[HN Gopher] Lego Is Discontinuing Mindstorms
___________________________________________________________________
Lego Is Discontinuing Mindstorms
Author : dmarinoc
Score : 292 points
Date : 2022-10-26 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.brickfanatics.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.brickfanatics.com)
| px43 wrote:
| Bummer, I feel like Mindstorms landed right in that gap for me
| where I was a bit too old for them when they first came out (in
| high school, already having a blast with web programming), and
| now I have a two year old who builds giant Duplo castles, has
| conversations with our household robots, wears robot pajamas, and
| I'm super excited for them to age into robotics toys.
|
| This SPIKE Prime thing seems neat, but as others have mentioned,
| a bit bland. Hopefully LEGO comes out with some rad space robot
| themed sets at some point.
|
| Does anyone know if LEGO has or is working on some sort of
| Minecraft style environment where you can build cool stuff, and
| then develop the programs and run them in the simulated
| environment? Then maybe you can build the machines IRL and run
| the same code to get the same behavior? Even a single player
| simulator would be pretty neat, though multiplayer would be
| ideal. Maybe what I'm hoping for is something like a MuJoCo for
| kids, and it seems like LEGO would be a perfect match to have a
| product like that.
| karlmdavis wrote:
| Man, playing with Mindstorms is some of the most fun I've had as
| an adult. This announcement is a shame.
|
| I spent some time going through all of their basic examples in
| Rust, which was just delightfully silly.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| What!! Nooo!
| klaudioz wrote:
| I'm very sad... I did my engineering thesis with a Lego
| Mindstorms on 2009
| sitkack wrote:
| Shame on Lego!
| ievans wrote:
| Sad to see this as someone who enjoyed these as a kid and
| entering robotics competitions based off of them; hopefully the
| new products will keep the spirit alive.
|
| There was even some decent FOSS tooling that developed on top of
| Mindstorms: I used NXC (Not eXactly C,
| https://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc/welcome.html) which was a
| C-like language for programming Lego Mindstorms. It looks like
| the last release of NXC was in 2011.
| mlyle wrote:
| Pybrick/python runs well on both Mindstorms EV3 and the new
| thing (Spike Prime).
| teraflop wrote:
| Similar story here. I remember getting my first exposure to
| embedded development at a relatively young age through brickOS
| (https://brickos.sourceforge.net/), which was a complete
| replacement operating system for the _original_ Mindstorms RCX
| (predating the NXT).
|
| That version of the hardware was so old that it didn't even
| have non-volatile storage. Every time you changed the
| batteries, it would boot into a minimal ROM bootloader which
| was just powerful enough to download the rest of the firmware
| into RAM, via an infrared connection to your PC. That had the
| nice side effect of making the RCX very hacker-friendly,
| because it was almost impossible to permanently "brick" it
| (ha!).
| mFixman wrote:
| My first real programming was NQC (Not Quite C, probably
| related to NXC?). I owe it my programming abilities.
|
| Lego Mindstorms was one of the best creative learning tools you
| can give a child; my life started the day I stopped using the
| building manual and started building my own stuff by trial and
| error.
|
| The world would be a better place if everyone grew up with the
| opportunities that I did. I wish schools would just let
| children do whatever with Lego instead of filling your day with
| restrictive lessons in loud classrooms.
| sethgrisham wrote:
| I grew up using mindstorms in FLL and I just began coaching a
| team this year. I'm pretty impressed with the new Spike Prime,
| and although it has its quirks, over all I'd say it's a good
| improvement over the last generation, plus I get to teach the
| kids python which has honestly been a blast!
| brutus1213 wrote:
| This is sad news. I hoarded a bunch of lego mindstorms and other
| robot sets over the news as my kids are still young. I cracked
| open a littlebits set (the star wars one) and was very
| dissapointed that the app that goes with it was removed from the
| app store.
|
| My investment in a bunch of these devices will be devalued a lot
| :(
| jnwatson wrote:
| I wonder what programs like FIRST Lego League will do. That was
| an amazing experience for my kid.
| dybber wrote:
| LEGO Spike Prime
| harikb wrote:
| School & independent teams have spent $$$ buying lego parts
| and it is still sad to see things deprecated when they could
| have easily upgraded the "cpu" and kept things compatible.
| Nullabillity wrote:
| Spike Prime and 51515 (the final Mindstorms generation)
| seem to be basically the same thing (which isn't new, back
| in the NXT times you had NXT and NXT Education Edition).
|
| I'd be very surprised if they weren't compatible with each
| other.
