Android smartphone control of a Lego NXT

Way back during Black Friday of 2013, I picked up a Kyocera Event Android smartphone on walmart.com for $20. I didn't intend to buy it to use as a phone, but rather as a robot contoller/sensor.

It has all the usual smartphone sensors, and runs Android 4.2.2 I think. Anyway, first thing I did when I got it up and running was to download an app that let me control my Lego NXT with both the touchscreen and accelerometer. Here is what insued:

A reasonably simple and mundane thing, but man that was very exciting for me. I have downloaded a few other apps designed to connect thru an HC-05 bluetooth module to an Arduino, which I recently reiceved in the mail, but have yet to try out. I think the phone will prove to be a very versitile addition to my robotics collection.

Lego, Lego, and more Lego

I have had these pictures for quite a while, but never really a place to post them, anyway, here are some pictures of my favorite lego builds, from some time ago:

A vertical spinner battlebot using two full battery packs as a weapon driven by 8 old (really old high rpm) motors. Brutal.

A marble sorter that I think is particularly elegant:

 

MSG or Mobile Stuff Grabber, a ROV that could pick up and transport small items around the house:

A lego incarnation of the SHRIMP platform, Version 1 (it did get completed, with NXT bricks etc. but had the unfortunate tendancy to fall over sideways if it just one side went over an object, and so I built version two)

 Version 2:

 

And finally, the largest mobile Lego thing I have ever built, a massive bidirectional sumo bot driven by 12 of those old lego motors I mentioned earlier: