Hmm where to start...
I am guessing that you bought the LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set from Amazon
(LEGO set #8547). This is the same thing you would find at a LEGO retail
store or at lego.com. It is perfectly usable for FLL use.
There is no Mindstorms set sold by FLL, but most teams I’ve run into have
ordered two sets from LEGO Education: The
base
robot set and
an
add-on set. The base set is roughly comparable to the retail set you
have with a couple of differences. The add-on set simply provides a lot
more useful parts to build with. Most teams find that the basic set
doesn’t have enough parts to build the robots they want to build or to build all
the attachments. Many things can be built with basic bricks the kids may
have at home (be careful they are LEGO-brand bricks!) but most kids don’t have
many of the specialized Technic parts.
The robot is the same, and with one exception the sensors are the
same. The main differences between the retail and the education versions
are these:
- Retail has a color/light sensor, education has a light sensor (both are
legal)
- The retail set comes with the software, the education set does not (bought
separately)
- The education set comes with a rechargeable battery pack, the education
set does not (the robot can use batteries or the battery pack)
- The retail set has more curved fairing parts used to make the cool
android-looking robot on the box, the education set has more generically
useful parts
So don’t sweat that you bought the retail version, but you might want to
look into augmenting your parts set down the road. The LEGO Education sets
are great and
www.bricklink.com is a
useful way to buy specific parts from users all around the world (like e-Bay
without the bidding).
Good luck!
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 8:04 PM
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Books
?
I
had another rookie team question. We bought the NXT kit from Amazon this summer.
What is difference between this Kit and NXT kit supplied by FLL. Do
we need to buy more parts ?
On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 7:05 AM, Rajesh Shah
<[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
We are not competing in this years competition.
As you said, we are mostly getting ready for next year.
Yes,we do plan to visit this years event.
Rajesh
On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 10:11 PM, B Bergenstock
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Do you mean that you just started your team and are
registered for a local tournament? Because competition is just 2 to 3
weeks away, and that's a pretty tall order. But good luck to you and your
team.
If it were me and I had
just started, I would not enter into this year's competition, but hold an
after school program starting in January every other week, teaching them
programming and then enter next fall's tournament. Definitely go to
this year's event, even as a spectator, because being at the competition
teaches you a lot.
As for books to teach lego
to your team,. I highly recommend Educate NXT
http://www.educatenxt.com/
It's the best value for your
money and time. Carnegie Mellon also has an excellent series called
Robotic Engineering. They started a free online class equivalent but I
can't seem to find that link right now; Maybe someone else has that
link.
Regards,
Brandy
.
We are new FLL team recently registered with parents as coach and
mentor. We
are all new to LEGO Mindstroms NXT Constructions and
Programming.
I was a thinking a good book will be a nice way to
get a jump start for our team.
I see a bunch of books available in
Amazon. Any suggestion ?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?
ie=UTF8&keywords=LEGO%20MINDSTORMS%20NXT&tag=nxtprogramsco-
20&index=books&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325#/ref=nb_sb_noss?
url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-
keywords=LEGO+MINDSTORMS+NXT&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3ALEGO+MINDST
ORMS+NXT
Thanks
for your help.
Rajesh Shah
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