NXT Radar

Fun Projects for your LEGO^® MINDSTORMS^® NXT!

Radar

Building:
Program:

Building Instructions

The gear on the bottom of the radar is used to adjust the angle of the sensor by hand
before running the program.

Attach a wire from the motor to port A on the NXT brick.

Attach a wire from the ultrasonic sensor to port 4 on the NXT brick. Make sure that this wire is long enough and will not tangle as the sensor moves back and forth. The wires as shown here will work fine.

Radar Programming

Use the program Radar for your Radar.

How to Use the Radar

Pick up the radar and use the gear at the very bottom to adjust the starting angle of the sensor head by hand so that it is pointing to the left (towards the NXT display), as shown in the last picture above. Make sure the wire going to the sensor is hanging as shown and not wrapped around the other way.
Position the radar in an open area (such as in the middle of the floor of a room).
Run the program to start the radar.
The radar is set to detect objects from about 2 inches away to about 30 inches away. Try placing various objects around the radar to see how they are detected.
Stand behind the radar (looking at the NXT's display right side up) when looking at the map, otherwise the radar will detect mostly you!

		Detected objects are drawn with groups of little circles on the map, with the distance to the object represented by the distance of the circles to the progress bar at the bottom of the display. The progress bar at the bottom of the display shows which direction the radar is currently scanning.
One object detected	Two objects detected

Challenge

The ultrasonic sensor is not very precise, so objects close to each other will blur together, and some objects reflect the ultrasonic sound better than others. How many separate objects can you position around the radar so that they are detected as different objects?

Get nxtprograms.com on CD!
Click here for info

Home Projects Help Contacts