Large Scale Central

Lego Mindstorms

General Discussion
#1

Bernie, one of our pool-playing fraternity, took a group of youngsters to Atlanta last year for the world championship in Lego Mindstorms. I’d never heard of it, but apparently these specialised kits are widely used in US schools to teach engineering principles.

The kits allow kids to experiment with a variety of robots, controlled by cable via a USB port on a PC linked to a small computer in the robot. Apparently the competition turns on the development of a robot that can perform a set of complex tasks in a limited time frame. I think the children also get credit for documenting and describing their project.

My mate’s group won the Aussie championship last year, but ended up in the bottom third of the pack when pitted against American students. However, Bernie reckons the trip was a worthwhile experience - the kids learned a lot.

Has anyone had any experience of using these kits in conjunction with a model railroad? It strikes me that there is plenty of potential for integrating robotics into garden railraoding, and I’m curious to know if any of you have had a go.

#2

I’ve used them extensively. I was on the original “extended beta” back when they were going from an MIT toy to production. The issue with Mindstorms for any kind of “serious” robotics is that the assembly process is awkward, the motors really aren’t that strong, they’re not weatherproof, and the programming ‘language’ is extremely limited.

If you’re looking for simple robotics to use in our environment, I HIGHLY recommend the Basic Stamp or one of its clones (Atom, etc). I’ve used them for some signaling projects (No Fred, I haven’t forgotten you guys!) and they’re VERY easy to use. Fairly cheap, too. Check out E-Bay for the “Development Kits” for these things, you get everything you need for reasonable money. And there’s a HUGE library of already-written code, and literally hundreds of add-on hardware pieces.

#3

Always wanted a mindstorm set.

#4
Bob McCown said:
I've used them extensively. I was on the original "extended beta" back when they were going from an MIT toy to production. The issue with Mindstorms for any kind of "serious" robotics is that the assembly process is awkward, the motors really aren't that strong, they're not weatherproof, and the programming 'language' is extremely limited.

If you’re looking for simple robotics to use in our environment, I HIGHLY recommend the Basic Stamp or one of its clones (Atom, etc). I’ve used them for some signaling projects (No Fred, I haven’t forgotten you guys!) and they’re VERY easy to use. Fairly cheap, too. Check out E-Bay for the “Development Kits” for these things, you get everything you need for reasonable money. And there’s a HUGE library of already-written code, and literally hundreds of add-on hardware pieces.


Thanks, Bob - I will check it out.

#5

I’ve decided to take the plunge on a Parallax Boe-Bot + gripper kit. Since I’ll be visiting family in the US late December - early January, there are savings to be made by having the gear shipped to Connecticut rather than Oz.

I had trouble placing the order. The Google Chrome beta either didn’t allow me to specify a US shipping address, or let me put in my brother’s home town and then only provided a list of Australian states to choose from.

When I reverted to IE7, everything worked OK, but there is a noticeable refresh interval for the state list box. Looks like a return trip to the server is required.

I wonder if it’s losing state?!! Sorry, couldn’t resist!

On my Celeron, Chrome impresses with its speed, even compared to Firefox. However, it’s been froggy on another occasion via HTTPS. Chrome may best be described as a work in progress.

Thanks again for your advice, Bob. The Parallax product is an interesting alternative to Lego Mindstorms. Due to its robustness, it will be more appropriate for the little guys at ages 6 and 4.

#6

Tom Ruby said:
Always wanted a mindstorm set.

I thought it was just the “mind” part :lol: :open_mouth: :wink:

(http://lizaslotto.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/scarecrow-oz-03a-opt.jpg)

#7

I didn’t notice it was missing for 38 years.

#8
Tom Ruby said:
I didn't notice it was missing for 38 years.
mind, shoes, or both.....?
#9

I teach the FLL robotics course in our school system and we use the Mindstorms sets with great success for a ton of things. Everything from robots to remote control cars to clocks and even Rubik’s Cube solvers.

My son also has a set and has used his to run his N scale trains. His big thing was using the blue tooth for wireless control. But when he changed his layout to DCC the Mindstorms controls went bye-bye.

The icon driven programming is a bit limited but you can write code in C then port it over to NXC and download it to the brick. The biggest issue is slowing everything down. The brick is much much slower than a plain PC so timing is everything. They are also NOT weather proof so I don’t think I would try using it for largescale control of any sort outside of the house etc.

Oh ya, one of the other Lego guys set his up to run Aristo motor blocks in a G scale Lego train too. Then he changed it all to Air-Wire so he could run outdoors…

Jon.