Slashdot Mirror
Mindstorms' Next Generation
davey23sol writes: "MSNBC has a 2.0 review of Lego Mindstorms here. Looks like they have put in an easier programming system for users, touch and light sensors, and some other stuff. The transmitters for the infrared transmitters are now USB instead of serial, too. The new system will be $200, and if you have Mindstorms now the upgrade will just be $20. It should all be available this month. I can't wait to get one (never got around to getting my Mindstorms kit)." This review may not go into $200 worth of depth, so I look forward to more detailed reader reviews (and more pictures) when this is widely available :)
Everyone loves legos, but make a giant death robot out of them and destroy New York and suddenly you've gone too far!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Is it that you guys just /.ed msnbc, or is just not working with Linux & NS-Crashicator?
I would really like to read about the new set, as I do own the first one, well bought it for my son, but that's another story...:-)
Michael
i'm using netscape 4.72 and it renders it pretty well and so does opera5.0. but the site is really slow. i guess they've been /.ed
It's an ap story, so it should be many places soon.
Here is a version at
dailyherald.com.
Remember... MS assumes only IT'S software exists...
"Yes.. no matter what the culture, folk dancing is stupid." -MST3K
The only thing that worries me, is that Legos don't seem to encourage social interaction. Out of all my fond childhood memories involving Legos, I can't seem to remember any involving other kids. Maybe that's why so many of today's generation of geeks are lacking in basic social skills. It's a shame that Lego can't come up with some sort of toy that involves group play, and encourages the development of social bonds. The benefit of this could potentially affect millions of our nation's children. Maybe I'll write a letter to Lego and share my suggestions with them. Imagine what would be different today if Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been taught basic social skills, instead of their imaginations being allowed to spiral down dangerous and self-destructive paths.
Slashdot: Open Source, Closed Minds.
I just tried it with a 2 month old build of mozilla on winME and it worked fine for me. even the casino.net pop up add worked fine (unforunately)
http://Lenny.com
4 great justice!
"Another advance is that the infrared transmitter now plugs into a computer?s USB port rather than a serial port ? to improve speed."
/. that much... all the girls i know would kill me for that one)
Now, i can see switching to USB to improve compatibility, but to improve speed?! How fast can you really blast IR anyway? Is this mis-informed journalism, or bad marketing, or did i miss the memo about 12Mb IR tranceivers?
I also found it somewhat amusing that his girlfriend was faster on the pickup than he was . Take that, gender-based stereotypes (thank god my friends don't read
Aug. 31 ? I?m a little disappointed in the 21st century. By now, everything was supposed to come in sleek shades of silver, especially the flying cars confidently whooshing overhead. We should be speaking Esperanto, perhaps even communicating telepathically. MOST OF ALL, where are the robots? With those earnest bundles of wires doing our hard work, we could have more time to plan vacations in space and reserve spots for our bodies in cryogenics labs. So the chance to make my own robot at home with the new version 2.0 of the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System sounded awfully appealing. Mindstorms, recommended for ages 12 and up, uses the familiar Lego interlocking plastic blocks that have entertained generations of children (and budding architects). But this kit has some important extras: touch and light sensors, for example, and a battery-powered computer ?brain? that can be programmed to make wheels spin and arms move. The commands are made with a few mouse clicks on a PC, thanks to software that comes on a CD and is downloaded into the Lego robot?s brain via an infrared transmitter. Lego, based in Billund, Denmark, introduced the Mindstorms line in 1998, and watched it become a huge hit not only with children but also with tech-savvy adults. Some tinkerers even hacked the Mindstorms code and made robots far more complex than those suggested in the Lego manual. Version 2.0 has the same pieces as its predecessor but promises much simpler programming. Instead of having to program motors individually, users can now simply tell their robots to move forward, zigzag or whatever. Another advance is that the infrared transmitter now plugs into a computer?s USB port rather than a serial port ? to improve speed. Due to hit stores in late September, Mindstorms 2.0 will retail for $200; people who own the original version can upgrade for $20. A programming tutorial that comes with the CD is very useful ? detailed enough for people not overly familiar with the linear logic of computer programs, yet quick enough so as to not insult your intelligence. The beauty of the system is that users can design robots themselves from scratch or build suggested models and animate them with programs that come with the CD. Though I really wanted to build something that would fetch the newspaper or drive me to work, my girlfriend was much more realistic. She quickly assembled an 8-inch-tall robot suggested in the manual. Since I have no engineering ability and limited patience, I decided to load into our new friend a program that came on the CD, though I did make some adjustments of my own. And so now our apartment is protected by a robotic security guard made out of Lego. When it detects a bright light ? an intruder?s flashlight, perhaps ? it starts beeping. If we squeeze its hand, it will stop beeping and shake from side to side, as if to express utter relief that we?re home. But if you?re a thief who fails to apply the reassuring squeeze, it will throw a little ball at you and beep some more. Take that, criminal. You?ve just stepped into a real 21st century apartment. © 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Kurdt
I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
I was at Target yesterday and saw something
that claimed to be 2.0, so I guess it is already
"widely avaiable."
