Just acquired Lego Mindstorms NXT 8527
I know this has been out for a few years, but I have to admit. It is truly amazing what a person can program/build. I grew up with Lego’s and loved them. It turms out that I still love them!! I think that they created Mindstorms for the adults that loved Lego’s back when they were a child. You know… To give us an excuse to still play with them regardless of our age!
One great thing since it has been around for a while, is the information available. I plan on getting the book “Maximum LEGO NXT: Building Robots with Java Brains” by Brian Bagnall.
Anyone else here tinker with the NXT? If so, what kind of robots did you build? I haven’t built anything myself yet. I’m still getting used to the sensors, and such..
Several of us have had the Mindstorms kit for over a year. THX and I have made several contributions about 6 months ago. I call the Kit my “Brain Stay Alive”. You should stay with the graphical programming method that comes with the kit for a while so you can learn the “ins and outs” of what the bot is capable of. The learning curve with NXT is much less steep and will give you a good overall view of what is possible. I think the NXC or Briccx programming system is the best of advanced users. That is just my preference and not necessarily the one you might be more comfortable with. It just depends a lot on your programming back ground. I got a Compass Sensor about the same time as the kit. I was so frustrated in trying to get it to go straight and make precise turns. I am not comfortable with all the math you have to do to make the bot run straight. There is some of the Math code you can download but you have to be a Math Professor to understand it and it is NOT easily modified. You don’t need all that with a Compass. Just ask questions.