LEGO Robotic Arm is simply amazing

And it was built over a weekend! Skynet is just around the corner!



More information, video and photos are available here.

This to incredibly awesome...

Combining two of my favorite things, LEGO and SketchUp, this video was created to demonstrate the SketchUp plugin SketchyPhysics. It is simply incredible and more fun than a box o’ bricks -- well...almost.

I’m Sooo Sorry Folks (a LEGO iPhone Rotating Dock Update)!

BimP Readers...I owe you a huge apology. I just logged into my Blogger dashboard today and noticed that there were MANY unmoderated comments. Some from as far back as November. Well, I’ve finally moderated all of them and they are now online. Most comments asked one simple question. When will I be posting instructions for the LEGO iPhone Rotating Dock. There’s a long story behind this project, but I won’t bore you with it. What I will do is tease you with a couple of pages from the package I am producing.

So what’s been taking so long you may ask? Well, I was using LPub and while it is very useful for producing building instructions, I wanted to add a bit of BimP branding. This required some page layout. Many of you said that you would be willing to donate a couple of bucks and I felt that I should add a personal and semi-professional touch to the instructions.

I’m about half-way through the project and things are going much faster now that I have a workflow. I just need time now – a very valuable commodity in my world. Would love to hear your initial feedback on the two images provided (leave a comment, I promise to moderate them!) and rest assured...this thing will get done!

Snow meets LEGO

We had a touch of snow and Nikki just had to run out and build a snowman. She needed eyes and a nose. Where’d she turn? That’s right, LEGO. Simple, small and elegant. Now that’s winter fun.

Last minute LEGO Gifts for AFOLs that will still arrive by Christmas

As you all know, we are huge fans of LEGO (of course) and we are huge fans of Amazon. Almost yearly we provide a list of items that would make every AFOL happy Christmas morning.

Since we are drawing close to Christmas, this list will include those LEGO gifts that Amazon still guarantees for Christmas delivery. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can get each of these in two-days with free shipping. These are the LEGO products that we have enjoyed over the past couple of years as a family. So let’s begin our Christmas 2009 AFOL Christmas shopping list after the click (and be sure to let us know if we missed an important addition by leaving a comment).

Job opportunity for an enterprising and creative UK AFOL

I received the message below from Ms. Nikki Girvan and told her I would help spread the news on this exciting opportunity for those AFOLs in the Manchester, UK area.

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre is currently building up to the launch of our first LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in the UK, which will open in Manchester in March 2010. As your site has members all over the world I thought that it might of interest to some of your UK users.

This month we are holding open auditions at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester (on 27th November 2009) to recruit a model builder for the new centre. The audition aims to find a potential model builder who is skilled enough to be responsible for developing new features, exhibitions and building new models as well as working with the thousands of children expected to visit the attraction.

Auditionees will need to show how skilled they are at building LEGO models by creating an animal model in just five minutes. The successful builders will then pass to the second stage of the auditions when they will need to create a famous face out of LEGO.

The successful candidate will become a fully employed model builder for LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Manchester. Auditionees need to register in advance by emailing:

register@legolanddiscoverycentre.com

If you are UK BimP reader/listener and you give this a shot, drop me a line or leave a comment below and share your experience. We would love to read your story.

BimP is giving away a free trip to LEGOLAND!

Click for your Free Trip.

Ok, while not exactly what you were expecting (It did get your attention though...didn't it?), the link does provide you with a “virtual” trip to LEGOLAND California inside of Google Maps. Not the real deal, but in times like these, a virtual tour is better than nothing. Enjoy and remember, this trip is on us! :D

You can learn more about how Google used cameras mounted to trikes and Street View to provide this trip by clicking here.

Call to Action: Google Wave for AFOLs

I recently received my Google Wave invite and have to tell you, it is interesting technology but without additional folks, it’s kind of lonely. So here’s the deal. I have eight invites and I am looking to conduct an experiment. I am going to share these invites with AFOLs only and see how Google Wave can benefit the community.

So I’m throwing these invites out to BimP readers. If you are an AFOL and have a great idea for ways we can use Wave to develop a healthy AFOL Wave community, send me your proposal. It helps if you have 4 or 5 others who can join in the fun. If I select your proposal, together we’ll research the technology. Along the way we will share our findings with the AFOL community on BimP and/or your site(s).

So get those Technic gears a turning and submit your ideas via e-mail to:

steven@bricksinmypocket.org 

You can also post a comment below. Please do not simply request an invite as these requests will be ignored. Only well thought out project recommendations with a perceived commitment will be considered. If I receive more than one great plan, we'll put it out there for a vote.

Already have your Wave account and lonely? Send me your address and I’ll add you to the AFOL Wave community we’ll be developing together.

Rapid Prototyping...LEGO Style

My AFOL and manufacturing background collided today when I discovered the video below. Take a quick peek and then continue reading.





According to Hack a Day:

[Ned] tipped us off about his project for a class at Carnegie Mellon. Utilizing a Denso 6-AOF robotic arm they have built a rapid prototyping machine that uses Lego as the building material. LDraw, the open standard Lego CAD program, is used to build a model which is then translated into MATLAB files that the robotic arm can use for placement commands. Right now pieces need to be placed on a template for the robot to find and pick up.

This is a very interesting project and one that I need to delve into further as I may want my Advanced Manufacturing students taking a stab at a similar project.

Rotating LEGO iPhone Dock Instructions Update

Hey readers! I thought I would drop a quick post and let you know that the instructions are coming along nicely. I’ve been using Bricksmith to construct an LDraw model. There has been a bit of a learning curve involved, but it has been a whole lot of fun. So much so, I am giving up on LEGO Digital Designer in favor of Bricksmith for all my LEGO modeling. Bricksmith provides just too many options for fine tuning the model and its components. Since it uses the LDraw library, I also have access to many more elements. If are a Mac and LEGO fan, you must download this software. I’m considering doing some tutorials on this software, so if this is of interest to you, drop me a comment and let me know.

As a sneak peek, I’ve dropped in an image of the Bricksmith model below so you can view my progress.

Next up is learning to use the Mac version of LPub4 to create those professionally produced instructions. I used the software many years ago, but have learned that there are many changes and additions and I’m really looking forward to giving it a shot. Stay tuned for further updates.