The New LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Review

We are about 3-4 days from retailers across most countries in Europe and North America start selling the new #8547 NXT 2.0 kits. You can already pre-order them from some online retailers (e.g. amazon.com) and LEGO shop @ home web site.

Like many of the bloggers here in The NXTStep who are MINDSTORMS Community partners, I am very lucky to have been 'involved' in the development cycle of the NXT 2.0 right from the start. MCP's have been instrumental in helping LEGO define many of the features LEGO have added to the product.

In recent weeks there has been some excellent posts here about the new NXT so you get a feel for what you get with the new kit.

I just made a video of the four NXT kit stock models in action - as seen through the eyes of a two year old. Click on the video link below:

If you missed the recent posts here about NXT 2.0 - Here is a quick blurb about the new kit:

The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 set has a bigger and revised element assortment of 619 elements, 16 building and programming challenges for 4 new fun and action-packed robotic models complete with building instructions [plus 10 more you can download shortly]

The new hardware mix consist of an NXT micro-controller, 3 Interactive Servo Motors – with built-in Rotation Sensors, 1 Ultrasonic Sensor, 2 Touch Sensors and the new Colour Sensor with triple functionality; it acts a Colour Sensor – detecting different colours, as a Light Sensor – seeing different light intensities and also works as a Colour Lamp.

Among the new software features there will be applications that makes it possible to make your robot display the images and play the sounds you want it to! There is also a Remote control application that allows for instant and direct control of your robot without any special programming needed.

Edit:

Following the last comments, I thought I will rate each of the stock models the kit comes with for ease of build and playability:

(1) Alpha Rex:

[humanoid robot - that can walk turn, dance, talk, can see and avoid obstacles, can grab and distinguish between different coloured objects]

Playability: 10
Ease of build: Pretty Hard [@ 2 hours]
Building instructions: Excellent

(2) Colour Sorter

[robotic sorting machine that can sort different coloured balls and dispense into sorting trays or catapult them]

Playability: 9.5
Ease of build: Hard [@ 2 hours – including optional catapult]
Building instructions: Excellent

(3) Robogator

[An animal robot that acts and moves like an alligator; It protect its area and jumps forward and snap at anything that comes too near]

Playability: 9.0
Ease of build: easy [@ 1.5 hours]
Building instructions: Excellent

(4) Shooterbot

[A moving vehicle robot (with tracks and a shooter) that can guard your room and will shoot balls at intruders!]

Playability: 9.0
Ease of build: easy [@ 45 mins]
Building instructions: Excellent and VERY easy to follow

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 3

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these Fall and Winter remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Braill3 by Jerry Nicholls Braill3 is an EV3-based LEGO Braille bricks reader. This robot uses its fingertip, made from three touch switches, to read messages written using the LEGO Braille bricks and will speak out what it detected. If it sees a simple maths problem it will attempt to solve it and give the answer as well. To learn more about the process of creating this machine, read Jerry's blog . Braill3 can be viewed here . Set Review: The Braille Bricks set is well thought out. The ratios of the letters is suitable for general use and the addition of some punctuation and arithmetic operators is excellent. There is a card showing what bricks there are and their quantities, but no form of sort...

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 2

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these summer and fall remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Remote controlled material handle r by Jozua van Ravenhorst (aka Mr Jo) This remix combines the LEGO Technic Material Handler (42144) with MINDSTORMS EV3 (31313) It uses the power of pneumatic cylinders to move objects around. By using a bluetooth remote control, very precise movements can be made with this model. Touch sensors in the base chassis prevent the turret twisting the cables that go through the turntable to much. The program has several protections to prevent over pressurizing the system for each of the 3 individual pumps and valves that control the 2 booms and claws. The real version of this machine is mostly used in waste material sites to bring the material to machines that sort and...

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...

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