module (digital) - This Brick uses Omron G5AL relay module to control high-votage elecrical devices. (maximum 250V).

Magnetism switch(Digital)

Lots more than what is available on the NXT plus you can add more sensors to the Arduino and the Arduino is cheaper than the NXT. With Arduino you can afford to build standalone projects and not have to take them apart.

I found my Electronic Bricks on Ebay (seller "pokaralake" also known as Robot Cart) and from http://www.seeedstudio.com

The Electronic Brick series comes from FlamingoEDA

Getting Started with Arduino

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:34:00 +0000

First off what the heck is Arduino?

"Arduino is a physical computing platform based on a simple I/O board and a development environment that uses the Wiring library to simplify writing C/C++ programs that run on the board. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software running on a computer (e.g., Adobe Flash, Processing, Max/MSP, Pure Data, SuperCollider). Currently shipping versions can be purchased pre-assembled; hardware design information is available for those who would like to assemble an Arduino by hand."

In other words Arduino is an easy to use, hobbyist programmable little computer that can be used for all sorts of projects from interactive lights to robots.

The best way to learn about Arduino and the possibilities is with this inexpensive guide written by one of the people who created Arduino:

After reading the book you'll want to dive in and try out the examples yourself! The confusing part is assembling all of the components you'll need. This kit will give you a great start and can be used to create the examples from the book and beyond:

Snake Wrangling for Kids: Learning to Program with Python

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Snake Wrangling for Kids is a free ebook (CC licensed) specifically written for teaching kids ages 8 and older how to program, using Python.

This one is meant to be printed out and stapled together and given to a child as a gift. (and not necessarily your own child, either)

It comes in 3 different flavors (Mac, Linux, Windows) and 2 different versions (for Python 3 & Python 2).

http://code.google.com/p/swfk/downloads/list

Zion Plug - Scratch to Physical World

noreply@blogger.com (Dogford Studios) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Zion Plug is a simple vb.net program which allow you to connect your Scratch program to the physical world. Zion Plug just serve a message router purpose which route the message to and from any connection connected to the Zion Plug.

http://scratchconnections.wik.is/User:Fm/Zion_Plug