Servo - September 2015

module (o5). The motor is an output module and is color-coded green. Inside our hand puppet, this motor is either ON or OFF. While there is a switch on the module that can control the direction of the motor’s shaft rotation (e.g., LEFT or RIGHT), all we care about is using the ON signal from the timeout module to make the motor turn ON.

Curiously, the DC motor module comes with a small attachment called motorMate (a10). This is an accessory for the motor that slips over the shaft and converts it into a LEGO building element cross-shaped axle receptacle. By using this accessory, we can easily incorporate a LEGO “arm” inside the puppet which will cause the puppet to move when someone yells into our sound trigger module.

Figure 2 shows the complete littleBits project assembled and ready for insertion inside our hand puppet.

You must calibrate the listening sensitivity and the thinking timer function prior to insertion into the puppet. Don’t make the motor movement lengthy nor excessively move the entire puppet. I inserted the LEGO arm attached to the DC motor module inside one of the puppet’s arms. During operation, Boo2U will slowly move one hand for every loud noise. Figures 3 and 4 show the amount of hand movement with Boo2U.

Coffin Cruiser

Every robot builder loves using LEGO building elements in a project. Using the LEGO ecosystem is an easy way to get a robot up and moving in a short amount of time. Our Coffin Cruiser is no different.

Again, we are going to use only four littleBits modules, but the results are going to be anything but little! In this case, we are going to make a remote controlled DC motor powered spook-mobile out of a stock LEGO Hot Rod building kit (Technic Kit #42022; available at LEGO, Amazon, Target, Sears, and eBay). Plus, to make this project even better, you’ll be able to use your TV remote control (any and every TV remote control should work with this