Homepage
legOS is an open-source embedded operating system for the LEGO Mindstorms, a LEGO brick with a brain. Compared to the standard software, it offers vastly superior performance and flexibility.
As of version 0.2.0, legOS features include:
* Dynamic loading of programs and modules
* Full IR packet networking
* Preemprive multitasking
* Dynamic memory management
* Drivers for all RCX subsystems
* 16 MHz native mode speed
* Access to 32k RAM
Not sure about you, but the crappy IDE click and drag blocks all over the place doesnt quite the cake for building a robot. I wish i had a block to try this OS out. Legos ruuulllll333!!
Jon Bardin
I'd be a lot more impressed if I could control 20 or 30 motors at variable speeds from Mindstorms. There should be some kind of 'Adult Lego Mindstorms' with metal parts as opposed to plastic, gas engines, 802.11 control, etc. Places like design firms and engineering schools would certainly buy it. I sure as hell would, if it was up to the quality Lego's were seven years ago. Maybe someday...
Maskirovka.
Finally, engineers can build their girlfriends! (Although they wouldn't know what to say to her.)
"Old man yells at systemd"
AP website:
E CH test
= 37 13737
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/main.html?PACKAGEID=T
daily herald:
http://www.dailyherald.com/main_story.asp?intid
"Yes.. no matter what the culture, folk dancing is stupid." -MST3K
Yippie!
Time for Battle Lego-Bots version two!
In fact, I've never had problems like that with Mozilla.
Yup, legOS makes the Mindstorm a whole lot more fun. I'm just hoping the context switches are faster this time around, they were really slow on the old mindstorm. A CPU that is a little bit faster wouldn't be a bad idea either. But still, it's a really cool thing play around with.
well you're already aware of how fun the previous version of mindstorms was. what you're reading is $20 worth of depth.
I just started my Realtime systems course at my university, and in that course, for the lab assignments, we will use LEGO Mindstorms to build cars or robots and control them with a realtime operating system. I can't wait.
Will work for bandwidth
The entire mobile platform would simply be a sensor array that beamed back information. If it became conscious, it would have no idea where its consciousness really resided. But the important thing is that the researchers could expose the computer to rich sensory input, without risking much expensive equipment to that environment.
In regard to a previous story about neuron/silicon connections, it would be interesting -- if unethical -- to try giving dolphins hands. Just simple mechanical actuators that floated around, and took their directions from the dolphin's neurons. Maybe there would even be a simple feedback mechanism so that they could "feel" when their remote limb was holding something. I would imagine that young dolphins would have a much easier time adjusting to their new limbs. I also imagine that the dolphins wouldn't be so friendly and playful if they had the ability to smack each other upside the head.
Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm really Stephen Hawking in disguise. I'm just having trouble waiting for the day when I can control my deadly super-robot using only the power of my mind. Be warned, my Nobel-laureate colleagues, for your fate is sealed.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
Does anyone know when this will be avaliable in Europe? and will we be able to cheaply upgrade as well?
I purchased the 1.0 version. Since then there has been a firmware upgrade which was signifigant, but that's about all. You can download the firmware for free for those of you with an older RCX brick -- http://mindstorms.lego.com/sdk2/. Serial to USB for the IR tower...all that means is that now I can't use a really old computer on the new Mindstorms. It seems they dumbed down the programming system. Most of the people really into this stuff use things like NQC (not quite c) or legOS, not the LEGO programming system.
