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Dexter Industries have released a new Compass sensor for the NXT. Here’s what they say about it: “The Dexter Industries dCompass is a compass sensor for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT. This compact sensor detects magnetic fields for navigation. Using a magnetic sensor, the sensor is able to measure the earth’s magnetic field and returns a magnetic...

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT sets come in three different versions, which can be confusing at times. What are the differences, what do the sets have in common? How about NXT versions and NXT books? This article should answer these questions. If you don’t want to read the whole article, here’s the most important stuff — Later...

Creating and filling up a new website is no mean feat! You may have seen some Lorum Ipsum texts on some of the NXT project pages. That’s intended. I wanted to set up all of those archive pages with illustrations first. The text will come later. Most of the images speak for themselves anyway. Just...

This robotic crane was my first robot arm that was actually quite functional. It could move anywhere on its treads, and the arm had several degrees of freedom, including a wrist that turns. Orginally, I designed this with the RCX (that’s why there are no NXT motors on board), which controlled Power Function receivers with...

This chimney climber should be considered as the first ‘robotic’ climber in the series. Contrary to the older two climbers, this robot uses sensors to tell the robot about its environment. A Mindsensors.com acceleration sensor measures the robot’s tilt on one axis. When unbalanced, the wheel speeds can be adjusted to regain balance. An Ultrasonic...

I received the 8273 Technic set, the “off-road truck” late 2008. Having finished building it, I thought it would be fun to add an NXT and two motors to NXT-ify it. The NXT turned out to fit nicely in the back of the truck. The steer and rear driving wheels are motorized, but you must...

The aim of this sorter was to demonstrate the functionality of a homebrew color sensor, based on the instructions in the “Extreme NXT” book. I have the first edition of the (excellent) book, but the second improved version also has instructions for this color sensor. Below you’ll see the resulting sensor. Three colored LEDs are...

This little jumping robot jumps around on one foot with the help of a walking frame. Youtube viewers collectively suggested it reminded them of an old lady (I can’t blame them). To get a good idea of how it works, just have a look at the video, which is quite self-explanatory. If you have the...

Brick sorters are one of my favorite Mindstorms projects. Simply because they’re fun, and also because they’re more “useful” than most LEGO vehicles that just drive around. This design was made in early 2007, and I shared the building instructions later that year. This was the first time I shared building instructions with the community,...