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wgemini

Should I get the EV3?

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Looks like the EV3 might be on sale this weekend, which is tempting. My concern is it's such an outdated chipset. Is it possible to run all the programs in a smartphone with the control brick simply to relay data? 

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Of course it is possible. The EV3 is indeed getting to the end of it's life time but today we even had NXT groups still at the First LEGO League match.

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If you work with Lego robotics heavily, it may be a good investment.

Then again, I bought an EV3 set when I was on the Inside Tour, and since I don't work much with programming or robotics in MOCs, I haven't gotten nearly as much use out of it as I'd hoped to.

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wgemini

 Your question is one that anyone contemplating the entrance to robotics and or automation of Lego should ask.

First of all the mindstorm language is excellent - but you have to get past the elementary stuff to really see it's power. THE MAJOR LIMIT is restrictions to using Lego sensors and motors. Granted there are SOME third party vendors that supply 'blocks' for the mindstorm programs to utilize. But some are not updated when Lego upgrades it's software. If you are not a programmer and want to stay with mindstorms it is a good choice.

Now for the flip side. When you want to journey past mindstorms (staying with EV3) you will have a gazillion decisions to make as far as languages. And a steep learning curve is to be expected if you are not a programmer.

If you want to start an epic adventure in using Lego and computers, you also need to consider costs. [After 4 motors and 4 sensors you will need another computer] You can do a lot better than the EV3 with Ardunio, Raspberry, PC (Scratch is rapidly advancing - I hope) etc etc. This allows you an unlimited vista to explore.

One last confusion for you :classic: if you want to stay with EV3, look at the Lego Education website. The EV3 there is a better deal that includes the rechargeable battery pack and a whole bunch of parts.

Now to really mess with you - I am a 40+ year computer nerd and am staying with EV3 and Mindstorms so I can use it as a teaching tool.

Just consider all options.

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It really depends on what you want to do or hope to achieve.  Outdated chipsets are still perfectly useable in the right situations.

 

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If you want to do robotics without learning complex languages, EV3 is a must buy - it's very easy to use, yet it's also extremely powerful.

21 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Outdated chipsets are still perfectly useable in the right situations.

Agreed, you'd be surprised at what a single EV3 brick can do... Look at the MindCub3r for example: (which can be built with just one EV3 set)

But then again, things can get really crazy if you do have more processing power:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited by mocbuild101

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Thanks guys. It turned out that Lego didn't put the EV3 on sale in Canada (or anything good for that matter, you lucky Europeans). Amazon did have it for 23% off, but I hesitated and missed it. 

I did end up pick up a Lego Boost for about 30% off for a local store for a few reasons:

  1. It's a lot cheaper as an impulse buy.
  2. Being newer, it's less likely to be obsolete. Hopefully, it would be compatible with PF2.0.
  3. It uses a tablet as its brain, thus can be upgraded easily. 
  4. There's a python library for it, so hopefully, it wouldn't be limited by the app. 

My concerns are:

  1. There doesn't seem to be a comprehensive comparison between the EV3 and the Boost beyond the fact that the default app for Boost is simplistic. It's not clear to me how the sensors and motors performances compare. 
  2. The PF2.0 ports don't seem to be stackable and the Boost brick only have two I/O ports, which is very limiting. 
  3. There are conflict information on whether WeDo 2.0 and the Boost are compatible. 
  4. Not sure whether the python library can drive all the functionalities. 

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