Video tutorials -

• LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

As we are already off the season we decided to look back at the competition. First, we will take a look at the working solution for FIRST LEGO League 2017 Manhole Cover. This was generally accepted as one of the most difficult missions during the competition. We've built a single attachment to accomplish it. 

(we are releasing the video without explanations and will add the explanations later)

A clutch is a mechanical device that is used for engaging or disengaging power transmission. Now we will see how we can make such a device using LEGO.

The after season review continues. No. We are not publishing a single solution for the next season before it is over, but let's learn from the previous season. The current tutorial is about three missions at once on a single run with the robot. Most FIRST LEGO League teams try to accomplish one-two missions on a single run out of the base, and three is really what makes the difference

This video tutorial is part of the series on how to make your robot 100% precise and accurate. We accomplish the Emergency Walk mission 10 out of 10 times. The attachment works. Every time the attachment is started in successfully accomplishes the mission and this is one of the most difficult missions on FIRST LEGO League competitions ever. 

Gears could be a powerful tool for those who know how to use them appropriately. In this episode we introduce some of the basic terms and concepts behind using gears in your construction.

In this episode we build a reusable attachment for a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot that changes gears orientation and direction. It is one of the most useful attachments that you could use to move levers up/down and right/left. Adding the attachment on the robot takes 2-3 seconds and shows a very useful general principle of how to build reusable attachments.

In part 1 of How to on Gears tutorial I introduced you to the basics of the gear systems. Now we are going to examinate gear systems with more than two gears and take a look at cascade gear systems.

Based on feedback from many of you in this episode I would like to show you how to build an active attachment that changes the orientation of a gear wheel placed vertically to a gear wheel placed horizontally. This attachment could be used in competitions and shows a basic principle of changing the orientation. All attachments could follow the same principle. 

In this video lesson I am building a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 active attachment powered by a small gear wheel. The attachment could move up and down, it is very useful for collecting objects. It could easily be adapted and used on other robots.

We are making a parallel with Video Lesson 56 from the series and we are also showing ways to improve the stability of an axle which is most of the time neglected, but could lead to great problems.

In this episode we continue from Episode 55 and we improve the durability and stability of the attachment for a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot. Many times attachments are not very stable which results in gaps between parts. The goal of the video is to give basic construction ideas.

Given the large number of gear wheels and axles in each EV3 and NXT sets there are many possibilities for building gear mechanisms. We are developing something like a gear box that has different axles that could all turn in different directions.

We are describing the Warm gear in this video. This worm gear does most of the magic of controlling how the different gear wheels move on the different axles. 

In this third video we show some of the tricks in building this Multi-axles mechanism. Things you could learn from an use in your next constructions. 

"What is the light in the room?" - should it even matter. You can use one program for all lighting conditions by calibrating the color/light sensor of the LEGO Mindstorms EV3/NXT robots. 

Part four of the Catapult series is again about loading the catapult automatically but this time using EV3 brick, motor and sensor. We use a gear system with a medium complexity along with a "standard clutch" available in the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kits. As a result, at the end of the video, the Catapult loads and fires automatically.

Starting with the World Robotics Olympiad 2014 Junior-High challenge we first catch the object on our path. We discuss a good mechanism for catching and lifting balls that can do two movements with one motor. 

In this second video lesson on catapults we improve the stability of the base of the robot. An important feature of the new base is that it is not bending. Use the same principle in all of your constructions to achieve better, stronger robots.

Extend the previously build attachment for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Nature's Fury competition so that we can move the Truck and Ambulance up and down. 

Part three of the Catapult series is about loading the catapult automatically. We use a gear system with a medium complexity along with a very interesting "clutch" developed with parts entirely from the LEGO Mindstorms NXT kits. As a result, at the end of the video, the Catapult automatically loads and fires.

Time to lift the robot. The first approach is by using the 40 teeth gear wheels that come with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and NXT robotics sets. 

Build a similar mechanism to this one. Similar, but for your robot. This is the task for you. Try, give yourself half and hour or even an hour.

Connect the attachment to the box robot and find the correct number of rotations of the middle motor that would bring the robot up and forward and would attach it to the mission model.

Vision is still one of the very few fields where a human being could outsmart a computer. Still. Colour/Light sensors are the cornerstones of implementing a smart LEGO Mindstorms robot that could at least partially do "vision". In this video tutorial, we are using the robotics sensor to detect loading and unloading of the catapult.

How great is the great attachment for lifting that we built in this course? How many times can it lift the robot without making an error? How great are your attachments and how could you test them? - the answer is simple. Just try 10 times and they should work at least 9 of them as our attachment is.

Here is our solution for preventing torsion and bending of the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 axles.

How to align the wheels and how much should you push for this solution?

There were a few problems with the 40 teeth gears that we were using. Let's list some of them