Best Selling Books by John Baichtal

John Baichtal is the author of Make: Lego and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics, 3D Printing Projects: Toys, Bots, Tools, and Vehicles To Print Yourself and Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks.

3 results found

Make: Lego and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics

Make: Lego and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics

Make amazing robots and gadgets with two of today's hottest DIY technologies. With this easy-to-follow guide, you'll learn how to build devices with Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0, the Arduino prototyping platform, and some add-on components to bridge the two. Mindstorms alone lets you create incredible gadgets. Bring in Arduino for some jaw-dropping functionality—and open a whole new world of possibilities.

Build a drink dispenser, music synthesizer, wireless lamp, and more

Each fun and fascinating project includes step-by-step instructions and clear illustrations to guide you through the process. Learn how to set up an Arduino programming environment, download the sketches and libraries you need, and work with Arduino's language for non-programmers. It's a perfect book for students, teachers, hobbyists, makers, hackers, and kids of all ages.

  • Build a Drawbot that roams around and traces its path with a marker pen
  • Construct an analog Mindstorms clock with hands that display the correct time
  • Create a machine that mixes a glass of chocolate milk at the touch of a button
  • Make a Gripperbot rolling robotic arm that you control wirelessly with Arduinos mounted on your arms
  • Explore electronic music by building a guitar-shaped Lego synthesizer
  • Build a Lego lamp with on/off and dimmer switches that you control with a smartphone application
  • Jump feet first into the world of electronics, from learning Ohm's Law to working with basic components

You'll need the Bricktronics shield created for this book by Open Source Hardware kit maker Wayne and Layne, or you can build a breadboarded equivalent (see Chapter 10) for about $25 in parts.

3D Printing Projects: Toys, Bots, Tools, and Vehicles To Print Yourself

3D Printing Projects: Toys, Bots, Tools, and Vehicles To Print Yourself

Even if you've never touched a 3D printer, these projects will excite and empower you to learn new skills, extend your current abilities, and awaken your creative impulses. Each project uses a unique combination of electronics, hand assembly techniques, custom 3D-printed parts, and software, while teaching you how to think through and execute your own ideas.

Written by the founder of Printrbot, his staff, and veteran DIY authors, this book of projects exemplifies the broad range of highly personalized, limit-pushing project possibilities of 3D printing when combined with affordable electronic components and materials.

In Make: 3D Printing Projects, you'll:

  • Print and assemble a modular lamp that's suitable for beginners--and quickly gets you incorporating electronics into 3D-printed structures.
  • Learn about RC vehicles by fabricating--and driving--your own sleek, shiny, and fast Inverted Trike.
  • Model a 1950s-style Raygun Pen through a step-by-step primer on how to augment an existing object through rapid prototyping.
  • Fabricate a fully functional, battery-powered screwdriver, while learning how to tear down and reconstruct your own tools.
  • Get hands-on with animatronics by building your own set of life-like mechanical eyes.
  • Make a Raspberry Pi robot that rides a monorail of string, can turn corners, runs its own web server, streams video, and is remote-controlled from your phone.
  • Build and customize a bubble-blowing robot, flower watering contraption, and a DIY camera gimbal.

Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks

Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks

Virtually build any LEGO creation you can imagine?with any LEGO part ever made!

This fun guide shows how to create just about anything from virtual LEGO blocks using free software. Learn how to install and customize LEGO Digital Designer, navigate the user interface, and get started on your own projects. LDraw and Mecabricks are also clearly explained. Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks features DIY projects that illustrate each technique and software tool. You will see how to upload and share your creations online?even modify projects that others have built!

Find out how to:
• Download, set up, and configure LEGO Digital Designer
• Navigate the LDD user interface, menus, and tools
• Identify the different Lego parts and explore brick palettes
• Quickly and easily start creating your own LEGO models
• Access the huge library of out-of-print LEGO bricks in LDraw, including those designed by hobbyists
• Get up and running on Mecabricks and launch creative projects online
• Write clear instructions and share them with other virtual LEGO enthusiasts
• Create custom bricks and participate in the LDraw parts design process



  • Aboutread.com makes it one-click away to discover great books from local library by linking books/movies to your library catalog search.

  • Copyright © 2026 Aboutread.com