What they really need is more I/O and a better array of sensors. You can break the 3 output/ 3 input barrier, but it's awkward. And how about sonar!
BTW, there is a big community for the LEGO fanatic, including Mindstorm lover. lugnet.com is the place to go for those of you wanting a social LEGO lifestyle.
Lego Online Shop - here you can choose your country, or here is the shop with all the products.
Will work for bandwidth
I got the Mindstrom 2.0 a couple of weeks back.
New in Mindstrom 2 are big blocks. Which are nothing but collection of small set of operations (know as small blocks).
Programmers will recognize these as subroutines.
The only other major change as compared to Mindstrom 1.5 is the support for USB instead of COM port.
Those of who think that just because programming is a lot easier with Mindstrom 2 you can build robots more easily are wrong.
Programming was never the difficult part. The difficult part to think of a design, finding the parts (you will always end up needing more parts than available in the set) and fitting the parts to form a strong structure.
Programming is a lot easier compared to desiging a good robot.
The System is only usable with Windows 98 and ME.
No Windows NT/2000 or other OS support.
How come we all love legos but we ignore the fact that their site doesnt allow access unless you let it set a permanent, uniqely identifying cookie on your machine?
"Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire" --Robert Frost
Windoze users are such dullards that I'm always surprised when something that is neat isn't first made for the MAC community. We mess with state-of-the-art things a whole lot more than the drones who work their PCs in an office setting.
I guess Lego is as short sighted as their web site appears to be. Tell me... why do I need to fill out three screens of information before I can simply tell them of their short-sightedness??? Maybe they just don't care about feedback from potential customers and hope unhappy customers will get fed up and just go away rather than fight through all the screens.
So - - - I guess I'll stick with my metal Erector Set (re-introduced this past summer including a kit to build three airships that really fly) and wait for the rest of the world to get as smart as those of us who bought MACs instead of Wintel crap.
They will expand the number of sensors and motors you can connect at one time.
I am aware of a number of "hacks" to allow you to attach more sensors and motors (my favorite involves a system whereby a circuit senses when a sensor is toggled between two certain modes, in that there is a current drop or something involved in the switch, and can activate a multiplexing system to select a different set of three outputs), but these systems all are custom, and require a bit of hardware skill and modeling skill to build - plus, no one else can replicate your machine unless they build that same system.
I would like to see the "Ultimate Accessory" pack added as a standard part to the system - to let you get a rotation sensor, and a remote, as well as other good parts.
It would also be nice to get some more "funkier" sensors or devices - like a laser pointer, one or two of the mini-motors, a wireless camera (something like the lego cam, but wireless), maybe an outboard battery pack, maybe high-power motors, a usb or network interface on-board the RCX (adding the extra sensors and motors onto the box will make it big enough to add this), so you can communicate directly, or network multiple RCXs together (Beowu... ah, nevermind).
How about solenoid valves for the pneumatics - by the way, why can't we get the pneumatic systems anymore, huh? Walking machines would get sooo much easier, to an extent. Pitsco sells the parts, for most of it, so it is available still, but only if you know about them - still, it is nearly impossible to get the blue air tank to power your pneumatic system - check Ebay and pay through the nose, IF you are lucky.
One other part I would like to see added as standard - a ball and socket joint. Lego introduced a part nearly like this with those cheesy Robot fling kits, but the arm that had the ball was made out of this flexible plastic - you can cut the ball off, which leaves you with a ball and a small cross peg, to attach to, but it is still hard to work with, and the ball is too tight in the socket - it needs loosening up (maybe some sandpaper and oil applied would help) to be useful, for things like very flexible arms and legs on experimental bots.
I would also like to see the return of the huge tires that came with the old Expert Builder car kit, these things are near impossible to find (once again, Ebay it). Plus, make it easy to get the old jointed track (Pitsco sells this) for treads. Plus the geared large turntables - must have parts for robotic arm devices!
With five motors and five sensor inputs, a real industrial-style robot arm built from lego (along the lines of a Rhino arm, or a Micromover arm) could easily be built, and teach a lot of principles of design, programming and control. Right now, to build such a thing, you need two RCX units, and a few motors, and it is still a pain to build (most work is in getting the two RCXs talking to each other properly).
