New Hitechnic sensor!

Hitechnic has just announced their next sensor!  It's a barometric sensor.  With a built-in temperature sensor and an altimeter (of sorts).

The sensor can measure 1/1000th Inch of Mercury (inHg) and 1/10th Hectopascals.  And temperature is measured in 1/10th degree Celsius and Fahrenheit.  (Fahrenheit is just a conversion from Celsius).  The elevation sensing part of it can measure in Feet and Meters.

"By default, the altitude calculation is based on a "standard atmosphere" with an altitude pressure at sea-level of 29.921 inHg."  (HiTechnic)

Maybe if you had the Compass, Barometric, and Angle sensors, you could build a robotic weatherman!

They are asking the normal HT sensor price: $54.95

jojoguy10

I'm still here!

Hello everyone!  I'm back from a long absence.

There has been a lot of updates since my last post, and I want to post some of them here.

MINDSENSORS

Mindsensors has released their newest product!  The Servo Operated Pneumatic Valve Kit!  This is their servo-controller pneumatic valve.  For $22.95 you can get it WITH a valve included or $19.45 WITHOUT a valve.

On other news, they6 also have a new "Coming Soon..." sensor!  The Dual-Relay driver for NXT.

"With this device, you will be able to control two relays. (You could also use it to power on/off high power motors).
Rated for 18 Volts, 10 Amps." (Mindsensors)

 

HITECHNIC

For hiTechnic, They have a new block out!  The PID motor block! It gives the ability to accurately control a NXT servo motor.  It was used in their new sample model, the IR RC Kart, that uses the PID block instead of a differential.





DEXTER INDUSTRIES

And, last, but not least, Dexter Ind.  They have been a bunch of busy bee's with their WiFi sensor and their dGPS sensor (And now the new Thermal IR Camera sensor!).  Let's start with the WiFi sensor.

Their new WiFi sensor (not yet for sale) gives the user the ability to control their robot through the internet!  Xander Soldaat has been beta testing it and has created a camera and a few simple commands that YOU can give to HIS robot through the INTERNET!!  You can play around with his NXT too!  Just go to his blog: http://mightor.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/want-to-play-with-my-nxt/

Next, is their Thermal IR Camera Sensor.  It was just mentioned today by D.I. themselves. With it, you will be able to tell the temperature of an object...WITHOUT touching it!  If you've ever watched the TV show "MythBusters", you might know what these are.  They are a special camera that shows a "heat map" of the object(s) the camera is looking at.  The sensor D.I. is going to use can measure objects as hot as 380 degrees Celsius!

Well, hope you enjoyed this LONG re-cap post!

jojoguy10

P.S.  May be moving back to Blogger soon!  YAY!

Mindsensors "mystery" sensor named!

You know that mystery sensor that mindsensors had on their "Coming Soon" page?  Well, they named it!  Yup, now, it's a "Touch Screen Overlay for NXT"  "This Touch Screen Overlay is designed to fit on the NXT brick, over the LCD, and correspond the touch point with LCD pixels."

Pretty neat!

jojoguy10

More new sensors!

YAY!  Don't you just LOVE new sensors?  I do!  Well, Mindsensors does too!  In their "Coming Soon" page, they have added two more sensors:  a "Dual Relay Driver for NXT" and a "Pneumatic Control from NXT".

Dual Relay Driver

"With this device, you will be able to control two relays. (You could also use it to power on/off high power motors).
Rated for 30 Volts, 13 Amps."

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="NXT relay Driver"][/caption]

Pneumatic Control

"This Servo Operated Pneumatic Valve can be controlled from NXT using NXTServo-v2.
The kit will include the valve, servo and necessary hardware and instructions to assemble the valve."

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Pneumatic Control"][/caption]



Good job Mindsensors!  I'm really looking at the Pneumatic Control and thinking "YAY!"  I've always had trouble working with the valve and trying to make it work with the NXT motor, and now I can!  I hope it will be accurate!

jojoguy10

Welcome dGPS!

