All you need to make an Xbox 360 Lego disc changer of your very own is a few Lego bricks, a bit of spare time and a degree in advanced engineering.
To be perfectly clear about this, by “a few Lego bricks” I mean about 3000, and “a bit of spare time” is really more like, say, “winter.” As in, all of it. But the engineering degree thing is probably fairly accurate. Anyway, if you happen to have all that at hand, then you too can, in theory at least, build something like this monstrosity created by a fellow calling himself “zwenkka.”
“The Carousel,” as he calls it, uses three Lego Mindstorm NXT programmable robotics kits, seven NXT servos, a radio-controlled motor, a light sensor and two color sensors, plus the assorted bricks required to hold it all together. It can handle up to 32 discs manipulated by a pneumatic claw, and the whole thing is controlled by an Android app over Bluetooth. It takes roughly 42 seconds to change a disc.
I have no idea how a guy can be too lazy to get off the couch to swap discs in his 360, yet be willing to spend an entire season, not to mention hundreds of dollars in Lego kit, building this thing. The exchange time is absolutely glacial, too. And yet I can’t stop thinking that this may well be the greatest disc changer I’ve ever seen, and perhaps of all time. Am I wrong?
(Hint: Unless you can hook me up with a video of a trained lemur who will change discs on demand, then no, I am not wrong.)
Source: YouTube
Published: May 7, 2013 09:00 pm