LEGO Mindstorms and Robotics General Discussion

[efferman]

new panels? the black one inside of the tracks

Edited January 7, 2013 by efferman

[Zerobricks]

Nicely spotted Effe! Looks like a redesign of current one but with more holes. And love the rubber bumps on tracks, its just the thing I had an aidea in the 9398 challenge.

[DraikNova]

I think my favorite robot of this bunch must be Spiker: an awesome robot with a motor-activated cannon and claws, and a well-working system of movement that actually looks scorpion-like. Also, his internal workings are covered up well and overall it looks sleek.

[UrbanErwin]

I was wondering if communication with previous bricks (rcx 1.0/2.0 and NXT (2)) is possible.

[kieran]

I was wondering if communication with previous bricks (rcx 1.0/2.0 and NXT (2)) is possible.

see no reason why not, would be amazed if they did not create backward comparability on things like the message boxes of the BT implementation

[Jim]

Nice pics! Anyone we know?

Edited January 7, 2013 by Gekke Ted

[legomuppet9]

My favourite model is that grapple arm thing, that would be quite interesting to program...

[Jim]

The grapple arm looks very nice indeed. Fun to program! Sin and Cos for the win

[Theo van Vroenhoven]

My favourite model is that grapple arm thing, that would be quite interesting to program...

The models are really beautiful!

I wonder if they could also be built using the current NXT sets...

I like the elephant!

[Nazgarot]

I just noted there is a new rubber tile for the tracks in this picture. Has anyone seen it before? Has anyone seen if it will come in different colors in other sets?

[Ramacco]

!!!! http://youtu.be/Unjiv0oBcV0

[Jim]

Very nice! Do we really have to wait another six months or so :(

The movement and sounds of the snake look very cool!

[z3_2drive]

looks like a wave of official battle bots! (hammer,bazooka,blender,gripper) Looks expensive but a must-have!

[hrontos]

Looks expensive ....

According to TechnicBricks 350USD. 594 pieces.

Edited January 7, 2013 by hrontos

[Kristel]

I've been wanting to try Mindstorms for a while now and had the box for the current one in my hand during a 20% off sale a couple of months ago. It was hard to put it back on the shelf, but I thought they might bring out a new one soon given the current one has been out for so long. The EV3 looks and sounds awesome.

[E2nO]

Hi all,

some not so good news on compatibility: Check here: http://educationnews...nload-media/214 (That is the link to the FAQ in the press media kit. http://educationnews...n-EV3-Press-Kit )

"Q: Can I connect my NXT P-brick to the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 P-brick?

A: No. It is not possible to daisy chain with the NXT brick."

But you can use the parts (motors, sensors and the like) - even the new programming SW on the old brick (with the disclaimer: However, not all of the software features are supported by the NXT P-brick).

And then again

"Please notice that the NXT rechargeable battery cannot be used together with LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 P-brick."

(And I guess this is also true vice versa, as there will also be a rechargeable battery for the EV3 P-brick.)

It seems that there will also be a new part in the education version of EV3: some kind of metal custer ball

I really wonder what the prices of the education sets will be in Germany ... but for 329USD I would get me a education set straight away. (Still that would need to add 98USD for the Programming SW ... thus need to get a retail version as well :-)

Cheers, Enno.

[jonwil]

This is awesome.

And the fact that it runs Linux is amazing. I will be watching to see just how much of the platform LEGO makes available as Open Source and what sort of cool things people do with that platform. And I will be especially watching to make sure they comply with the license obligations of any third party open source software they use like the Linux Kernel (companies not following the license for open source software is something that REALLY gets me mad and I can say now that if LEGO doesn't comply, I will never buy another LEGO product again)

[theultimatetoa001]

My favourites are the giant robot, snake and scorpion bot. But the problem is that If it`s $350 US, It may be even MORE expensive in Canada (Which is where I live).

[Anticyclone]

The first thing I thought of when seeing that robot, was this...

As for the new Mindstorms I personally can't wait. I've never owned any Mindstorm sets but now I think I'd like to try it out.

[dr_spock]

This is a nice improvement over 2.0. Not being tied to a PC to program it will make it easier at competitions or events.