Hello everybody!

It's been a while since I've posted on here!  From Dexter Industries, they brought out their new GPS Sensor! We have been beta testing this for maybe 2 months!  I have a couple of ideas on how to test it :-)

1. Robot that goes around in the snow


2. Robot that draws a specific points (depending on what coordinates are)


3. Maybe a robot that will track a line on where I've gone (like a real GPS!)

Well, it's snowing over here right now, and it's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit (about -5 degrees Celsius), and I wanna make a SLEDDING ROBOT!  Maybe just a simple tracked robot that crawls in the snow!

The podcast is coming off at a slow start.  I can't start recording till about December 4th.  So, I'm just perfecting the script right now (since all of the news that I HAD written is now old news).  I made that promise that I will post it BEFORE Christmas, and I will try my hardest to make it that way!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

jojoguy10

Another datalogging experiment - GPS

Well...I made a new datalog experiment using the beta version of the Dexter Industries GPS sensor!  I logged the latitude, longitude, velocity, and heading, all with just one sensor!  It was about a 25-min. drive.  And, the sensor tracked us all the way from point A, to point B.  Here are some graphs for you to see:



It may be kind of hard to see, but by looking at these, we can see a few things.  First, we can see that I was traveling mostly North and East.  Second, we can see how many left and right turns I made.  We can see where I stopped and was going.

Thanks for looking at my website!

jojoguy10

New HiTechnic Sensor is out!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="208" caption="HiTechnic Magnetic Sensor"][/caption]



*We Will Rock You*

Woooo!  Ya!  HiTechnic has done it again!  Caught us by surprise with a new sensor!  But, this sensor is no ordinary sensor.  This...is the HITECHNIC MAGNETIC SENSOR!!!!!  You can buy it (Currently OoS) at http://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NMS1035

jojoguy10

HiTechnic added 4 sensor blocks to the Sensor MUX product page!

YAY!  We've been waiting FOREVER to get these!  HiTechnic has added the Touch, sound, light, and Ultrasonic sensor SMUX NXT-G programming blocks to the SMUX's product page!  Just scroll down, and they'll be at the bottom of the SMUX's page!  Now, I'm going to try to save up for it!  SMUX, here I come!!

jojoguy10

More "coming soon" stuff from Mindsensors!!

A few months ago, I posted about Mindsensors' Altimeter that will be coming soon. Now, Mindsensors has added two more items to the list! Here they are: a Numeric keypad, and a OBD-II interface. The numeric keypad should be self-explanatory, but the OBD-II interface is a little more advanced. The OBD-II interface will allow the NXT to record data from...guess...your CAR!  Quoted from Mindsensors' "coming soon" page:

With this interface, you will be able to connect NXT to a car's computer, and
- Find out and log actual mileage of your car.
- Get performance characteristics and log that data.
- Find out engine codes and/or reset them.

more about OBD-II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obd-ii#OBD-II

jojoguy10

Upcoming dSolar from Dexter Industries!

You saw it here first people!  The first showing of Dexter Industries' new sensor: dSolar!  Here are the list of features for the dSolar:

1. Can power the NXT (either direct or with a capacitor bank)


2. Can charge an iPod


3. Can charge the LEGO Battery Pack


4. Plugs into the NXT very easily


5. You can program it to read the Volts coming from the dSolar

Here are some pictures:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="579" caption="dSolar"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="582" caption="dSolar and components"][/caption]

dSolar Demonstration video

You can see more pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Jojoguy10/DSolar02#

jojoguy10

LEGO Color/Light/Lamp sensor is now for sale at LEGO Education!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="LEGO Color Sensor"][/caption]

Yay!  The LEGO's Color sensor from the NXT 2.0 set has come out for purchase!  And...guess what...it's only $35!!!  That's considerably cheap (compared to the HiTechnic Color Sensors).  Well...what are you waiting for?!  Go out there, and buy it!  :-)

jojoguy10