07/20/2006
Top 10 Coolest LEGO Gadgets
10. NXT Way - The Self-Balancing LEGO Bot
The inspiration for this robot is of course Steve Hassenplug's Legway, the world-famous self-balancing LEGO robot. The control program is much more rudimentary than Steve's, but is sufficient for NXTway to keep balanced for a while...[Source]
9. LEGO Brick Simon Game
8. LEGO Vending Machine
7. LEGO GumGun
Put simply, this rapid fire rubber band gun is one of the coolest LEGO creations we've come across. Unfortunately, no instructions were provided on how to build your own.This rapid fire LEGO gun looks like lots of fun. This is what you need on your side when the next office battle breaks out.[Source]
6. LEGO "Rocket Launcher"
Daniel Rojas created this impressive "laser target-finding, self-reloading multi-shot rotary rocket launcher" using LEGO blocks.On top of all sits the feeder mechanism, which consists of a reservoir for up to five rockets and a feeding motor that delivers them into the launch bay. The long black rails are the ones on which the rocket comes out. The trigger mechanism (behind the yellow liftarms) pulls back a hammer and loads two rubber bands. These pull the hammer forward, hitting the rocket and firing it. The red plates are part of the tilting mechanism, which was disabled in the final build. The entire structure sits on a turntable allowing a pivoting action[Source]
5. LEGO Music Machine
This color scanning LEGO music machine was David's first attempt at creating something using the Mindstorms package. It "reads the colors of the bricks that are put into it and that translates those colors into sound".The idea is simple: the machine functions more or less like a scanner, except that in stead of creating an image from the scanned information, sound is generated[Source]
4. Connect Four LEGO Robot
TeamHassenplug created this interesting Lego robot that plays Connect-Four. It's powered mainly by 2 x RCXs w/AC adapter, 4 x motors, 2 x rotation sensors, 5 x Mindstorms touch sensors, 1 x 16MHz processor, 1 x light, and 5 x Cybermaster touch sensors. Video demonstration after the jump. How good is it at playing? This is what the creator had to say:During most days, where it will play for up to eight hours at a time (close to 100 games), I can usually count the number of times it lost on one hand.[Source]
3. LEGO Pinball Machine
This fully functional LEGO pinball machine is another interesting Anders' creation. It's constructed on a "rectangular 'plate', where there is room to mount the 'feet' on its sides". This device may not be loaded with flashy lights or obstacles, but it's a cool project none the less....besides keeping track of the score, also generates a high score list. If you are good and make it into the top three, you can enter your name using the buttons on the RCX.[Source]
2. Functional LEGO Crossbow
A Lego builder decided to create this fully functional "semi-automatic pump-action Lego crossbow that took four blocks in the handle and one in the chamber" -- along with 300 hours of work put in. It's capable of firing a standard Lego brick 20 yards. One potential negative, the crossbow isn't very accurate.One day I was making a simple little elastic gun to shoot Lego blocks and I thought to myself, 'it would be cooler if it had some kind of trigger.' The next thing I knew, I was involved in a competition with my own self[Source]
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