Running a Summer Camp to teach Lego Power Funtions

Some friends and I are running a camp to teach Lego Power Functions and some NXT to middle school students this upcoming week. Camp starts tomorrow, so I'm a little nervous, but I can't wait for it to begin and I think it will be lots of fun!  I'm working with two of my friends, Sameer Kapur and his brother, Aashish Kapur.  They are both very smart and I'm excited to teach with them.  Engineering is my passion, and I want to share it with others, starting with the kids in my community.   It's going to be a great week!  Our camp's website is: futureengineers.webflow.com

Got some new books!

The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide by "Sariel"

Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi by Martin Gardner

Science Magic Tricks and Puzzles by Martin Gardner

Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles by Martin Gardiner

So far, these books are all very interesting and informative.

Sariel is an incredible lego builder who has made tons of amazing projects using LEGO power functions.  His website is: sariel.pl

Martin Gardner is considered the father of recreational mathematics, and has written a variety of different works about mathematical puzzles and games.

Lego Marble Run

One day in February I was bored, so I built this really basic marble run using flat panel pieces and the plastic tubes.  Here is a picture and a video if it:

Christmas Gift- 4x4 Crawler!

I haven't posted in a while and its way past Christmas, but this was a gift I got for Christmas and built in a few days.  It's very fun to drive over things because of its great suspension, 4 wheel drive, and 4 wheel steering.  It's powered by two Power functions L motors and uses one Power functions servo motor to turn.

 
 

Limited Slip Gear Differential

I went to the new exploratorium in San Francisco where I saw a working model of the limited slip differential system used in cars.  I'm still learning about it, but I think the gearing mechanism is used to allow one wheel to move faster than the other to prevent skidding on a turn.  Basically, when one wheel has friction and slows down, the other wheel speeds up to compensate for the lack of energy.  Differentials are important because on a turn, when the outer wheel travels more distance then the inner one.  If they both rotate the same amount of times, then the outer wheel will be dragged, ruining the tire.
Here is my firs differential:

More lego guns- and now a working one!

After ordering some new pieces, I made a new lego gun.  This one holds eight bullets and fires them all within a few seconds.  It just uses the basic lego "rocket launchers" that fire when the trigger is pressed.  Because of the circular rotating design, all of the triggers are pressed after a complete circle.  Unfortunately, in this video, the shots are staggered because the triggers weren't pulled all the way.  It's not perfect, but its an improvement from my earlier designs.

My Excavator

I haven't posted in a while, but here is a video of my fully built excavator with my custom additions.  I added two motors to power the treads, a motor to shift between arm functions, and I made the whole thing remote control.  Also, when the arm moves, lights on it turn on to illuminate the way (sorry, they aren't easy to see here).  It's super fun to drive.  Here is the video of it just moving a roll of wrapping paper: