Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Friday, June 7, 2013
Female figs Cuusoo project
Cuusoo is a LEGO website for crowdsourcing set ideas. You propose a set, and if it gets 10,000 votes, LEGO promises to take a serious look at producing the set. Most of the sets that have made it to 10,000 have been attached to some movie/TV show/video game, and fans of that movie/show/game help push it over the top. That said, there have been two science driven sets already produced, the Shinkai submarine and the Hayabusa space probe, in the original Japan-only version of Cuusoo, and the Mars Curiosity Rover is being considered in the most recent round of creations that have reached 10,000. Now it seems that socio-political forces are pushing another to the top. Alatarial designed Female Minifigs to help correct the gender imbalance in Legoland, putting women in small scenes depicting different occupations. The cool thing, and the reason why I'm posting this here on SciBricks, is that many of those occupations are as scientists, probably because Alatarial is herself a geochemist: paleontologist, astronaut, astronomer, chemist, (falconer), geologist, and engineer (plus six others in non-science roles not shown here). I assume that this was recently posted on some social media site, or featured in some news source, because the project jumped from 2500 votes to 7500 in just three days.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Book Review: Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide
Next up in my series of book reviews as last minute presents for the AFOL in your life. I'm posting this same book review across most of my blogs, but I'm adding some blog-specific content at the end of each posting.
Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide by Paweł “Sariel” Kmieć, 2013, No Starch Press
On the one hand I might not be the right person to review this book. Even though I have fond memories of my best friend getting what must have been set 956 oh so many years ago, and at one point I got the Technic Jango Fett as part of a large eBay Star Wars LEGO lot, about the only thing I regularly do with Technic elements is put a small gear on a rod to make a mace for my castle minifigs. On the other hand, I'm pretty much the perfect market for this book, which is well situated for the builder who is fairly competent with LEGO building but has no real experience with Technic. That said, even the expert Technic builder would surely find this to be an extremely useful book. The author, Paweł “Sariel” Kmieć, is a well-known Technic builder. He's active in LUGPol and contributes to various Technic or NXT themed sites. You're quite likely to have seen some of his amazing MOCs on the Brothers Brick or other community sites, and you can find them all on his own site, Sariel.pl. Eric "Blakbird" Albrecht of Blakbird's Technicopedia is listed as a tech reviewer and advisor, and he may have helped with the illustrations, though that is not made clear.
This book is a beautiful intro to Technic building. Almost every page is full of full color illustrations - some photos, but mostly LDRAW - that clearly illustrate the topics under consideration. Without a lot of fluff intro, Paweł jumps straight into a discussion of the basics of Technic building. He starts out with a quick introduction to concepts of physics and mechanics that underlie the complex creations, goes through a comprehensive discussion of different Technic elements and how they work, and by the end of the book works you through intricate mechanisms, such as a ten-speed synchronized transmission, or a heavy-duty pendular portal axle. The complete Table of Contents can be seen here. The writing style is very clear, so you don't have to start out as an expert car mechanic to enjoy this book (believe me - I barely know how to check my oil). Along the way Paweł includes a ton of information. For instance, he goes through every type of gear and shows how they work, or in another chapter he gives a complete description of the advantages and disadvantages of every LEGO motor.
There are a couple of things that are not in this book. There is virtually nothing about Mindstorms or Mindstorms NXT, which are often grouped in with other Technic building. I actually don't think that's a failing, as to try and fit in a lot about programming and robotics would have necessarily led to a watering down of the content that is in this book. Also, No Starch has several other Mindstorms NXT books, which makes me think that this is part of a strategic plan to make a library of great reference works. The other thing that this book is not about is finished models. Yes, Paweł has a ton of photos of beautiful finished trucks, tanks, cranes and other models to inspire you, but he's not out to provide step-by-step instructions to make these. Instead he gives you step-by-step instructions to make the drive train, or steering mechanism, or other mechanics 'under the skin'. You can then build your own skin on top of this solid skeleton. Again, other No Starch offerings, such as these Technic Idea Books might be good to explore as a next step.
I would highly, highly, highly recommend this book (highly even) for anyone above the very introductory level builder. If you've never made a Technic model before but want to try, Paweł clearly teaches you from the ground up. If you're an expert Technic builder, you'll benefit from the comprehensive listings of different parts, and be able to adapt the complex mechanisms Paweł describes. Even if you've never had an interest in Technic, and those funny beams and half pins that occasionally show up in your System sets make their way into your 'useless parts bin' only to show up as an occasional greeble, you'll be inspired by this. Now I want to go dig into my own bin and pull out some gears and axles to play with!
