What are /r/mindstorms' favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I'm suggesting buying a book on ev3 programming if you are struggling with programming, it takes a lot of troubleshooting to program a robot perfectly, and since you are making robots, why not learn programming too? It's not like you are going to ask every time you make a robot for a program

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-MINDSTORMS-EV3-Discovery-Book/dp/1593275323 I personally recommend this book, there are many cool robots that you can build / program, and it tells you about programming too.

The person in the other thread called LEGO support, maybe you could contact them as well to get the same solution.

If that doesn't work, there's lots of other software for programming the EV3. One good option which lets you program the EV3 in blocks or JS is Microsoft Make Code: https://education.lego.com/en-us/support/mindstorms-ev3/makecode

Or you could use Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ev3

Or, if you have an iPad, the "LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Education" app offers a similar interface to the current EV3-G software, albeit with a reduced feature set.

The current EV3-G software (renamed to "EV3 Lab" on the education side of things) is in the process of being replaced with a scratch-based app too, but it's only out for macOS at the moment, versions for Windows/Android/iPad will hopefully be out soon.

There are lots of other options too - the point is, even if you can't get this particular piece of software running on your laptop, there are lots of ways you can still program your EV3.

A code for CORE2 is not based on interpreter but is compiled to a hex file that is then uploaded to entire flash of MCU. That means it is executed at a very low level and is therefore extremely fast.

Some projects based on Husarion CORE2 can be found here: https://www.hackster.io/husarion/projects

i can highly recommend this book for everything EV3 https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-MINDSTORMS-EV3-Discovery-Book/dp/1593275323 Let's you get down and really understanding programming the sensors and how everything works, it also has some nice models to play with.

You can also create you own app and use this as a base: https://github.com/jfedor2/nxt-remote-control . It's also on the playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jfedor.nxtremotecontrol

The thing is that she showed interest in the Play-i robots. Techcrunch covers it somewhat here. I think they're incredibly boring and not nearly as interesting as Mindstorms.

>Do you mean the retail set or the Lego Education set?

https://www.amazon.com/Lego-Mindstorm-Ev3-Core-45544/dp/B00DEA55Z8/ref=sr\_1\_1\_sspa?crid=G7DUWYEPJZS9&keywords=lego+mindstorms+ev3+core+set&qid=1666699953&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjY1IiwicXNhIjoiMi4xMCIsInFzcCI6IjEuODQifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=le...

The feeling I have is that LEGO is recommending Scratch for younger kids and Python for older kids. Scratch is great for teaching programming concepts and Python is great because it's closer to real world software development, which is primarily text-based.

LEGO have announced the Scratch-based EV3 software for Windows and hopefully it will be released soon. In the meantime, this may be helpful:

https://scratch.mit.edu/ev3

download link: https://www.lego.com/en-us/ldd

I used to join robotic competitions back then. Every robot that we made, we will design it on ldd so whenever we disamble the robot we will still be able tu rebuild it back with the guide of ldd and even share it to others.

you can see youtube on how to use it but actually it's pretty straightforward.

goodluck!

Yes, the EV3 with the official rechargeable battery pack can be connected to a charger while in use. However, I would first see how much power you are drawing. The EV3 can use up to 2.3 amps under heavy load while most chargers I'm seeing only provide 0.6 to 0.7 amps. This would make the battery drain faster than charging and possibly damaged the charger itself. So I would say this depends on how much power the brick will be using at any given time.

I recently bought the Plano Molding 1363 box and it is just perfect. The small boxes allow storing the pieces, while the top one is great for the brick, motors, and sensors. You might be able to fit one finished model (at least the small ones, not sure about the large ones, haven’t built them myself). You can take a look how they actually look like here. Just be sure to get the right size, since the photos can be misleading.

Building instruction available on Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lukaszneumann.legobuildinginstruction

Is android Application, available on google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lukaszneumann.legobuildinginstruction

I personally use rechargeable batteries. You need to have a charger able to charge each battery independently, as this one for instance: https://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC1000-Battery-Charger/dp/B004J6DLD4/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

Then you need high quality battery, like the Panasonic Eneloop Pro (17 USD on Amazon for a pack of 4), which makes 51 USD to have two sets of battery.

If you don't have problems to buy chinese stuffs, I highly recommend those ones: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-rechargeable-battery-aa-2550mah-nimh.html.

Only 1.5$ a battery, and those are real 2550 mAh batteries. You must add the shipping costs and maybe customs, so it's up to you, but I was really astonished by the capacity of those batteries.

These Darice storage containers are pretty good, a little more expensive ($8 if you buy two) but they have adjustable compartment sizes:

https://www.amazon.com/Darice-1-875-Inch-Adjustable-Organizer-Removable/dp/B006L2UZTW/ref=sr_1_15?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1483735858&sr=1-15&keywords=darice%2Bbead%2Borganizer&th=1

next step: turning.

Perhaps by augmenting your parts with something like this kit:

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-6100253-Technic-Formula-Off-Roader/dp/B00NHQHK1G/ref=sr_1_13?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1481419053&sr=1-13&keywords=lego+technic

Which includes the extra parts you need for rack and pinion steering plus a suspension.

Solar Rover Trebuchet

The care just kind of went together. But he really enjoyed seeing the way the angle of the panel effects speed and just kind of experimenting with it.

I had high hopes for the trebuchet. I thought it was really going to fling stuff hard and fast. No so much. You can tweak it to adjust the way the projectile arcs but it's far from amazing. It was a thing for like a week now it just kind of sits around. Our 3 year old smashed the damn solar car too.

I get bummed out that I want to throw away toys but this trebuchet takes up space and nobody cars about it. My only childhood toys that survived were action figures from anime that I bought when I was a teenager and my legos. Lego's seem pretty timeless.

Building a diddley bow or canjo can be cool. Both my kids have one we built together.

That is true, I forgot about WiFi. It's important to note that you need to buy/use this particular $17 WiFi dongle https://amazon.com/dp/B0036R9XRU when using the stock firmware.

Not sure if OP gets notified of sub-comments like this, so paging /u/octobert

Thanks, think this is the one? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-USB-4-0-Bluetooth-Adapter/dp/B009IQB3US/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429169461&sr=8-2&keywords=F8T065bf

Out of curiosity, what OS were you using, and did you come across any issues when setting it up that I should be wary of?