Anybody got Lego Mindstorm?

[Globalti]

Had a pint with some cycling pals last night and one of them was talking about simple programming and Lego Mindstorm. I'd like to get this for GTi Junior's 13th birthday - does anybody have this and what kit would you recommend for a starter?

I bet Colin knows a few things about this!

 

[vernon]

I last played with used Mindstorms last year when I assembled eight tracking devices/ line following robots from the Mindstorms NXT 2.0 sets.

Kids have subsequently rebuilt them into other programmable things. Programming is relatively easy. Assembly needs perseverance and patience as it is possible to wrongly identify some of the bits used in the assembly diagrams.

It's a toy that I wish that I had the chance to own and the time to play with.

 

[summerdays]

Sort of ... it's in the attic until next week ... when my youngest gets it for his birthday!! (I saw it (slightly reduced) before Christmas but had already got his presents so decided to get it for his birthday instead). He has previously had Lego technic and also Electronics sets so I'm expecting him to like it. (It's been a box that he has picked up several times in the shop or pointed it out to me on the internet).

Though unfortunately after I bought it he suddenly started expressing a desire for an X-box. He's been warned he isn't getting that but that he could put that on his wish list as his main present for next Christmas if he still wants it then (and I expect he will).

(He is at this moment rifling through a box of lego bits building something in his pj's so I better get off this to send him to get dressed for school!! )

 

[MattHB]

We use it at college to teach the kids about control systems. It's incredible stuff. Can be really simple or mind bendingly complex and coded in c++

 

[Night Train]

Never got beyond Lego Technic. I was more of a mechanic then a programmer.
However, if I had access to a set I might be more interested.

I did get this set but I have never really used the programmer for any more then manually driving a Lego Technic truck about.

 

[ColinJ]

Wow - that looks great. I'd have loved to get something like that when I was young. In fact, I'd love to get some of that kit now but it would only distract me from the things I should be doing! (Bit pricey though - yikes!)

Apart from conventional Lego and Meccano sets, and my bike, the best present I ever got as a child was my Philipps Electronic Engineer kit which eventually led to me doing a degree in Electronic Engineering!

 

[Globalti]

Blimey Colin, I had the very same kit. Sadly though it never seemed to work for me and I gave up on it after a few failures.

 

[ColinJ]

Blimey Colin, I had the very same kit. Sadly though it never seemed to work for me and I gave up on it after a few failures.

I think I built all the different projects - radio, burglar alarm, amplifier ...

 

[subaqua]

its really good. my nephew had the basic setup 2 years ago for christmas. has made some stuning robots with it and it set him off on the computer geek path.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1A7VpQ5paU
if i had the time and money to buy all the bits

 

[summerdays]

Mini SD has seen that video before ... and likes it!!!

 

[summerdays]

Well Mini SD has done the first program and got some kind of car like object moving around the house. He managed it all by himself without any help from me (and he has just turned 11). I'm hoping that whilst he probably won't use it to its full potential at the moment that it will be a present that will last and it won't be beyond him currently so that he would get frustrated. He likes it and thinks it is a fantastic present.

 

[Globalti]

Great, think I'm going to get it for Gti junior's birthday in March.

 

[summerdays]

Get batteries - it takes 6 ... whilst we do have that many spares I normally have them as spares and they have all disappeared!!! He's now going onto the computer to look at the disk that arrived with it. And wants his Dad to come home so he can do the full man-to-man thing about electronics (and I suspect his Dad wants to play with it too ).

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 1723012, member: 45"]Expensive?[/quote]

Wow - that looks great. I'd have loved to get something like that when I was young. In fact, I'd love to get some of that kit now but it would only distract me from the things I should be doing! (Bit pricey though - yikes!)

Apart from conventional Lego and Meccano sets, and my bike, the best present I ever got as a child was my Philipps Electronic Engineer kit which eventually led to me doing a degree in Electronic Engineering!

£200+

 

[summerdays]

I bought it just before Christmas when I saw it reduced on Amazon (for a very short while) for £160 which was the lowest I'd ever seen it at. It's back up a bit more in price again.