| galoisscobi wrote:
| This is sad. Lego Mindstorms played a huge role in my life
| trajectory. I discovered RCX and NXT in middle school, absolutely
| loved building stuff with them and went to robotics competitions.
|
| It got me really interested in robotics to the point where I
| decided I would move halfway across the world for college to get
| educated further in robotics. I did that and I am now a
| professional roboticist. None of that would've happened if it
| wasn't for Lego Mindstorms. Sad to see it go. Their spike prime
| kit looks way too basic compared to how mature and extensible the
| mindstorms ecosystem is.
| kypro wrote:
| I also entered a Mindstorms competition at my school and it had
| a similar impact on me. To this day I look back on that
| competition as one of my best childhood memories and I think it
| was a large part of why I went on to eventually study computer
| science.
|
| I suspect there are many of us out there... A very sad day
| indeed.
| FullyFunctional wrote:
| It's a shame but I can see how it's a harder sell than the nth
| iteration of a scene from say Harry Potter.
|
| IMhO, they could do well by combining programmable elements with
| thematic sets, say add programmable motion to a haunted house.
| They have already tip-toed down this path, eg. the roller coaster
| has an optional motor function. However the pure approach of
| Mindstorm clearly has too narrow a market.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| They aren't discontinuing it because its hard to sell in that
| space. They are retiring it in favor of their newer offering in
| the space (LEGO Education Spike Prime). They also have, for
| programmable robotics, the younger-kid focussed LEGO Boost.
| Plus they have at least one DUPLO set aimed at what I think of
| as the "tactile coding toy" space (where instructions are
| represented as physical configurations of objects), DUPLO
| Coding Express.
| belkinpower wrote:
| This is really sad. NXT-G was my first programming language. Not
| sure if I'd be the same person I am today without that
| experience.
| samwillis wrote:
| I was given a Lego RCX kit for Christmas in about 98 at the age
| of 12. It was my first exposure to "proper programming" with its
| visual flowchart based language (I was already playing around
| with HTML). I spent days building various inventions with that
| set. It very much set me in the path I'm still on today.
|
| I'm sure someone will come out with a new product range that
| fills that gap. My eldest kid is 8, I was planing to introduce
| her to Mindstorms in the next year or so...
| omnibrain wrote:
| That's somewhat bittersweet. The company I now work for and lead
| was inspired by mindstorms. Our founder had written a DOS based
| software for alarm receiving centers. Even back then he and his
| prime customer were unsatisfied with the restricting logic of
| managing alarms by only having a few choices how to react to an
| alarm. Usually show some text, and have a person call someone and
| then write up a protocol. So he build some sort of programming
| environment for alarm receiving software.
|
| Now they could implement individual alarm workflows for their
| customers. But that was still nothing his customers could use
| themselves, because they still would have to know how to program.
|
| But then he saw an ad for mindstorms in the Lego catalogue his
| son brought home from the toy store. That inspired him to write a
| completely new software. Windows based with a their own graphical
| programming environment embedded.
| kragen wrote:
| Bittersweet!? What's the _sweet_ part of Lego discontinuing
| Mindstorms?
| fuckstick wrote:
| Apocryphon wrote:
| They're likely shifting focus to a different programmable
| block product line, namely SPIKE Prime. So it's more of a
| changing of the guard than the end of robotic educational
| LEGO.
| kragen wrote:
| That might be okay; what's that like?
| omnibrain wrote:
| I'm not sure if bittersweet is the right word, english is not
| my first language. But I think the bitterness of Mindstorms
| ending reminding me of the beginnings of our company could be
| considered sweet. So I would say it's a bittersweet moment.
|
| I have to admit, though, I never used Mindstorms and as far
| as I know he never bought mindstorms for his children either.
| ;)
| fny wrote:
| Can they at least open source all the CAD so we can 3D print
| these suckers?
| nomel wrote:
| > 3D print these suckers?
|
| Famously, LEGO has an extremely tight manufacturing tolerance
| that's around 10um [1]. Your 3d printer is much better than
| mine. :)
|
| 1. Page 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego#cite_ref-
| Companyprofile_3...
| stas2k wrote:
| Currently 3D printinga lot of Lego rail on my FDM printer.
| Although not perfect, it does snap onto original rail and to
| its 3D printed peers. Lego pieces do snap to the dimples as
| well, although too tight.
|
| Main use case for me is to lay some track between rooms for
| kid's trains.
| AlmostAnyone wrote:
| SLA printer could do it, they even mention using it for
| prototyping on the wiki page
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| Probably not as tough as Lego though
| sbierwagen wrote:
| With SLA resin at $90 a liter, I don't know much much money
| you'd actually save.
