looks good.. one thing– he says that accessing the parallel port is difficult under windows and thus it’s not possible to use windows to control this thing.. you can actually access the parallel port exactly the same under windows or linux except that under windows you need to install a driver such as this http://www.direct-io.com .. there’s nothing really tricky about it

Posted at 8:25 pm on Jun 17th, 2006 by tooth

This is perfect for piracy, I mean making duplications of materials that you own the rights to. :-)

Posted at 10:04 pm on Jun 17th, 2006 by Computer_kid

Not a recent hack and one I’ve known a while, but it’s one I’ve always admired.

Posted at 10:31 pm on Jun 17th, 2006 by TheBlunderbuss

I’m considering taking a design for something like this and making a multi-CD changer, on the order of several hundred DVDs. I haven’t started work on it, but I’m not quite sure how i’d select an individual disk. Anybody got ideas? I’ve thought about putting spacers between them, that would be easier for a machine to grab, but that would involve as many spacers as you have disks. (And I want the design to scale up past 1000 easily)

Posted at 12:11 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by madd_matt

I was actually searching up and down for that link about a week ago! Ah, sweet success.

Posted at 12:11 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by pretorious

MaddMatt, the first thing that comes to mind is a vacuum.
Pros: Gentle, it would work ideally
Cons: It would only grab the top CD in a stack (is that what you wanted?), the vacuum hole would have to be offset so it doesn’t overlap the hole, and special fabrication for the air system could overcomplicate it to failure.

The packing industry has used vaccum lifting for years now, proving its practicality

Posted at 3:26 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by theblunderbuss

hang on.. that lego dude received lego minstorms for their wedding present.. bit worrying!? bet his wife was ovr the moon! :p

Posted at 3:33 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by Mark

The problem with using the parallel port for stuff like this under windows is that driving stepper motors at a resonable speed has realtime requirements that are hard to meet when you’re far from the hardware. Look at EMC (a CNC program for Linux), for example. It requires RT Linux extensions.

Posted at 3:58 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by bEN JACKSON

tooth: Direct I/O costs money!
I use http://www.logix4u.net/inpout32.htm
Great idea. Now just add a dust blower and a static electricity field neutralizer and it’s complete ;P

Posted at 9:26 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by rafael vuijk

Lol this is perfect for what we need at skl. We are planning on making a prospectus DVD, so need to copy one disc and make about 5000 copies. Unfort all we have are two Intel iMacs with slot loading drives, so it’s either stay behind every night for a month buring or building one these. Hmmmm….

Posted at 10:59 am on Jun 18th, 2006 by craig

Mad_Matt… you could use a bunch of plastic trays for for the CDs… that’s a common choice for CD changers. The servo could be made to run up and down a tower to select individual tray.
Ace Von Wildfire

Posted at 11:46 pm on Jun 22nd, 2006 by acevonwildfire

This is similar to what my dad builds for his work. they use robotic arms and the use little suction cups to pick up the cds.

Posted at 9:44 am on Jun 23rd, 2006 by Nathan

it says they received the Lego Mindstorms as a wedding gift – please read everything carefully – here’s the text:

“decided to build a robot out of the Lego

Posted at 4:03 am on Jun 25th, 2006 by insomniac