NXT + PF Battle Tank

This "Battle Tank" creation uses parts from the NXT (8527) set and the 8275 Power Functions Bulldozer set (sadly, no longer available from LEGO). It combines the NXT and two NXT motors with a LEGO Power Functions setup of 2 XL motors, 1 M motor, 2 IR receivers, and 1 PF battery pack, and various parts from both sets. The whole model was designed from scratch from the ground up. The treaded chassis in particular outperforms the bulldozer chassis in several ways I think (faster, climbs better, treads don't fall off when turning on carpet, more compact, fewer parts), in addition to making space in the center down low for the NXT brick. I built this and filmed the video clips a while back but never got around to editing and posting the video. But now that I am on a roll with remote control...

The NXT part of this is not that complex or interesting, with one notable exception: I found a way to get the Power Functions IR receiver to give sensor input to the NXT, so that you can partially control NXT creations using the PF remote control, which is what made this project possible. I will blog on the details of this in a separate post.

I also put the ultrasonic sensor on it so that I could do something autonomous with it too, but I never got around to it because the remote control was too much fun :-). And then I needed the parts so I took it all apart...

Here is the video. Sorry, no building instructions for this one...