| freefruit wrote:
| I have made compatible parts with my at home FDM printer.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I have too on my TAZ, but they either require a bunch of
| sanding to get the fit right or they are far too loose. I
| wonder if the tolerances on the resin printers are accurate
| enough.
| zactato wrote:
| RIP My Robotics professor developed ROBOLAB with Lego + LabView.
| In return, Lego funded part of the robotics department. We had
| the most amazing Lego lab. Bins of every shape piece you could
| ask for. It was really a childhood dream come to life.
| yreg wrote:
| ROBOLAB was great.
| 509engr wrote:
| When they first announced the Mindstorms kit, I was obsessed
| with the idea, but we were a Mac family. My parents somehow
| obtained a Robolab kit from the Lego educational catalog, which
| did run on Mac. I had so many good memories of building with
| that kit, but there were a number of plans I had found for
| Mindstorms that uses parts not included with the Robolab kit.
|
| When I was in a freshman engineering class that used version 1
| mindstorms kits a few years later, my fellow students were
| amazed at my understanding of how to build with the kits. It
| also help with another lab used LabVIEW.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I always preferred the Gilbert erector sets.
| dekhn wrote:
| I'm pretty sure I had this as a kid. It had very memorable
| stamped steel girders . I think we built some sort of ferris
| wheel (not sure which exact model) and I was really unhappy
| with how slow/weak it was. it was a real depressing moment.
| Never quite forgot it. Took a good three and half decades
| before I finally learned how to make high torque spinning
| things (motor torque got better, easier, and cheaper).
| slimsag wrote:
| Erector sets were incredible, as a kid I built RC cars out of
| those with some over-powered motors and such. Super fun times.
|
| I would guess Mindstorms gives more of an intro to programming,
| while Erector is better for mechanical engineering.
|
| (also, hey! I was that weird kid at Handmade Seattle last year
| who asked to shake your hand :) )
| WalterBright wrote:
| I'd attach Cox engines to them <g>.
|
| It was a pleasure to meet you!
|
| P.S. My mom told me that I couldn't handle the tiny screws
| used to put the Erector sets together. She was wrong :-) I
| spent endless hours building things with it.
| lupire wrote:
| Erector was discontinued before Mindstorms were launched, and
| were not programmable.
|
| Mecanno brand has programmable robots, but not the range of
| sensors that Mindstorms had.
| kragen wrote:
| You can still buy them secondhand.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I don't know about Mecano, but the Erector sets online are
| in pretty sad condition, unsurprising since they're >50
| years old now.
|
| Sometimes I'll get from ebay one of the battered metal
| boxes they came in. They make nice nostalgic decorations.
| lacker wrote:
| I have many fond memories of Mindstorms...
|
| In college I started out a math major. The first CS class I took
| was a robotics class based on Mindstorms, as a sophomore. I
| remember it was restricted to only juniors and seniors, but it
| sounded cool, and I found a bug in the course registration system
| that let me sign up anyway.
|
| It was a great class. It's fun that in computer science there are
| so many different ways to solve your problems. Within the year I
| was getting bored of mathematics, and all I really wanted to do
| was take more CS classes....
| nearmuse wrote:
| Although they claim to not be abandoning the idea and the
| trademark altogether, I don't really understand the reasoning
| behind not using such a seemingly strong brand. Mindstorms
| appeared pretty popular with hobbyists and in education.
| jollyllama wrote:
| Does anybody remember any of the Mindstorms flash games on the
| old Lego game website? Those were pretty great. I especially
| liked the game where you tracked the spies in the vaguely Eastern
| European city of Telgrade.
| jamestimmins wrote:
| Can anyone here recommend the best entry point into robotics for
| adults? Is Spike a good product, or too kid focused? Background
| is that I'm a software engineer.
| throwaway4837 wrote:
| Sad news. My dad got me Lego Mindstorms (the $200 original set)
| when I was in 5th or 6th grade. It was one of those toys that is
| so addicting, while also getting you exposed to science,
| engineering, and computers. I used it for a year and had my fun;
| I didn't think about it for years after, but it was probably why
| I ended up joining the Robotics Club in high school. Also
| probably why I picked up programming classes in college even
| though my major wasn't programming. I'm grateful to have been
| exposed to this wonderful, and limitless toy. I really hope the
| replacement product is as magical as this.
