Saturday, August 31, 2013

LEGO Education Simple and Motorized Mechanism: 10% off

LEGO Education is offering a 10% off till end of this month (August 2013) for the LEGO Education Simple and Motorized Mechanism and all related products like:

Introducing Simple and Motorized Mechanisms Activity Pack
Advancing with Simple and Motorized Mechanisms Activity Pack
Pneumatics Add-On Set

Some Reviews:
LEGO Education–Simple Machines Kit Review

LEGO LEARNING WITH SIMPLE & MOTORIZED MECHANISMS

Friday, August 30, 2013

The Lego story - failures to success: get inspired

Watch the video below to learn how a huge success, LEGO, started and get inspired how the founders of LEGO never let adversities stop them from turning failures into success:


Friday, August 16, 2013

Lewis tackles first Lego Technic set on his own

Lewis at 6 years of age is now attempting to assemble his first Lego Technic 9393 Tractor set and have succeeded up to step 23, page 25. At this point, grandpa am guessing the "train" comprising of rack and pinion, rods, a pinion supposed to be the "steering wheel" is designed to convert the rotation of the "steering wheel" about a vertical axis to the turning of the 2 front wheel. Lewis seemed to have followed the instructions correcting.

Grandpa attempted to turn the "steering wheel" but the rods would not turn nor would the rack and pinion move. Grandpa think he has isolated the problem to this part::

"2 holes perpendicular axis" Lego Technic part
 which prevent the vertical rod from rotating.

Lego offers very good support and let us see how they respond to my query about this "apparent" problem which may either be a just a small mistake.

Grandpa has attempted to locate the parts list for Lego Technic 9393 and need to refer to this yellow "4 balls" part:

Yellow "4 sphere" Lego Technic part
Now let's see how Lego support respond to grandpa's query.




Friday, August 9, 2013

LEGO Mindstorms EV3 launch date and bonus models

LEGO has announced the eagerly awaited LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robotic set will be launched on 1st September 2013. Further, there will be 12 bonus models and the building instructions will also be downloadable from the same date. The 12 bonus models are:

ROBODOZ3R – created by Mark Crosbie
BANNER PRINT3R – created by Ralph Hempel
EV3MEG – created by Martyn Boogaarts
BOBB3E – created by Kenneth Ravnshøj Madsen
MR-B3AM – created by Kenneth Ravnshøj Madsen
RAC3 TRUCK – created by Laurens Valk
KRAZ3 – created by Marc André Bazergui
EV3D4 – created by Vassilis Chryssanthakopoulos
EL3CTRIC GUITAR – created by Daniele Benedettelli
DINOR3X – created by Lasse Stenbæk Lauesen
WACK3M – created by Martyn Boogaarts
EV3GAME – created by Ricardo Oliveira

These can all be built with just 1 set of the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Model 31313

This will bring the number of models that one can create with 1 set of EV3 to 18 including the 5 official models that has instructions that comes with the set.

Official models:
1. humanoid,
2. snake,
3. scorpion,
4. gripper and
5. tracker

Also detailed instructions for 12 bonus models:
1. arcade style game,
2. bulldozer,
3. shell game,
4. robotic scribe,
5. dinosaur,
6. electric guitar,
7. line follower,
8. forklift,
9. brick measurer,
10. racing truck,
11. prankster and
12. droid

About LEGO Minstorms

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

LEGO Technic & Mindstorms EV3 robotic construction toys

Hi grandchildren,

I have purchases some LEGO Technic toys for you and hope that you will have endless hours of fun with them plus also learn something for it.

Grandpa will also be going to United States sometime in the future and will likely bring back the LEGO Mindstorms EV3. Grandpa will play with it first and if you proved capable of playing competently with the LEGO Technic sets and can take very good care of it and not lose any parts, grandpa may pass the EV3 to you when you are ready.

LEGO Mindstorms EV3, successor to NXT 2.0


In the meantime, check these out:
LEGO Mindstorms building instructions
LEGO Mindstorms message board
LEGO Mindstorms community

Play with your LEGO Technic sets and become proficient in building models with LEGO Technic parts first.

Some videos for Technic and Mindstorms EV3:















Where to buy LEGO Mindstorms EV3: LEGO Store. Valley Fair Shopping Center.
How to get there: Walk from San Jose Mariott to San Carlos & Market, take bus 23 to Valley Fair Transit Center, walk to Valley Fair Shopping Center.



LEGO Mindstorms EV3 unboxing & education core + expansion comments.