Questions on or help for NXT books?

Recently, I received a negative rating on amazon.com for my NXT-related book Advanced NXT: The da Vinci Inventions Book where the reader complained about the comprehensibility of some of the building instructions to him and his students.
Although a negative comment is something any author has to get along with, and although I do agree with him that some of those instructions have their weak points (as a result of the trade-off I was forced to make between the depth of detail and the volume of the book), I am nevertheless grieved that he never contacted me for support on that matter - in the book, I state on various occasions that every reader is welcome to contact me via my contact page and ask for help with points that are unclear to him/her, for other questions, suggestions or in general for any feedback to the book.
Like most authors of books, it is my desire that every reader should not get frustrated but make the best from the book, and hence I try to provide help or answers to any questions that I receive via the contact page (or any other channel) as soon as possible.

So I again encourage everyone of you who has bought the book but feels the need for help: please use that way of contacting me at your leisure.

Same goes for The LEGO(R) MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: me and my fellow authors are grateful for any hint, suggestion or question you have regarding it - you can use our forum for that (and some readers of the book have already done and received help there).

In general, that appeals to any (NXT) book around: most of the authors have spent a lot of their time, energy and heart on them and want to see their readers taking benefit of their efforts - and after all, you spent your money for a book, so why not use that option?

Thank you,
MP

ROBOTMAK3RS Review: LEGO River Steamboat

I thought the LEGO River Steamboat would be an interesting set for a ROBOTMAK3R review for a few reasons. First, the LEGO designer of the model is Marina Stampoli, a long-time collaborator of the late ROBOTMAK3R Vassilis Chryssanthakopoulo s. From earlier collaborations with Vassilis, I knew Marina was incredibly talented, with an eye for aesthetics and functionality. Her background in architecture is particularly useful for her relatively new position at LEGO. Her other sets include the Magic of Disney (21352), Message Board (41839), and Red London Telephone Box (21347). Second, watching Marina's reveal video and reading her designer interview made this set even more tempting to build. The gearing mechanisms running through the model gave way to many opportunities for automation using LEGO robotics elements. Since ROBOTMAK3RS is all about adding interactivity and automation to LEGO brick, I thought it would be fun to see where and how LEGO robotics could be added to this s...

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we take a trip through history. Please also visit ROBOTMAK3RS Community every week as we highlight different projects all through 2023 in celebration of the anniversary. Some of the early history is based on the content shared by Coder Shah in our MINDSTORMS EV3 Community Group . Some of the text and links may have been edited from his original posts for consistency and clarity. 1984 - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen watched a TV program called "Talking Turtle," where MIT professor Seymour Papert demonstrated how children could control robot "turtles" using LOGO, a programming language he developed. 1988 - The collaboration between MIT and LEGO resulted in LEGO TC Logo in 1988, which allowed students to control LEGO models using computer commands. The video shows Papert demonstrating TC Logo. 1990 - LEGO TC Logo was hampered since the robots you built had to be tethered to a personal computer. LEGO and MIT...

Ghostbusters R.T.V Remix

Nino Guba is from Torrance, California, USA. He played with LEGO as a kid, but growing up in the Philippines, it wasn’t something he had easy access to. He only got reintroduced to LEGO when he moved to the US and had kids of his own. When his sons were younger, they received LEGO sets as gifts, but as they grew older, the sets got put into storage as their interest faded. Fast forward a few years, he started coming up with his own product ideas and thought about how he could quickly prototype them. That’s when he discovered LEGO MINDSTORMS—and was hooked! He raided his kids’ old collection, got everything organized, and now he's designing and building his own creations, blending his coding skills with LEGO robotics to bring ideas to life. Tell us about your Ghostbusters Remote Trap Vehicle (R.T.V) project. This project is a LEGO Technic adaptation of the Ghostbusters R.T.V.—a ghost trap converted into a remote-controlled vehicle. Its companion build is a prop replica of the Futaba...

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