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Arstechnica has a good review of the LEGO Mindstorm NXT. Seems like a great product, the biggest thing that this system has against it seems to be the price though. At $250.00 you will need a big paper-route to pay for it.
“Opening the new Mindstorms box set off the same spasm of joy, a sense of wide-open possibility that reminded me of those childhood toys. It was clear, just by looking at the 577 pieces, the four sensors, the three motors, the cables, wheels, and CD, and the NXT brick itself, that the dream thwarted in the early 80s could now be fulfilled: I would build a robot that could take over the world.”
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Man, that looks like fun. I wonder if we as a community could come up with a “open source” robot kit. Include easy to find pieces for contruction, and maybe a PIC for basic control.
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Looks very cool! I just wish that lego would give more that 3 motor outputs… that, in my mind, has always been their weekpoint. 5+ would be more use.
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I got mine last week and allready built some nice things with it, I totally agreed on the review.
The set is a bit price but it’s good value for money, they are cheaper on Ebay and even $250 is still a lot less than the 300euros (about $360) we have to pay here in Europe.
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You need more motor outputs? Then have a look at the fischertechnik RoboPro Interface. It hase got 4 outputs which easily can be upgraded to 16 outputs! You have got 6 analog inputs and with all extensions 32 Inputs. And you can write your own programms in C.
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Hey Bronze,
An open source version would be a neat idea. Sounds like lots of work though, but it would be fun. 🙂