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Author Topic: Lego Mindstorms  (Read 6430 times)

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Offline Michael_Lee

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Lego Mindstorms
« on: September 06, 2011, 01:56:04 pm »
My local robotics club thought it would be cool (well, I thought it would be cool, and pushed the idea) to buy several sets of Lego Mindstorms (or something similar) so that newcomers could gain some experience playing and building stuff with them.

I'm currently in the process of researching what kind of kit would be best, but because I'm really new to this, I wanted to get some suggestions on what we should look into purchasing, and if there are any better alternatives to Lego Mindstorms.  Ideally, it should be a fairly versatile and large kit so we aren't limited to building only a few things, and needs to be programmable.

Suggestions?  ;D
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Offline Spyro543

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2011, 01:59:56 pm »
I want Lego Mindstorms so much...
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Offline Juju

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2011, 02:08:13 pm »
My school has 10 boxes of Mindstorms RCX, it's kinda fun, and it comes with a graphic programming language. It's rather nice for newbies, I recommend it, but if you want more features you can go with the NXT.
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Offline Builderboy

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2011, 05:31:19 pm »
NXT is the way to go, it is programmable in java, has 3 motors that can be controlled with high precision, 4 sensor inputs including touch, light, sound, and distance, and has a variety of awesome things to build ^^  We played around with NXT robots in my computer programming class, and we built things like dragsters, sumo bots, and so much more ^^
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Offline leafy

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2011, 06:10:53 pm »
I kinda liked the original lego mindstorms RCX over the NXT, since you could hack it to run NQC and make your own homebrew sensors.
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Offline Builderboy

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2011, 06:15:15 pm »
I ran NQC on my RCX ^^ Freakin Smart!
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Offline fb39ca4

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2011, 06:45:31 pm »
If I remember, NQC compiles down to the same bytecode as the Lego software. There is also a version of it for the NXT, Not eXactly C if anyone is interested, it works in the same way.
The RCX can also be programmed in C(++), Pascal, and Java, so it is also quite flexible, it just has slower hardware.
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Offline Michael_Lee

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2011, 06:50:23 pm »
Cool, thanks for the suggestions.

So... RCX is more flexible then NXT, but is slower?

Just to check, both of them DO support C++ (or a C-like language), right?  With OOP and everything?
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Offline fb39ca4

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2011, 06:57:52 pm »
Yeah, there are C and C++ compilers for both, I know the RCX has a 16mhz H8 cpu and I think the NXT has an ARM one.
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Offline Michael_Lee

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2011, 07:11:15 pm »
Sweet!

Question:  would about 2 months be a reasonable timeframe to build a fairly complex robot?  We're considering introducing the kits sometime in October, and having a mini-competition (just within our club) in December.

Also...

*Michael crosses his fingers in hope

Is there a Python interpreter/compiler for either of them?
I have to admit, I'm a bit of a Python fanboy ;D
« Last Edit: September 07, 2011, 07:11:28 pm by Michael_Lee »
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Offline fb39ca4

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2011, 07:12:28 pm »
I think there's one that converts python to NXC on the NXT, you should take a look at that.
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Offline Builderboy

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2011, 07:23:59 pm »
And 2 months should be plenty of time to build a very complex robot, especially with a team.  I've built complex robots before in less time by myself ^^
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Offline fb39ca4

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2011, 07:33:55 pm »
You could also look at Vex, which is more advanced, but that happens to be more expensive and you can't just drag out your box of Legos if you need more spare parts.
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Offline Hayleia

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2011, 01:05:59 pm »
(necropost ?)
Sorry for being interested in that thread only now, but my parents may buy some for Christmas :D

So is it sure that the NXT supports C++ (so my sister can learn me >:D) ?

What is NQC ?

I didn't understand, does the NXT support it (NQC) or something similar ?
« Last Edit: December 14, 2011, 01:07:18 pm by Hayleia »
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Offline Juju

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Re: Lego Mindstorms
« Reply #14 on: December 14, 2011, 03:08:15 pm »
I think it supports C++ indeed, and NQC is Not Quite C, so it's something that looks like C, but made for the NXT I think.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2011, 03:08:21 pm by Juju »
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