ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

End of October, a new EV3 book has been released named " Lego Mindstorms EV3 Essentials " and the publisher, Packt Publishing, kindly sent me a copy and asked me for a public review. The book, written by Abid H. Mujtaba, is an introduction to LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 that focuses on three parts of the system: the electronic hardware components (Intelligent Brick, motors, sensors) the On-Brick programming features using leJOS, the Java platform for EV3, putting a strong emphasis on Linux in that part As I only had access to the E-book version, I can't provide an opinion on the quality of the paper nor on the binding of the hardcopy version; also, I cannot tell about the quality of the images there - as the publisher told me the images in the paper version are black-and-white only, in contrast tot the E-Book version. What I like about the book is the first section where a thorough introduction to the brick, the motors and the sensors is given, following the smart ide...

Recently the first MINDSTORMS books hit the shelfs, some are written for the Educations ( 45544 ) set and some are for the Retail ( 31313 ) set. It is important to pick the right book, or else you end up with a good book about the EV3, but you cannot recreate any of the models inside. A book by Daniele Benedettelli the creator of guitar bonus model. He is an expert on MINDSTORMS and as MCP he was closely involved in the development process of the EV3. The book starts with explaining the 31313 set details and how to build some good structures. Then with the help of a comic you are guided into the new features of the set, like the IR control, and on-brick programing. in the end you build some amazing robots, and the code how to run your models is nicely explained in the book. It is in Black white, and sometimes this is a bit harder to follow the building instructions, but let not lead you there, this is the BEST EV3 31313 book out now! Here or here is a link if you want one! Bu...

One of the authors of GeekDad, Wired, has reviewed my new book, The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book: a Beginner's Guide to Building and Programming Robots . The author of the review notes that the book "should come with every MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Kit," and goes on to say that the book is "not simply an instruction manual, it is a book to facilitate learning and understanding." The review goes on to say many more great things about the book. Read the full review by clicking this link . The Discovery Book, which came out in May, has been selling very well since. As of this writing, the book has received 17 five-star reviews on various Amazon divisions, and several more reviews have been posted to other places on the web. You can read all about the book on it's companion website . Thanks to all of you who gave me feedback about the book, either through reviews or by sending an email. Because of this feedback, I've learned that there is no age limit for...

I mowed the lawn today. But we'll get back to that. I've had the chance to play with Dexter Industries new temperature sensors recently. These are thermistor-based, and read as analog sensors by the NXT. There are two versions: the "O" or open version, which is essentially a bare thermistor for a fast response, and a "P" or protected version that encloses the same thermistor in a stainless steel sheath. Rated from -50° to 150° C (-58° to 302° F) they span just about any (un)reasonable temperature a LEGO user is likely to need, from dry ice to the average oven (I'm pretty sure the plastic coating on the cord would not handle that; don't do it), and reasonable resolution which varies with temperature but is as fine as 0.15 °F (the resolution is poorer near the upper & lower extremes). Dexter Industries provides NXT-G blocks to read the sensors that work very nicely - under NXT-G 2.0, the block provides better than 1° F resolution, and will output...

This weekend, GeekDad has published a new review on our " One Kit Wonders " book. Read it here .

I realized I have a lot of sensors. I should really review them :). I've been using the new NXT temperature sensor (mentioned here in the blog a while back) for a couple of projects, and decided to blog my opinion of it. Note this isn't even remotely authorized, approved, or perhaps even noticed by LEGO et. al... these are just my experience and opinions, your mileage may vary. Both the old analog temperature sensor ( product ID W979889 , $38.95, although you need a conversion cable to use it with the NXT) and the newer digital temperature sensor ( product ID W979749 , $39.95) are available from LEGO Education (they're not normally distributed through the retail arm of LEGO). I've been using these for a number of projects, including monitoring the temperature in my house and freezer, and recently for instrumenting a model geyser (in my kitchen... yeah, it's messy around here). The old sensor is analog - it actually put out a voltage that changed with the temperatur...

Desicritics.org , a blog run by Desis , has published a review of David J. Perdue's The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide . As a conclusion, they state that "it's a book that makes you want to get off your chair and start building Lego inventions". Sounds rather positive, doesn't it? All of you out there who have purchased that book: what is your attitude towards it?