Add more memory to the RCXs, as well - for much, much larger programs - heck, drop 128K in - more than enough!
For such an upgrade, I would be willing to pay $100.00 to trade in my old RCX for the new one, or something along those lines...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
This company claims to make the "Industrial Erector Set". Life sized, industrial-strength modular pieces...
[8020.net] http://www.8020.net
Well, as a Linux user of Mindstorms, I think the
range has gotten steadily WORSE with each revision.
Rev 1.0 was OK.
Rev 1.5 removed the external power option - so
you burn through a TON of batteries while debugging your robots.
Rev 2.0 has gone to a USB tower - for which no
interface information is available - so you can't
use it under Linux. The old tower worked well
with a variety of OpenSource software.
Each revision changed the parts count somewhat,
but that's a minor thing - a quick trip to
Toys'R'Us and you have a stack of extra parts
for just a few bucks.
The other problem is the increasing tendancy
of Lego to put their build instructions on
CD-ROM - in some funky format that Linux doesn't
understand.
Yeah, the CD does say win98 only, but it works fine with 2000. At least, it does on both my laptop and desktop...
According to this "The RCX uses a 38kHz carrier, which is pretty typical for TV remotes. As for the sampling rate, the RCX runs at 2400 bps, which makes each bit approx 417us."
So maybe there isn't going to be a speed gain(except maybe from PC to the IR transmitter.. rather moot i'd think)
LegOS is now at 0.2.5. You can get all the latest info (along with CVS access, etc) at SourceForge.
Why is there only one Monopolies commission?
Having used LegOS for my final year CS project (an autonomous maze-navigating robot), I can confirm that it is rather good.
However, it will presumably not work with the new USB tower, unless I'm mistaken.
Program what you want, go away, come back and 20 robots are now working on it for you...
the "light and touch sensors" are not new in 2.0
I have them in my kit.. I think the AP author was just explaining them to people not familiar with the Mindstorms systems.
Legos encouraged social interaction for me. I have 3 brothers, and we had about 5-6 different cousins close by while growing up. Most of the best times we had were bringing out collective sets of bricks together to build large structures/cities/vehicles.
Go Lakers!
4000Mb/s
Errr I meant 4000Kb/s (aka 4Mb/s)... doh... but the point still remains.
"And like that
LejOS (http://lejos.sourceforge.net) is an open source Java API for RCX.
LejOS is great, although it does have the usual Java problems: large memory footprint, slow (virtual machine), etc...
I like to use both legOS and lejOS, depending on the project.
Also, I've been working on RCXComm, which is fun if you grok RCX bytecodes.
If you watch TV news, you know less about the world than if you just drank gin straight from the bottle.
Now I can build myself a refridgerator that can automatically open a new can of coke when I'm thirsty!
I Agree, Lego is very very social, but it can be enjoyed alone too. It if far better that the action figure craze I think, and much more social that most toys on the market. I had a few friends that would come over with their tub of lego and we would build massive spacebases and the like. The problem was playing with my sisters (I have 2 younger sisters, no brothers) They would always steal the best pieces or make furniture for their barbies.
There is also a new Lego Board game out called 'Creator' You start off with an instrucion card for a basic lego model, as does everyone else and the idea is to move around the board to collect the pieces you need to finish it, I would call that fairly social too.
If you do want another social aspect of lego, get some friends together, build yourself an army and play BrikWars. Mass destruction on a MiniFig scale!!!
Trav
Leg Godt!
Well considering commander cockhole is only capable of writing lame code it's not suprising he would block it as lame.
however someone needs to tell his bitch ass that only his crappy perl scripts are lame not all code.
{said with tongue firmly placed in cheek}
Yeah, but no one would mind if you flattened France.
$20 for the upgrade? Sheesh... Now if only another certain company could follow suit (oooh... sorry Bill... Probaly a bad choice of words) and only charge $20 for a bleedin' upgrade!
