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Fan-Designed Mindstorms Release Next Tuesday
EaglesNest writes "The Washington Post has a story describing Lego's new Mindstorms. Two years ago, Lego formed their own 'star chamber' to decide what the next iteration of Mindstorms would look like. Eventually reaching 14 people, the Mindstorm users panel had a huge impact on what will be released commercially next week." From the article: "One member was even able to pressure the company into building a part that makes its debut in the new Mindstorms set -- a rare event at Lego, which treats every individual piece with reverence. The new part is a connector that allows two long pieces to be joined at a 90-degree angle. The resulting toy has much more up-to-date technology than the original set, including a USB 2.0 port for fast downloads and Bluetooth for wireless connections. With the right parts and programming, a Mindstorms robot can dance in response to sounds or follow the beam of a flashlight."
With the right parts and programming, a Mindstorms robot can dance in response to sounds or follow the beam of a flashlight."
You can do the same thing with teenagers and some ecstasy pills....
Monstar L
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
... are very common, and a 90* connector has been avaiable for years
The new mindstorms set sounds great, but the article contained rather disturbing news about the financial state of LEGO. How does a company that makes plastic bricks loose over 200 million in one year? Im sure that the new mindstorms will help boost the bottom line but I cant help but think LEGO's biggest problem was when they went away from generic build kits to licensed sets with highly proprietary (i.e. unusable for much else) pieces. Is it that kids arent as creative today or does LEGO just keep them from being able to be creative? Part of what made LEGO's col in my day was that you could create just about anything you could think up. When I was a kid UI was able to build an entire rebel base for my star wars figures with a blanket and lego bricks but today I have to buy a $75 kit. Todays sets appear to be more of a model kit than a creative toy.
The Lego company just kept doing business as it always had... which was fine when the bricks were selling, but once the video game crowd eroded their sales - they tanked. Since, they have laid off a number of employees - not making the town they reside in happy but the alternative was much worse. They have also moved production off to eastern european countries where labor costs are reasonable and they can compete in the global market. The new CEO means business and I am optimistic they will survive and maybe thrive.
Covered more thoroughly in Wired last February.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
Excuse me if I'm mistaken, but isn't a Star Chamber a secret tribunal used for attacking political enemies of the state? If this is correct, somehow I don't think that Lego used a Star Chamber of fans to design the new Mindstorms.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
When activated, the robot stood up and yelled "Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all."
Huh.
Can they start dancing and repeat "feel the energy" when you press a red button?
I just have to say that a company that isn't afraid of letting thier consumers in on the R&D of a new prodect is really amazing, even if it is just a select few. I used the original mindstorms kit to build a robot in first year engineering, and from what I saw it was a really interesting kit. We ran linux on our computers so we used the LegOS using some NQC stuff. If Lego will open source their code from the get go then people like me, who preffer to code in C (or something close to it) than with Lego's crazy graphical method, will greatly appreciate it! I can see the new kit to be a big hit on budding roboticists who don't want to spend thousands on building a simple 'battlebot' style robot (here I mean building a car style bot, nothing fancy) only to not be able to re-use all the parts on another bot.
Har?
Reading the article, I was surprised to find that they changed the kits so that it only takes about 30 minutes to finish a project. Part of the joy of Lego is to lose yourself for hours in the experience.
I think I saw this set at Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale, CA, last night (Friday, 28 July 2006). It was just insider the door on the right under the "Electrical Components" sign and there were a few of them, around 5 that I recall. I have the old Mindstorms set and several of the Star Wars Lego ones (AT-AT and R2-D2) so I'm pretty sure its not just the same old set, but the new one. Unfortunately, I was on a mission some friends to repair a dying TiVo so I didn't spend much time looking at it, plus I probably am supposed to wait for xmas to get it. :)
Also... have specs on the NXT hardware been published (either by lego or somebody else) so that people can build their own sensors like they did with the RCX? Lego has been very hacker-friendly in the past, I hope this new Mindstorms set doesn't change that.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
This is +2 Informative, when the same link is right at the top under related articles?
Look at this comment in the thread above.
I've had the set for a while now. I signed up for their Developer Program, but wasn't picked, however they were nice and gave everyone who wasn't chosen the chance to order it a month early. So I was able to play with it and build my robot. The only bad thing is that it's been sitting here next to my linux box while I wait for LEGO to release their SDKs for the bluetooth interface, which is supposed to be in August.
