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+Title: My own self balancing Lego Segway
+Tags: english, debian, robot
+Date: 2016-11-04 10:15
+
+<p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
+<a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
+present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
+build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
+<a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
+robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
+NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
+could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
+condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
+would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
+and had
+<a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
+gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
+wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
+loved ones. :)</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
+since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
+lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
+building
+<a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
+HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
+<a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
+code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
+together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
+compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
+Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
+do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
+
+<p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
+design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
+(taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
+working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
+the battery status run low:</p>
+
+<p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
+   <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
+</video></p>
+
+<p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
+control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
+
+<p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
+they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
+distributions like Ubuntu, check out
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
+project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
+RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
+Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
+should.</p>