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
I remember the day when Legos made technics, sets that included gears and sprockets, springs, pneumatic pumps, and other such mechanical wonders. I used to always play with those. What i didnt quite understand is why they stopped making those? They seemed to encourage more imaginative thinking, becuase yuo could build more than just a city or a star wars ship or something of the stationary and inanimate. The technics sets allowed kids to use concepts such as gear ratios, pressure (pneumatic pumps) and other concepts which introduced phyical concepts of motion and dynamics. especially when the sets started adding motors, so that all those fancy cars with steering could actually move by themselves. I remember that there was a set for building a car (with most of the parts) NOW THAT'S LEARNING!!! god, any mechanic could have used that as a child. Then Legos stopped making the sets. damn was i pissed! Once an english teacher told me that kids are being dumbed down...he said a test that he gave 10 years ago, today's kids would all flunk. Reflecting back on lego sets...i see his point. now they programmable (yay! go digital gadgets), i have nothing against that...but what happened to the good old stuff. I guess i am just nostalgic :-(
.
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
The open source movement may not yet be providing tools for the "common man", but it is providing probably the most amazing hobbyist tools yet seen through history.
Go Lakers!
...these sets?
Was this the car you were talking about?
Technic appears to be alive and well. Though I must agree with you about the dumbing-down and relentless merchandising of everything these days. Growing up, I thought LEGO was a lot of fun without having to attach the Star Wars franchise or any other marketing crap to the products. LEGO were (and still are) just plastic blocks that stick together, and they managed to compete quite successfully with video games when I was a young'un-- there was many an afternoon that my ColecoVision sat idle while I was furiously building space shuttles and F-15s.
I loved the Technic stuff, I had a huge box of miscellaneous gears, axles, etc, a couple of the motors, and also the pneumatic stuff. I also have a huge town setup from sets from the 80's, the very first model of their battery-powered train sets, and enough track to circle the whole town... all carefully stored away until I have enough space to set them up again someday. Hell, I'm 28 and I still pull out the things once in a while when I'm in a creative mood. Once a LEGO kid, always a LEGO kid, I guess.
~Philly
Lego mindstorms use the pieces from technics buddy. So the kids are still doing all the things you mentioned above. Not only that, but you can still buy technics in the store. Did you have ANY knowledge of legos before you posted this?
...is it a little more accessible to Mac users? I realize the software is Win only, but now that I can plug the IR unit directly into my Mac without the need for an adaptor, can I run the software from VirtualPC and send commands to the model? If so, I'm there! I'm trying to convince my wife that I need a set so that I can hone up on my Lego skills for when my son is ready for them. Since he's only six days old, I'm not sure she's buying it...
Can they take a hit from a Killsaw? Ok people it is time to grow up and build something a little more destructive. Lego's are for kids, real bots are welded together.
Got Code?
Buy Fred Martin's book "Robotic Exporations" first before you buy Mindstorms.
He and MIT helped invent the Mindstorms.
http://www.handyboard.com/
It isn't hard to network RCX's so you have more than 3 inputs and outputs. Or rather, it isn't hard with LegOS or NQC.
If Lego provided an example client server applications, it wouldn't be so intimidating. Lot's more people would buy two sets.
I'm going to put together one of these robots and program it to sit at my keyboard and click Slashdot links. Every couple of minutes, it will take random lines from people's old posts and assemble a new comment. It's amazing what machines can do in place of humans.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
From the article: Though I really wanted to build something that would fetch the newspaper or drive me to work, my girlfriend was much more realistic.
I wish I'd thought of making a realistic Lego girlfriend. Somebody should tell the guys at Columbia Internet.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Now, as for your pissing and moaning: instead of badmouthing Lego on /., why don't you send them a constructive letter where you don't use the spelling "Windoze" and don't insult Windows users? Maybe, if enough Mac users sent enough letters Lego would be willing to port Mindstorms.
Meanwhile, I'm going to go and program my latest bot from my Power Mac 6500.
The earlier discussion of the demise of lego mentioned the downward spiral of corpate estimates of customer intelligence. For example, I'm not saying that Lego LOGO was a powerful programming language, but it was certainly more powerful than point 'n click / Drag 'n drop programming mechanism associated with Mindstorms. To companies really beclieve their customers to be so inept that they can't candle even the simplest of [cough] complex tasks?