SciBricks-specific content This book goes through the basics of simple mechanics, describing things like different types of levers, gear ratios, pulleys, how speed and torque relate to power, etc.
Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide by Paweł “Sariel” Kmieć, 2013, No Starch Press
On the one hand I might not be the right person to review this book. Even though I have fond memories of my best friend getting what must have been set 956 oh so many years ago, and at one point I got the Technic Jango Fett as part of a large eBay Star Wars LEGO lot, about the only thing I regularly do with Technic elements is put a small gear on a rod to make a mace for my castle minifigs. On the other hand, I'm pretty much the perfect market for this book, which is well situated for the builder who is fairly competent with LEGO building but has no real experience with Technic. That said, even the expert Technic builder would surely find this to be an extremely useful book. The author, Paweł “Sariel” Kmieć, is a well-known Technic builder. He's active in LUGPol and contributes to various Technic or NXT themed sites. You're quite likely to have seen some of his amazing MOCs on the Brothers Brick or other community sites, and you can find them all on his own site, Sariel.pl. Eric "Blakbird" Albrecht of Blakbird's Technicopedia is listed as a tech reviewer and advisor, and he may have helped with the illustrations, though that is not made clear.
This book is a beautiful intro to Technic building. Almost every page is full of full color illustrations - some photos, but mostly LDRAW - that clearly illustrate the topics under consideration. Without a lot of fluff intro, Paweł jumps straight into a discussion of the basics of Technic building. He starts out with a quick introduction to concepts of physics and mechanics that underlie the complex creations, goes through a comprehensive discussion of different Technic elements and how they work, and by the end of the book works you through intricate mechanisms, such as a ten-speed synchronized transmission, or a heavy-duty pendular portal axle. The complete Table of Contents can be seen here. The writing style is very clear, so you don't have to start out as an expert car mechanic to enjoy this book (believe me - I barely know how to check my oil). Along the way Paweł includes a ton of information. For instance, he goes through every type of gear and shows how they work, or in another chapter he gives a complete description of the advantages and disadvantages of every LEGO motor.
There are a couple of things that are not in this book. There is virtually nothing about Mindstorms or Mindstorms NXT, which are often grouped in with other Technic building. I actually don't think that's a failing, as to try and fit in a lot about programming and robotics would have necessarily led to a watering down of the content that is in this book. Also, No Starch has several other Mindstorms NXT books, which makes me think that this is part of a strategic plan to make a library of great reference works. The other thing that this book is not about is finished models. Yes, Paweł has a ton of photos of beautiful finished trucks, tanks, cranes and other models to inspire you, but he's not out to provide step-by-step instructions to make these. Instead he gives you step-by-step instructions to make the drive train, or steering mechanism, or other mechanics 'under the skin'. You can then build your own skin on top of this solid skeleton. Again, other No Starch offerings, such as these Technic Idea Books might be good to explore as a next step.
I would highly, highly, highly recommend this book (highly even) for anyone above the very introductory level builder. If you've never made a Technic model before but want to try, Paweł clearly teaches you from the ground up. If you're an expert Technic builder, you'll benefit from the comprehensive listings of different parts, and be able to adapt the complex mechanisms Paweł describes. Even if you've never had an interest in Technic, and those funny beams and half pins that occasionally show up in your System sets make their way into your 'useless parts bin' only to show up as an occasional greeble, you'll be inspired by this. Now I want to go dig into my own bin and pull out some gears and axles to play with!
SciBricks-specific content This book goes through the basics of simple mechanics, describing things like different types of levers, gear ratios, pulleys, how speed and torque relate to power, etc.
Monday, March 19, 2012
One last Archimedes
Okay, one last from Archimedes. He also designed the Archimedes screw, a screw blade inside a cylinder. When the screw is rotated, liquids or powders are lifted up from a lower tank into a higher position - e.g. to pump bilge water out of the hull of a ship, or to pump water into a canal. This principle was used a few different Great Ball Contraption (GBC) modules. The GBC is a collaborative Rube Goldberg contraption to move a bunch of LEGO balls around a loop. Each module accepts a load of balls and delivers it to the next. Look on YouTube to see fascinating videos of these in action. Anyway, here is a module by svbrckm and another by akiyuky.
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