Category: Featured

The 2014 LEGO Minifigure Catalog is now available

It is my pleasure to announce that the 2014 LEGO Minifigure Catalog is now available. It contains more than 650 Minifigures with detailed photographs and meta data. The book is a whopping 192 pages. I have limited the distribution options to Amazon and hence was able to reduce the price to only $32 USD. This is the biggest year book so far and I dare to say my best one so far.

The book is available for purchase at CreateSpace and at Amazon.com and as an eBook from Lulu. The App will be updated in due time.

National Novel Writing Month

I am participating in the National Novel Writing Month of November. It is the first time I write non scientifically and from the few workshops I recently attended here in Christchurch I realize that this will be an interesting experience. I make steady progress but writing 1666 words daily is challenging. Most of all because there are all those other tasks that sneak up on me.

New Zealand Herald reports on our 3D printed robot project

The New Zealand Herald reports today on our project to build a InMoov robot. This robot is open source hardware, meaning that all the blueprints and plans are available for download. You can send the files directly to your 3D printer and produce all the necessary parts yourself. Here is a time laps movie of the assembly of the head.

Topographical LEGO Map of Middle Earth

For the Christchurch Brick Show 2014 I build a Topographical LEGO Map of Middle Earth. I measures 2×2 meters and consists of 7 levels. It took approximately 30.000 bricks and four months to build the map. All the main characters of both books are presented on the map as minifigures. Even the path of the ring is illustrated through a breadcrumb style line of golden 1×1 round bricks. The map is accurate as much as a map of a fantastic land can be. I heavily consulted The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. This project was made possible through a strategic grant of LUG 4/2. I also created an album at Flickr for this MOC.

Spirograph Automaton made with LEGO Mindstorms EV3

This Spirograph Automaton is a LEGO drawing machine based on the the popular toy and the ideas of PG52. This version extends previous designs by using LEGO Mindstorms EV3. The Spirograph Automaton knows when the pattern is complete and lifts the pen at the right time. You no longer have to observe the machine to stop it when the drawing is complete. The gears are optimized to give fast results so that the children do not have to wait too long. I also build a coin detector that triggers the Spirograph Automaton.

The building instructions are available.

spirograph-automaton-bartneck-small

Please notice that the instructions do not include the three Mindsensors’ GlideWheel-AS sensors. They are not part of the LDD library. And neither is the part 14720 (Technic, Liftarm 3 X 5 Perpendicular H-Shape Thick) of which you will need two. You will also need four rubber bands, may it be from LEGO or otherwise. You can also consider using the Technic Changeover Plate (6631) for a better gear shifting experience. The complete parts list is available at ReRrickable.

The required software is available here. You need to run the program “calibrate” before running the program “draw”. Otherwise you will get a file reading error.