LEGO Model generator and preview software written in Python.

This repository has all the resources we used during the competition. Code may be messy and have unknown bugs.

Team Lightning is a robotics and programming club based in Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn School in Wales. Visit Team Lightning's Website to find out more.

Team Lightning participated in the annual Technocamps competition on the 5th of July, 2018. The brief was to create a robot from LEGO Mindstorms or Arduino that could produce art or music. The team decided to create a 3-axis printer that could place 2x2 LEGO bricks onto a plate.

This repo stores all the code we produced.

There are three main folders to this repo:

• ev3-code This has the code used on the LEGO Mindstorms EV3.
• lego-print This is the original python code used for the competition.
• rewrite This is the improvement of the Python code after the competition.

As previously mentioned, this folder contains the code for the working and improved version of the preview and generation software. It is being updated to add more features.

Look in the examples folder to see how model files should be written. It is in this format:

x, y, z, c where c can be 1 for red, 2 for blue, and 3 for yellow.

Next, you need to generate this model into a FLASH file. Run flash.py and you will see a generate button. This saves the FLASH file as model.FLASH in the models folder. This folder also has the file to be uploaded to the EV3.

Then all you have to do is press the load button and select the model.FLASH file. The animated display and final display will update automatically.

To change the speed of the animation, change the spinbox value. Values range from 0.1 to 5 seconds.

Python 3.4+
numpy
pyopengl
PyQt5
PyQTGraph
Tkinter

There are four parts to this code that make up the entire process of the printer.

Firstly, ReadModel reads the number of coordinates from the first line of the .rtf file and then loops through each axis and c (colour), adding each to their respective array.

Next, DisplayCurrentXYZ updates the EV3 display with the next coordinates in the list, the block colour, and a neat progress bar and our logo.

Then ResetCoordinates simply sets the motor rotations to 0 and the current position of the print head to 0, 0, 0

All these blocks are used in Program. This file has a list of variables that can be changed for calibration at the start, such as the number of rotations for 1 stud of movement.

The printer first performs a z-hop (z is the up-down direction of the head) 3 blocks above the next coordinate to prevent it colliding with bricks on the plate.

Next, it synchronously moves the x-axis and y-axis motors for faster print time. It waits until both motors have completed their movement.

Finally, it moves the head to the z-coordinate at high power, and then performs a z-press which basically squashes the brick on to the plate/brick below.

This folder contains all the original code for generating models and testing previews. Creating a model that could be used by the EV3 was successful - creating a 3D display to show the model beforehand was not. However, mitgobla continued to create a working version called rewrite after the competition.

PyVmMonitor was used to help develop the software. Website