Number one

Number one (N1) is a robot which actually runs on a mobile phone. N1 has two parts: body and brain. The body consists of slightly modified chassis of N0 and tiny ARM® based computer which acts as brain spinal cord (BSC). N1 brain, located on a mobile phone and implemented as a Java ME program, connects to its BSC through Bluetooth®. There are some further technical details and photos on the robot's home page as well as a video which shows N1 equipped with infrared distance sensor in action.

Shrinkning Sharp GP2D120

I needed to mount vertically Sharp GP2D120 on a micro servo. To reduce sensor's dimensions I decided to get rid of standard mounting holes and connector. Removing mounting holes is simple job while removing the connector involves cutting a part of sensor's PCB. After a bit of head scratching, I moved a resistor and replaced several wires routed on the PCB under connector. Finally, I drilled two tiny holes on the top part of the sensor's body for a wire which attaches the sensor to the servo.

Mounting a PCB on LEGO

I was looking for a while for a simple way of mounting a PCB on a construction made of LEGO® parts. Through-hole mount requires precise location of holes on a PCB and limits mounting flexibility as well as consumes a lot of valuable space on the board. The best solution to date for me is a three - four slightly modified LEGO® axle pins (gray pin is original and blue pin is modified) which hold edges of a PCB. The modification of four axle pins took about a minute thanks to DREMEL® rotary tool armed with 199 High Speed Cutter.