| MegaSec wrote:
| End of an era
| primitivesuave wrote:
| I got the original Lego Mindstorms 1.0 kit for my 8th birthday -
| there was no programming interface, just a way to select one of
| 256 possible sequences of high-level actions the robot would
| perform in a loop. I paid for my first car by working at summer
| camps that taught kids how to use the Mindstorms 2.0 and NXT, and
| built my first 3D printer with Lejos
| (https://lejos.sourceforge.io/), Lego Technic parts and a tiny
| spindle router that could sculpt shapes into floral foam.
|
| While I'm saddened by this news for nostalgic reasons, I
| personally believe that today's young learners are better served
| by the proliferation of hobby robotics platforms like
| Arduino/Raspberry Pi. Every summer camp I worked at would claim
| that Lego robotics teaches real-world engineering skills, while
| in reality the students were just happy to stay within the
| comfort zone of playing with Legos and using a block-based
| programming environment (one that has quite frankly gone from bad
| to worse to absolutely horrible with each product cycle). Also,
| FIRST Lego League does nothing meaningful to prepare students for
| FIRST - when I donated supplies and a few weeks of mentorship to
| my former high school's FIRST team, I was dismayed to see how
| much dead weight the team was carrying in students who
| participated in the middle school Lego league, who did not have
| even the basic coding/engineering skills to make any contribution
| to the high school team other than paying the membership dues.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I also had the original mindstorms set from 1996-98, the
| compute module was the big yellow brick (i think the RCX), you
| interface with it via a little serial IO tower. There was
| absolutely a programming interface. It was visual and very
| scratch like and it was evolved eventually into the programming
| environment that came with the ev3. It did require a pc to use
| I think there was a cdrom in the box that contained the
| software.
|
| Since you mentioned the raspberry pi, you can use one of those
| with the latest lego spike system as well via a pi HAT:
| https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/build-hat/
|
| To me as a kid and well as someone a bit older who often pulls
| out legos to mock up mechanical systems before I dig into
| solidworks the programming of the robot was a bit secondary to
| getting the mechanics worked out, and legos are a super fast
| way to prototype a lot of things (though they do have their
| limitations for sure). While I'm not one for shielding young
| people from serious tools, a school or a summer camp might for
| insurance reasons, lego might still be the way to go.
| [deleted]
| app4soft wrote:
| > _That said, SPIKE Prime is effectively LEGO Education's
| implementation of MINDSTORMS, so it's tricky to envision how the
| two platforms could co-exist under a single banner._
|
| And _SPIKE_ web app[0,1] does not work in _Firefox_ :
|
| > _Browser not supported_
|
| > _Use Google Chrome to access the LEGO(r) Education SPIKE(tm)
| App._
|
| [0] https://education.lego.com/en-us/downloads/spike-
| app/softwar...
|
| [1] https://spike.legoeducation.com/
| lanman wrote:
| Cue a few hundred nostalgia posts. Mindstorms was an amazing
| learning experience in the 00s.
| warbler73 wrote:
| For me the Mindstorms failed at updates and could not work
| despite heroic customer service that did not include a refund.
| They are not a tech company and can not do tech.
|
| Since then I've proven that things like ESP32 Arduino etc
| actually work to teach small kids real robotics. Mindstorms was
| always a gimmick.
| mdtrooper wrote:
| Lego is similar to NintEURndo and Di$ney, they do not support the
| free culture, instead their lawers fight agains to free software
| projects or charity events.
|
| Any educational tool/toy must be public domain or free license.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| What if this kind of thinking would lead to no Legos at all?
| Apocryphon wrote:
| There's always K'Nex.
| freetime2 wrote:
| Any alternatives that anyone could suggest for young children
| looking to get an introduction to robotics?
| sequoia wrote:
| VexIQ is one big competitor
| miniwark wrote:
| 'Mindstorm' are more suited for over 10 yo children. For
| younger children the 'Boost' line (17101 set) may be a good
| choice (there is nothing said about it in the announcement).
| Also there is plenty of chinese clones of the previous
| generations of Mindstorm (and maybe the reason for the
| discontinuation).
| nolist_policy wrote:
| Fischertechnik - Basically the direct competitor to Lego
| Technics. At least in Germany.
| jabiko wrote:
| As a child I had a total blast building and programming things
| with Fischertechnik:
| https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/playing/robot-toys
|
| You have microswitches, photoelectric and magnetic sensors,
| motors and pneumatic actuators to name a few. It all came with
| a software to program it all in a flowchart like fashion.