I must note: the bluetooth connectivity to the LEGO NXT is much easier to establish with a Linux box using BlueZ, than it is with a Windows box running MCE2005/SP2 or even Vista. It's just hit or miss with the Windows stuff, depending on whether the driver likes you, the temperature, the time of day, what color shirt you're wearing -- but one rfcomm line and pin confirmation in Linux and it's done.
That is, after all, how I'm going to let you darn slashdotters control it over the 'net, video included, when I finish programming the new protocol into my robot server.
I ordered and received my NXT last month, directly from Lego. I was surprised - the release date is set for August, yes, but sure enough I've had mine at least a month now.
It's very nice - I've also got an RCX 1.0 and there are companies creating two way interfaces between the two. There are also pre-built compass sensors, tilt sensors, etc.
By accident I got a set of Mindstorms last tuesday. (i mean accident of the Toys'R'US). Having played with it for a few days I can say they are pretty awesome, and I can see a huge potential. Be warned though they are a time sync! Hours go by quickly. Probably it's more stimulating that reading /. comments :) Here is my review complete with a 50 second video of the NXT in action!
Lego Mindstorms NXT review a video
I just bought one 2 weeks ago for my son.. Toysrus in Nashua, NH.
Very nice set, just wish it wasnt so damned expensive.
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
One of the first things lego needs to do is allow Gumstix to make a lego casing for their little computers to control a NTX robot. There's already a great hacker community around the Gumstix platform just like the Lego platform.. It's a match made in OSS heaven. Short synopsis of Gumstix is a stripped out sharp Zaraus motherboard (like a slightly large stick of gum) with various attachments and running Linux.
a rare event at Lego, which treats every individual piece with reverence
Bullshit. Just look at all the special pieces in the Star Wars kits. Lego has been on a binge of making special pieces for the past 10+ years.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
One major suggestion was completely ignored: To increase the number of output ports. As it stands, the previous version had 3 outputs... and will now continue to.
Big mistake.
Word on the street suggests that additional multiplexers will be made available... elsewhere.
Interesting.
I keep reading that Lego makes a lot of "specific" kits that can't do anything else. How specialised are these parts exactly? I remember that when I was a kid, I would often get a small Lego kit for presents. Like a Technic kit that had a car on the box and the contents contained the pieces to build the car - of course. Once I was done building the included model, I simply added my new pieces to the rest of my collection. I've not opened a new box of Lego in years, but people make it sound that the pieces are totally incompatible.
Seriously? Maybe with the Mindstorm series, but they certain have no standards when it comes to their core line up. Have you seen some of the bizarre stuff from them lately? Like Dino Attack, where it's a bunch of assault vehicles battling mean dinosaurs. Half the crap looks like it comes practically preassembled, the pieces are so big. What happened to the era of smaller, or geometrically more simple pieces that actually required some imagination to use? I hardly think Lego puts so much thought into every piece.
When Noga and others came up with LegOS, an operating system for the Lego Mindstroms that enabled the writing of sophisticated programs, they were forced to change name, to BrickOS, I guess under legal thread from the Lego company due to misuse of trademark. So much for supporting the community! And the sad irony is that they must have sold lots of Mindstorms due to LegOS - pardon, BrickOS.
So this is a real direction change! I have a lot invested in LegOS code, and I am waiting to see if anyone will port BrickOS to that, or whether there will be any half-decent RTOS that runs on them... I am not holding my breath though.
... see the big draw of mind storms. I'm not saying this as someone who has never played with the kit, I have the original mindstorm RCX or what have you lying around in the basement with several huge tubs of legos. I've played around with it quite a bit, but I just don't see the point in creating little robots that do insignificant things. Color me unimaginative, but I'd rather be making AI for a game than playing with lego robots (actually, I'd rather be coding a virtual lego enviroment :))
No , I'm serious . Why not , instead of having chips only interact with each other , all interact via bluetooth with a centrel computer , which makes a number of chips work in tandem to do things they could not have done individually ? If you want to program AI that is too complex for the chips to handle , do it on the server . This is a bit like an organism which has various body parts communicating via bluetooth with its computer brain . This can provide a good testing ground for AI as well as robotics researchers .
And of course , chips can interact with each other , too , in case you are making something more complex .
I can already see a number of cool possibilities .
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt