Test Lego motor

Test the motor to make sure each pin's function, as well as the connection of the wire.

Just connect pin 1 and 2 to a power supply(9V) and connect pin 3 to gnd, pin 4 to 4.3 V, pin 5&6 to oscilloscope. then the motor ran and the encoder feed back 2 signal, which was shown on oscilloscope. From the 2 signal we can calculate the speed of the motor 

The detail method wound not be introduced here, but it is a good question for students .

Hack the lego NXT motor

There are 6 pin on the motor.
Pin Number          color             name
    1               white             M1
    2               black             M2
    3                Red              GND
    4               Green           4.3 power
    5               Yellow           Tach 00
    6               Blue             Tach 01


Pin 1&2  provide power to the motor
pin 3: GND
pin 5&6: used for the optical encoder build in the NXT motors.

Hack the Lego NXT- (transformation port )

Port Transformation:
 the port of lego(NXT) hardware is like RJ12 (normal telephone port), they all are 6 pins inside. but not  exactly same.

RJ12:

 

 NXT Port :

 The NXT port  and adoptor are not easy to find, so I decide to make a NXT port to 6 pins wire myself. Then I can connect the NXT moter to SK10 board.

The wire is remaked from a NXT port to NXT port Cable. Just remove one PLUG. As each wire in this cable is very thin and soft, it is not good to work on the SK10 board. So I solder them  to the wires which are suitable to work on SK10 board.  Insulating tape was used to make sure all pins are not short-circuit with each other as well as fix them.

The cable are tested by the NXT motor, it works well!

 

Althought it is a very small and easy work in the whole projcet, It is a good start!! 

Lego Mindstorm+IPAD

Lego mindstorm NXT2.0 would be a good choice in this project. It is relatively cheap.

the motors and sensors in lego kit are all useful hardware in this project.

Headphone Jack connection

Here is two example of using 3.5mm Jack as I/O connection.

1.Sensor Data to iPhone Through the Headphone Jack (Using Arduino)

2. iOS IR Remote with Arduino

Interface sulotion

A possible method of connection

http://www.redpark.com/c2db9.html

A good way to build the mechanical part

A good way to build the mechanical part
http://www.gearseds.com/solar_tracker.html

It is really good kit to build everything you want.
BUT it very very very expensive!!( about 1000 euro)

IMPOSSIBLE