More detail on the Lego servo motors
The Lego Education site has some information on the new NXT servo motors. Especially the following image is quite interesting:
© Copyright Lego Education
UPDATE on February 23: A quick snapshot of a Lego Racer motor. These motors have more power than the standard Technic motors. Are the NXT motors more powerful too?
posted by Filip @ Wednesday, February 22, 2006
6 Comments:
hmmm... it looks like the encoders on CyberMaster embedded motors.
I've always said the CyberMaster was the perfect framework for mobile bots (roverbots) because of the embeded tachometers on each motor. The only problem was the little amount of RAM and not being capable of dealing with a multi-Cybermaster setup because of RF communication problems.
btw, anyone knows if this type of solution LEGO likes to use, is in anyway better (or easily implemented) than the Back-EMF used in the XRC (GameBoy+Xport+LEGO motors) ? I ask this because it looks bulkier, to say the least.
http://www.charmedlabs.com/xportrobotfaq.htm#What%20is%20%22back-EMF%20sensing%22?
I have been wondering about that myself. Especially because the back-EMF works with old Technic motors too. Judging from their videos, it seems amazingly accurate.
What would be really interesting is if Charmed Labs would have a version that connects up to a NXT Brick instead of a game console. Maybe create a module with their back-EMF technology that connects up to the NXT Brick sensor port, not unlike what HiTechnic does with the multiplexer.
Filip
Ah yes ! A legacy adapter with back-EMF electronics included so one could still use the "new way" to control NXT motors (by angle/speed) with older, smaller and lighter(?) Technic motors. Cool idea :)
I'm assuming that the HiTechnic NXT multiplexer still requires the old way to control the older motors (by power+time).
Maybe John Barnes (HiTechnic) will take that challenge and present something like this on a second version of the multiplexer, or maybe a standalone version just as an adaptor.
I'm really hoping that one of the reasons for the bulkier aspect of the new NXT motors is power. I'm hoping that 1 NXT motor can handle at least the triple of it's own weight. If true, this will help a lot with robot arms and more complex and sofisticated bipeds :)
PS: oops... I just realized now that I could've used HTML tags for the links on my previous comments. Oh well, better late than never ;)
The motors may be more powerful, because their design resembles the Lego Racer motors, which are a lot more powerful than other Technic motors.
I couldn't paste an image here so I've updated the original message to include a quick snapshot of the racer motors.
Yes, I know the Racer Motors. The resemblance was the main reason for me to hope for the NXT motors as more powerfull versions of the old ones, although these motors can draw from 160 mA up to a full 3.2 A of current so that may be harsh to the NXT. Maybe the NXT motors are something in-between, a more balanced version of the prior motors.
Good links, thanks. Hopefully, we'll see some postings from the MDP people on the subject.
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