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This is an update of the RCX rack-and-pinion steering car. The back wheels are driven by one motor. A motor in the front allows for steering using a rack-and-pinion steering mechanism. An ultrasonic sensor in the front detects whether the car is near a wall. If so, the car will back up and start driving...

Admittedly, the ever popular RCX chimney climber was extremely slow. To compensate, here’s a quick version that will travel the same distance in only a few seconds. Still, this robot is equally unstable as its predecessor, because of its badly placed center of gravity.

February 2007 brings you the NXTified version of the disc shooter from the RCX Ultimate Builders Set (#3800). This shooter fires discs when the robot detects any objects with its Ultrasonic Sensor or when it hears a loud sound with the Sound Sensor.  The shooter wheels rotate at a different speed (see the gearing), so...

This robot arm closely resembles the arm that appears in the RIS 2.0 (RCX) set (#3804). But since the NXT set has three motors instead of only two, this design uses independent motors for grabbing and lifting. A third motor is used to rotate on its base. An ultrasonic sensor is mounted on the robot...

This is a direct copy of the walker built with the RCX, primarily built to try out the new NXT system. This build was in fact slight more difficult than the RCX design, because of the NXT motor shape. The only easy way to create two motorized shafts was to use a chain, as shown.

I’ve just completed moving most of my RCX creations to this new blog. Most of them being over 5 years old, they’re not really the same style as my present work, but I thought it would be nice to keep this content available to bring back old memories… Check it out here. I’ve kept the...

The RCX robotics set has many so-called studded pieces: bricks with the well known LEGO studs on top. The NXT uses primarily studless pieces: beams and connectors without studs. Both type of pieces have their advantages, but building with these different pieces requires different building skills. Before migrating to the NXT system, I decided to...

Second in the series of brick sorters is this machine, which sorts black, grey and white bricks and seperates big from small bricks. Bricks are thrown into the brick store, go down to the conveyor belt one by one, and are put into one out of six bins on a rotating platform. Each time I...

These remote control designs can be used for RCX remote communication. One design resembles a ‘steering wheel’, while the other looks more like a common joystick. Click to download the joystick source code and the steering wheel source code.