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.

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.

Number zero

Number zero (N0) is my first attempt to build a robot. This toy tractor is built from LEGO® Technic parts. (back view) The toy is driven by Java ME™ MIDlet on a mobile phone via Bluetooth (JSR82). Small board on the tractor comprise of BlueSMiRF Bluetooth class 1 module and Atmel's ATmega88 controller. Two 71427 LEGO® 9V motors are controlled by TI's SN754410 configured as a dual H-bridge.