And in the spirit of Karma Whoring (in that I can't integrate it into my previous train of thought) check out Russ Nelson's excellant Lego MindStorms Website
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Technically, USB still is a serial interface. The change is from RS-232 to USB, both of which are serial interfaces.
Even Slashdot wants to hide some things
As a kid, I never had Legos - instead I used Fischertechnik
.
To my mind they are a lot more impressive than legos - I think using them you can build much more stable structures, and though I am not sure they seem like the grandfather of the current Lego "Technic" sets. The link given shows a number of interesting kits such as phnumatic robotas and the like - they also have many motor sets (that I used as a kid) that have varying gears and such you could hook up to them. I think the Fischertechnik sets are more expensive than Legos, but to my mind seem to have a wider range of possible function.
I'm not at all sure what they are like to program though. It would be nice if someone had a comparitive review somewhere.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is aimed toward kids. USB eliminates the need for power and dealing with com ports. Its much easier to instruct a novice to plug in the usb port than to worry about a battery and port selection. Plus, you don't have to worry about a poor connection when the battery starts to die.
Perfect? No, but simpler.
I still believe that the best way to 'play' with Mindstors is by using the Lego sensors, motors and IR transmitter and to combine them with your own prints. The receiver may be the TSOP1136 receiver. Those are cheap and work like the best.
To give the motors their jice at the right moment, use an IC of the L293 series (like the DIP L239B).
Of course you will need a controller of some kind... Take the 80C535.
It's based on 8051 technology and easy to program (I like to code it in Assebly).
Now, you can even use a LDR to let your robot follow a black line!
I'm going to put more information online soon. For now, just some picsures.
42 + 1 = 42
I don't know how widely used this "toy" is, but my 11 year-old sister got a LOT of use out of her mindstorms kit. It combined simple robotics with an introduction to simple computer programming, and it wasn't long before i found myself on the lookout for motion-activated catapults whenever I had to go near her room. I found the experience rather stressful and unnerving, but she definitely learned a lot, and gained an interest in computer science as well.
In this month's issue there is an article on Mindstorms,
they discuss 2.0 and future revisions of
Mindstorms. Plus they showm some
truly amazing designs. (A Rubic's Cube solver !)
1) noga.de is no longer maintained; legos.sourceforge.net is the canonical site now.
2) For a complete reference of all available free alternatives for Mindstorms on Linux, check the Lego Mini-HOWTO at the LDP. For more details on legOS and Forth (two of the most mature alternatives) check out Extreme Mindstorms. [shameless plugs, both]
3) There is, of yet, no way to run legOS or most of the other alternative environments on Mindstorms 2.0 from Linux because there are, ATM, no tools to control the USB towers that are standard with 2.0.
Thanks...
Luis Villa (legOS maintainer)
IAAL,BIANLY
I've been looking for a rotating brush attachment for the past few months. I'd love to build a robot that would wonder aroung my appartment sweeping while I was at work.
It'd be great, Sweepy would just wander aroung until he ran out of power. Much better than a maid.
I'm tire of these lazy robots. They need to start making my life better NOW.
Laugh at my ignorance while I learn Rails - a Real ne
I can't see any new feature here that is worth upgrading, except maybe the USB IR transmitter if you have USB ports to spare.
As for the new "IDE" software, that's great for kids, in that case get it. On the other hand, the mindstorm kit is for me so I can do with the multiple langauges (my favorite "not quite C") for the RCX.
- sigs are for wimps.
For anyone who picked up Loki's port of Mindrover, they have something very cool on thier site.
This is a set of objects for Mindrover that simulate the functioning of Lego RCX components. They also have pre-built objects that represent two real-world lego cars, and all the appropriate 'wiring' to connect them.
The 'programs' that you create in Mindrover can then be downloaded to the Mindstorms, and you can then watch your Mindrover in the real world.
I think Loki might be getting around to porting it (they mentioned on thier newsgroups that they would be porting some more stuff for it - no link right now, though).
They have the TECHNIC Pneumatic Pack for US$ 27.99.
Between Lego, Pitsco and EBay you can get pretty much whatever you might want to build sweet Midstorms 'bots.
Happy shopping.
Hey, timothy! Try reading the damn article before posting! Stupid Slashtot -- why aren't your parents supervising your use of the computer, timmy?
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.