The Bricktronics random drawbot is a project from our book, Make: Lego and Arduino Projects. It's a small rover that drags a marker around, and it randomly changes direction and speed until it hits something. Then it turns around and does it again. Put it down on some rolled out paper and watch the little robot make art.

The chapter is available as a sample from O'Reilly. The LEGO Digital Designer model file is available from the Bricktronics Github repository.

If you have a LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set and an Arduino plus Bricktronics Shield (or Arduino Mega plus Bricktronics Megashield), this pack has everything you'll need to build a great project. When you're done, you'll be able to reuse the parts to make your own creations!

Parts Pack Contents

The Bricktronics Drawbot Parts Pack includes a laser-cut wood mounting plate and mounting hardware for connecting your Arduino (or Arduino Mega) to LEGO Technic. It has a 6 AA battery holder and a DC plug to connect the batteries to the Arduino. It has a Bricktronics 6 AA Battery Holder Mounting Plate and mounting hardware for connecting the battery holder to LEGO Technic. It has a marker, a clothespin, and a mounting screw and nut to mount the clothespin to the battery mounting plate. Finally, it comes with all the LEGO pieces needed for the drawbot that aren't included the LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set.

The LEGO pieces are a mixture of new and gently-used pieces, and the colors may vary from what is posted. The marker color is also chosen at random, and may vary from what is shown.

The contents are also listed and explained individually on the Bricktronics Drawbot page.

It does not come with LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 or any motors or sensors. It does not come with an Arduino, or a Bricktronics Shield.

Build it

There is no soldering or other assembly required for this kit, aside from building the LEGO model itself. Details on that are explained both in the book and the sample chapter download linked above. Once you have finished the LEGO model, adding the Arduino/Arduino Mega mounting plate and battery holder mounting plate is easy. Building the Drawbot model usually takes less than two hours, but it greatly depends upon your experience with things like uploading sketches to your Arduino.

Open Source Hardware

This kit is open source hardware. We make the hardware source files like the LEGO Digital Designer files and the mounting plate templates available for anyone to use as long as they credit us and release any modifications as open source hardware. The LEGO Digital Designer files are available on the Bricktronics drawbot page and the mounting plate design files are available on the Bricktronics mounting plates page.

Feedback

When you're finished building this, let us know how it went! We use feedback to improve future versions of our kits, and the warm fuzzies help us make more kits! Let us know in the forum or via email.

Notes

A portion of the profits of this kit go to John Baichtal, the designer of this drawbot and an author of the Make: Lego and Arduino Projects book.

Wayne and Layne, LLC and our products are not connected to or endorsed by the LEGO Group. LEGO, Mindstorms, and NXT are trademarks of the LEGO Group.