Video tutorials

Let's explain the problem of just waiting for the Gyro sensor to detect an angle and think of why the robotics systems work like that.

The position of the DIP switch doesn’t affect the balance much, so you can place it wherever you prefer.

Sometimes robot builders are so overwhelmed with the process of constructing a robot that they forget two very important parts. The brick should be accessible and the cables should not get in the way. These are referred by us as Brick Accessibility and Cable Management.    

We'll be marking and drilling holes a few times during this course. If possible, it may be useful to set up a work desk for yourself.

Pinless attachments are smart and quick and could make a big differences between two robot constructions. In this video we are sharing a nice idea for a pinless attachment placed below the robot.

Make sure to solder the breakaway headers at the correct distance from one another , so you can mount the controller on top of them. If you solder them too close or too far apart, desoldering the breakaway headers will be a harder task than what is meant for this course.

Last part of the series. The final touch of the program makes sure that it works and is following the line with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Color Sensor in a smooth and fast way. 

We use breakaway headers so our electronics can stay safe and flexible. They let us connect parts together easily, but also snap them apart later without hurting the circuit. This is helpful because we can test things, fix mistakes, or change parts without rebuilding everything. Think of them like LEGO pieces - they click together when we need them and come apart when we don’t.

In this episode we build a reusable attachment for a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot that changes gears orientation and direction. It is one of the most useful attachments that you could use to move levers up/down and right/left. Adding the attachment on the robot takes 2-3 seconds and shows a very useful general principle of how to build reusable attachments.

Attaching the PCB to the clock face is best done with two sets of hands.

This video lesson is a revised version of Episode #1. Matt Gipson requested it in a comment. Using the EV3-G software we have developed a very simple program for following a line with two LEGO MINDSTORMS color/light sensors.

You need not confine yourself to the use of drawing tools. You can easily choose an image from the internet, print it out, and stick it to the clock surface. Or maybe you have other ideas of how to customise the clock face?

This video discusses the fact the robot requires a few more parts that are available in the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robotics sets. We have a number of other constructions that require less parts, but for this particular robot construction we have decided to go beyond the standard sets, cheaply buy a few more parts and build a whole box robot with them. 

We used dental floss to draw lines from the clock face diagonals, and drilled the holes where those lines met.

You need not place the clock's arrow hole in the center. As this is a design choice, you can be creative and place it wherever you wish. You can even customise the shape of the clock face as well, so it is not a plain square like ours.

In this tutorial we introduce the basic algorithm for following a line with one sensor and review the algorithm for quickly followwing a black line with one sensor, implementing both with the Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit.

Don’t worry about which electrical contact you connect to the positive or negative output terminals of the speed controller. The cables can always be swapped later.

If you think that the quick pinless attachments shown in video 63 are quick enough, see this tutorial and you will find out that the quick pinless attachments could be even quicker. These attachments can work without motors but by using the inertia forces.

Do not solder anything to the speed controller.

In this episode we look at the way this robot is balanced. A well-balanced robot could handle heavier attachments without losing track of its position on the robotics competition field. 

You need a very short exposed wire to solder to the DIP switch. Try not to strip too much ot it, as it may come in contact with the other end of the switch, effectively bypassing it.

The Gyro sensor can be positioned horizontally, vertically or at a random angle. Have you ever wonder what does the gyro detect when it is positioned vertically. This is the subject of this video tutorial for the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Gyro Sensor.

Be careful not to cut the cable too short, as it is a headache to resolder a new one to the battery holder.

Make sure the components are well held in place before soldering. Some soldering station offers clippers that can hold the DIP switch and the PCB; however, you can use a ductype to achieve the same.

While using cardboard to protect the table from solder may look dangerous, solder cools very fast, and the temperature of the soldering gun is much too low to quickly start a fire. It would take deliberate actions to actually cause safety issues with it.

The third robot has the brick and motors placed vertically. This is quite unusual and difficult, but the construction is very powerful because it saves space.

If you screw the bolts too far into the motor, it may stop working. This won’t be an issue later, but if it causes problems now, place a few nuts on the bolt before using it. This will stop the bolt from going too deep into the motor.