{"id":26,"date":"2019-12-22T12:33:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T11:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bierkai.nl\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2020-01-26T20:23:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T19:23:15","slug":"background","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bierkai.nl\/?page_id=26","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n

While the price tag had long dissuaded me from getting a set for myself, Lego Mindstorms had been high on my wish list ever since I set eyes on the Dark Side Developer Kit<\/a> a long time ago. So when my family got sick of my longing and indecision, they gave me the EV3 Home Edition<\/a> set for my birthday a couple of years back. Wonderful stuff! But while it allows for some really<\/a> impressive<\/a> robots<\/a> to be built, I found that the set provides limited options for inexperienced builders such as myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when I received a gift certificate as a goodbye gift from my previous job, I expanded my toolbox with the largest Lego Technic set to date: the humongous Bucket Wheel Excavator<\/a>. While it’s an impressive build, I especially appreciated the truckload of raw material. This would give me lots of options for building and experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bucket
The contents of the Bucket Wheel Excavator (42055) set<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having quit my job, I had time to spend as well. So I set out to do what apparently lots of people do<\/a> with their Mindstorms, which is to build an M&M sorting machine. And while many<\/a> of<\/a> these<\/a> machines<\/a> use non-Lego parts (especially to collect the sorted candy), I wanted mine to be all Lego. So after some time I came up with what I think is a pretty decent design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having put a lot of effort into the project, I wanted to preserve the design to be able to rebuild the model. So when I took the robot apart, I took photos every step of the way and used these (in reverse order) to create a model in Lego Digital Designer<\/a>. Although modeling is a breeze in this piece of software, it produces building instructions that are many things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n