Is LEGO mindstorms NXT still worth it in 2020?

[barbaraNXT]

HI all

I found a 2nd hand LEGO mindstorms NXT set from 2006 at 150 euros.

I would like to buy it to my kid.

 is it worth it or obsolete?

I have no experience in the field

If obsolete, what would be a good robotique kit?

thank you

[djm]

I would suggest that 150 Euros for a second hand NXT set is far too expensive. I'm in New Zealand but take a look at an ebay site much closer to you (ebay.co.uk) and search for LEGO NXT sets to see what is on offer. Then use the advanced search in ebay to list "Sold Listings" to get a feel for what they normally sell for.

For that kind of price you may be better to look at something like the much more recent LEGO Boost Creative Toolbox (set #17101). The programming environment for Boost is a lot easier for children to understand than than the NXT-G environment, which comes bundled with the NXT sets.

My rule of thumb is that if I can buy just the NXT brick for NZ$ 50 (about EUR 25) or an NXT set for NZ$100 (about EUR 55), I might consider buying it.

Others may have a different opinion.

Regards,

David

[JopieK]

It even seems like EV3 is "retiring soon": https://www.lego.com/en-us/categories/retiring-soon

[Lok24]

On 5/6/2020 at 12:41 PM, JopieK said:

It even seems like EV3 is "retiring soon": https://www.lego.com/en-us/categories/retiring-soon

This is the consumer set only.

The questions are:

will Mindstorms EV 3 be continued in the education section?
(the new software "EV3 classroom" is already partly distributed for MAC OS Catalina, as I understood)

Or will there be some new product in the category "mindstorms"?
Education only? Customer as well?

 

 

[JopieK]

I have good contacts with the Dutch educational distributer, they are however under a large NDA so even if they would know they would probably not tell me. But the classroom EV3 is of course also over it's lifecycle. I am amazed however that the Spike does not have BLE. We recently bought two Spike sets (I did not open the boxes and haven't heard back from my students yet on how they experienced the Spike), but I would not be surprised if there would come a more beefed-up Spike that could also be used for the FLL etc (Spike is also already allowed afaik). 

[Lok24]

36 minutes ago, JopieK said:

 But the classroom EV3 is of course also over it's lifecycle.

Interesting, I thought it was newly developed and launched in late 2019? No?

36 minutes ago, JopieK said:

 I am amazed however that the Spike does not have BLE. 

They have the "normal" BT only? that's really strange. WiFi is missing as well.

But the fact that you can't load the rechargeable battery outside the hub makes that whole product rather useless.
That means for a continous work you don't need a second rechargeable battery but a second hub....

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Lok24

[JopieK]

EV3 launched seven years ago (in 2013): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms_EV3, the cycle is 7-8 years (RCX - NXT - EV3) so if they use the same cycle time it is at least ending it's lifecycle very soon.

[Lok24]

Just now, JopieK said:

EV3 launched seven years ago (in 2013): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms_EV3, the cycle is 7-8 years (RCX - NXT - EV3) so if they use the same cycle time it is at least ending it's lifecycle very soon.

Sorry, I missunderstood.

I was talking about "EV3 Classroom", the new software replacing "EV3 Lab".
I was wondering why there should be a brandnew "EV3"-software (not even released for PC) without a product named "EV3" ;-)

[Coder Shah]

On 5/6/2020 at 10:16 AM, barbaraNXT said:

HI all

I found a 2nd hand LEGO mindstorms NXT set from 2006 at 150 euros.

I would like to buy it to my kid.

 is it worth it or obsolete?

I have no experience in the field

If obsolete, what would be a good robotique kit?

thank you

In my opinion it's too expensive. In my country (Malaysia) I've seen NXT sets being sold for 85-90 euro.

Personally I still like it and the models you can make with it are cool. You can even program it using the EV3-G software.

If your kid is between 7 - 10 years old, probably LEGO Boost would be better.

[JopieK]

4 hours ago, Lok24 said:

Sorry, I missunderstood.

I was talking about "EV3 Classroom", the new software replacing "EV3 Lab".
I was wondering why there should be a brandnew "EV3"-software (not even released for PC) without a product named "EV3" ;-)

Well, that is simple, see how other companies do it: it might only take a minor update to support a new robot and is backwards compatible... renaming it is no big deal of course. Programming is programming, the blocks will always need to be translated to machine code for the microcontroller no matter what robot one uses or what graphical (or textual) layer one uses to do so. 

Good find @Coder Shah:

 

 

[Tcm0]

On 5/8/2020 at 12:34 PM, JopieK said:

I have good contacts with the Dutch educational distributer, they are however under a large NDA so even if they would know they would probably not tell me. But the classroom EV3 is of course also over it's lifecycle. I am amazed however that the Spike does not have BLE. We recently bought two Spike sets (I did not open the boxes and haven't heard back from my students yet on how they experienced the Spike), but I would not be surprised if there would come a more beefed-up Spike that could also be used for the FLL etc (Spike is also already allowed afaik). 

The SPIKE Prime hub has BLE. They use Bluetooth for computer/ tablet/ handy communications and you can use BLE to connect to other powered up hubs if you know python etc.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SPIKEcommunity/permalink/1018569395187959/

[JopieK]

Great to hear, I was already puzzled about that, would be a very strange consideration.