[Jim]

The first thing I thought of when seeing that robot, was this...

So true! Could be his brother

Hi all,

some not so good news on compatibility: Check here: http://educationnews...nload-media/214 (That is the link to the FAQ in the press media kit. http://educationnews...n-EV3-Press-Kit )

"Q: Can I connect my NXT P-brick to the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 P-brick?

A: No. It is not possible to daisy chain with the NXT brick."

But you can use the parts (motors, sensors and the like) - even the new programming SW on the old brick (with the disclaimer: However, not all of the software features are supported by the NXT P-brick).

It seems that there will also be a new part in the education version of EV3: some kind of metal custer ball

I really wonder what the prices of the education sets will be in Germany ... but for 329USD I would get me a education set straight away. (Still that would need to add 98USD for the Programming SW ... thus need to get a retail version as well :-)

Cheers, Enno.

Hi,

I think Daisy Chaining should not be placed in the "failed backwards compatibility" section, since this was not a feature on the NXT 2.0. It's a new feature, that's probably possible due to the fact that this unit is running Linux (might be wrong about this).

The metal ball is a caster, much like the Rotacaster. I was really hoping Lego would include a new official Rotacaster.

http://www.hitechnic...ion&key=HRC2148

Now I am hoping Rotacaster will create a new one for the new color scheme.

Retail version, maybe two and/or educational version, some extra sensors and a bunch of white liftarms.....

Edited January 8, 2013 by Gekke Ted

[bluescrn]

According to TechnicBricks 350USD. 594 pieces.

Still a pretty small set then, too. At 594 pieces it's not going to build all those models shown in the thread (particularly, two types of tracks: rubber and links). So I'm guessing the included parts will be rather close to NXT 2.0, aside from colour changes?

Seems somewhat overpriced to me, when they can put out the ~1100 piece 8043 (with loads of PF gear), for much less. Or course, anyone in this thread is likely to have tons of Technic lying around. But maybe not in a matching colourscheme.

If they're doing another add-on resource set for the educational version, they really should release that to the public too. The NXT resource set always looked like a nice package of parts, but wasn't exactly easy to get hold of, at least in the UK...

[hrontos]

Seems somewhat overpriced to me, when they can put out the ~1100 piece 8043 (with loads of PF gear), for much less. Or course, anyone in this thread is likely to have tons of Technic lying around. But maybe not in a matching colourscheme.

This comparison to standard PF sets is not very good. The inteligent brick is much more complex device.

I would compare it more to a simple smartphone and in that case, the brick itself is may be worth 80-150USD. Each sensor is another 20-30USD. And also motors. In standard sets there are many pieces, but they are really cheap - so you pay 10USD for 300 pins.

[Jim]

Still a pretty small set then, too. At 594 pieces it's not going to build all those models shown in the thread (particularly, two types of tracks: rubber and links). So I'm guessing the included parts will be rather close to NXT 2.0, aside from colour changes?

I think the two types of threads will be part of the set and you can actually build most of the models. The models don't consist of that many parts. They are pretty basic with some added panels and spikes etc to make them look cool.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Gekke Ted

[Strikeman]

Seems somewhat overpriced to me, when they can put out the ~1100 piece 8043 (with loads of PF gear), for much less. Or course, anyone in this thread is likely to have tons of Technic lying around. But maybe not in a matching colourscheme.

sorry, you really can not in any way compare a PF set with an RCX set. The brick itself is a computer with many many functions. Creating the programming-on-brick interface, creating APIs (advanced programming interfaces) to interface with your computer, phone or tablet etc takes many more hours than testing a battery housing that can go ON and OFF. you also have all the sensors which are pretty specialized parts and you have the motors which have way more functionality than the PF motors. Also the fact that the system is used in education gives us a clue about its versatility and robustness.

I really don't think you should compare ANY PF set with a Mindstorms set.

Now, I also find the price to be unreasonably high as the basic components (boards etc) are not that expensive, but the research and manpower to create all the interfaces (mainly software coding) has to be taken into consideration as well.

Then again, I find ALL LEGO prices to be unreasonably high and I still can't keep myself from buying them