LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS and LabVIEW for Education

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Lego and DAQ

Hello there, I am using a sensor attached to the SCB 68 connecting block of my PCIe 6321 NI X DAQ device.

 

Is it at all possible to connect lego NXT to the same connecting block so as to use the sensor and lego NXT together in Labview?

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Hi yolanta,

 

Thanks for your question. When you say connecting lego NXT to the SCB 68 block do you mean connecting an NXT Sensor to the connector block? Or Communicating with the NXT Controller itself?

Depending on the NXT sensor you could create a breakout board and connect to the connector block directly. Would you want your current sensor to control an action with the NXT?

 

Please post back if you have any more questions.

 

Regards,

Ben B.

Applications Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland

"I've looked into the reset button, the science is impossible!"
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Hi Benjamin thanks for the reply.

 

I have a Laser sensor attached to my SCB-68 and hence PCIe 6321 acquires the voltage from it. Now my application area is to scan an object using this laser sensor to acquire X,Y and Z co-ordinates of an object. Now laser sensor calcutaes the thickness (height) of an object hence Z co-ordinate.

 

Now I need X and Y cordinates of an object in order to produce its 3D graph. For this purpose I decided to use Lego kit in the form of X-Y table which will move my sensor in two linear directions: X and Y. 

 

But again I finally have to program NXt brick of this X-Y table and laser sensor in one software.  

 

So is it possible to wire the lego NXT servo motors to the countert output of the connecting block or if not atleast try and communicate with using LabView?

 

Thanks for your reply

 

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Hi Jolanta,

 

To connect to the motors you will need to go through the NXT brick. You can connect the NXT via USB or Bluetooth. There is an NXT LabVIEW Toolkit which you can download to create a VI that runs directly onto the NXT brick. This will allow you to create a custom program to control your NXT motors. What version of LabVIEW are you running and i can see if the Toolkit is compatible.

 

Regards,

 

Ben B.

Applications Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland

"I've looked into the reset button, the science is impossible!"
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Hi Benjamin

 

I have 32 bit Labview 2010 updated to LabView 2011. And I just downloaded the Lego Mindstorm NXT module toolkit from this link. I could install it and I think it will work on my LabView.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-7206

 

So by using this toolkit is possible to acquire z co-ordinate from the laser and drive the counter output to the lego brick in a single program?

 

Thanks

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Hi Benjamin you think its possible to blend a laser and lego in one single program to acquire x,y and z co-ordinates?


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Hi Jolanta,

 

Apologies for the late reply. Im currently looking at combining regular DAQ with NXT control into one program. If this is not possible one way around could be to communicate across multiple VI's with Variables.

 

Regards,

Ben B.

Applications Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland

"I've looked into the reset button, the science is impossible!"
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Thanks Benjamin

 

Will look forward for your opinion. Thanks again

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Hi Jolanta,

 

I have created a quick VI that shows that you can read data from a PCI DAQ Card and read data from an NXT sensor within the same VI. Therefore it should be possible to read your sensor data and control your NXT motors.

 

Please let me know how you get on.

 

Regards,

Ben B.

Applications Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland

"I've looked into the reset button, the science is impossible!"
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Hi Jolanta,

 

Also please note for this VI you need to have an NXT connected to your computer via a USB cable and a light sensor connected to Port 3.

 

Regards,

Ben B.

Applications Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland

"I've looked into the reset button, the science is impossible!"
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