LEGO Mindstorms NXT: First Impressions
August 17, 2006 by Russ
The new LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot building system has been out for a few weeks now and the first returns are in: it’s a hit! One Amazon reviewer wrote, “I am thrilled with NXT. It is all I expected and more.” Another writer said, “All in all, this thing is very impressive, has lots of staying power, and since it supports MacOS X, I’ll actually use it, and will most likely pull out my old Mindstorms and combine parts. Thanks, Lego—keep up the great work!”
Warning: shameless plug approaching at high speed. One reviewer wrote, “The help system is well done and actually helpful.” Thanks for the compliment. I had a great time writing the help system and secretly feared that it would be the one thing that users hated. I can rest easy now.
Update: Ars Technica gives Mindstorms NXT a 10! Here’s their review.
Morten Møller Rasmussen - Sun, Sep 10, 2006 at 09:48 am
Wow, you gotta love the ultrasound eyes. And the servos is also a nice addition to Mindstorms.
However, I miss some more input/output channels. I know I’m not 16 yo - more like exactly the double, and probably not in the target group. Still I love this off-the-shelf, easy-to-use PLC, and would like to use it for -say- a 7 axis robot arm.
I think you could do it by stacking the inputs on one slot, and then adding some ID-brick between each signal in the stack. By just allowing stacks of 8, you would have 24 I/O in the same slick RCX. Now that would be really nice.
Best,
Morten