Wednesday, February 25, 2009

circuit race



Today we had our circuit race witch was pretty sweet.
In order to complete this task we had to use the techniques that we learned in the previous tasks that we have completed in class, the previous tasks that we had were wheels and distance and measured turns.
Getting ready for this challenge was fun and tricky at the same time. The hard part was getting the turns and making sure the robot didn’t run into any of the obstacles that were in the classroom that were in the way sometimes like the work benches that we couldn’t move.
I used move blocks to complete this challenge the reasons that I used the move blocks was because they are easier to program when using move blocks you only to use one block for both motors if you wish, and when you only need one motor to run you select that motor.
Another thing that I noticed and was a problem was on the day of the race, I think the floor was dirtier then on Friday because my robot had more friction and the front wheel was dragging when making the turns. The reason that I used the wheels that I used was because I also wanted to go for speed at the same time.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

moving and making turns

The 2 previous labs that I did in class were called Right face and measured turns.
Right face was teaching us how to make our robots turn mainly. The next lab we did was called measured turn it was about making precise turns and we had to attach a pen to the end of the robot to draw a circle.
chapter 4 was talking about the difference between motor blocks and move blocks.
What is the difference between motor blocks and move blocks?
the difference is that motor blocks only move one motor one the robot, and the move block moves one motor only.
When would one type of block be more advantageous than the other
You are better using the motor blocks sometimes because when you want to have point turn in your program it makes it easier to do.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Hello World, My Name Is

Our home work over the weekend was to read chapter 3. In Chapter 3 you learn about using the display block in the programming software that we using when programming our robots. When using in the display block you will use the configuration panel for many functions like what is going to be projected on the LCD and how long you want it to be displayed. There is also a drawing tool that can be used the drawing tool can be use to draw anything from circles to lines which can also be place on the LCD screen on the NXT. The data hub was talked about to the data hub lets you draw data wires from one block to another it can carry numbers or text, makes life easier to.