|
| I fondly remember unpacking a set at christmas and playing with
| it. Honestly, I think Fischertechnik had a huge impact on me
| and put me on the career path that I am now. While my last
| experience with Fischertechnik is more than a decade ago, the
| website seems like they haven't lost their spirit
| primitivesuave wrote:
| I had tremendous success teaching 7-9 year olds with Piper
| (https://www.playpiper.com/). It is trivially easy to add
| moving parts and teach the core concepts of electronics, but
| the box itself is not great as a robotics platform. In my
| particular case, the kids also had access to a laser cutter and
| CAD software that would automatically generate the 2D shapes
| and joining slots.
| rr888 wrote:
| quite a few robotics kits associated with microbit and
| raspberry pi. Though because they use computers they dont feel
| like fun so much to me.
| nikeee wrote:
| There is Fischertechnik, a German brand. Don't know how common
| it is outside Germany. It's pretty close to "real"
| robotics/construction.
|
| https://www.fischertechnik.de/en
| shagie wrote:
| I'm aware of it... and its one of the "when I get my desk
| lego things done, I'll get one of them to play with" - https:
| //www.fischertechnik.de/en/products/simulating/trainin... has
| been particularly tempting.
|
| The factory must grow into real space.
| stinkytaco wrote:
| Spike Prime is their new education branding. This article is
| kind of misleading since they've been sort of phasing out the
| Mindstorms branding in favor of a broader education initiative
| for a while. Spike Prime might not be for very young children,
| but I'd say a precocious 2nd or 3rd grader could definitely
| program it.
| mort96 wrote:
| I'm looking at their Spike Prime stuff now, and nothing I'm
| finding seems that... interesting? I got my start in
| programming with the Mindstorms NXT set (this thing:
| http://www.robotreviews.com/reviews/lego-mindstorms-
| nxt-8527...), where you got all the parts and instructions
| needed to build a walking, programmable lego robot. The Spike
| Prime set looks like... some motors, some sensors, the
| controller brick, and some parts, but nothing to inspire, no
| instructions for a cool bipedal robot build, or robot arm, or
| anything to get the imagination flowing.
|
| Even the bright colors look like something that's designed to
| educate small kids? The old sets had a "cool" vibe to them.
| Maybe that made them too gendered, but as a young boy, it
| certainly helped avoid the shame of "still" playing with
| lego.
|
| Am I missing something, or does this Spike Prime thing look
| like less of a replacement and more of a completely different
| product with a different focus which also just happens to
| contain programmable lego motors?
| StillBored wrote:
| I'm a bit out of touch with FLL (my kids aged out), but its
| not surprising. Little of winning a FLL competition is
| related to the robotic performance. The team that wins the
| robotic portions won't necessarily do well overall.
|
| Given that, and the sophistication of many of the teams,
| and the way the competitions are designed. The best teams
| are usually just doing some form of preprogrammed dead
| reckoning sequence and getting a bit lucky and rigorously
| placing the bot at the beginning.
|
| AKA, while the NXT/EV3/etc devices are capable of sensor
| feedback, few teams made use of it. Its likely all the FLL
| teams need for most of the competition is three motor
| forward/reverse.
|
| PS: Maybe I sorta failed to respond to the main point,
| which is that the spike kits aren't there to be "cool"
| sitting on the shelf and excite kids who get them under the
| tree. They are mostly purchased by educational/FLL teams
| where the build instructions and/or goals are provided by a
| 3rd party.
| ngrilly wrote:
| Wondering the same.
| oifjsidjf wrote:
| My very 1st programming experience was on this baby as a ~10yo
| kid.
|
| http://www.technicopedia.com/8479.html
|
| Still remember how instane it felt.
|
| I remember that when constructing the truck I forgot to add in
| some gears so the claws didn't rise properly and I had to
| dissasemble the entire cabin again: my dad almost had to force me
| to do it because I was constructing it for so long that I was
| totaly tired and just wanted to be done with the damn thing.
| 83457 wrote:
| They released a new generation not long ago (last year?). Sounded
| like it wasn't warmly received initially but later they were sold
| out. Something to do with that?
| [deleted]
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| As others have noted, they still have an education focused
| robotics set, it's just not called Mindstorms:
| https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-education-spike-prim...
|
| As a now-successful robotics engineer, I was the target age when
| the first Lego mindstorms set came out. Due to the cost it had to
| be a combined birthday and Christmas present (still obviously
| very privileged). The simple scratch-like programming system that
| kit used was great for me as a tween learning robotics.
|
| Today I am designing an open source farming robot as a non profit
| project! (See my profile)
|
| The early history of Lego Mindstorms is interesting. I didn't
| realize Seymour Papert was involved but that makes a lot of
| sense! Especially with the name Mindstorms:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindstorms_(book)
| pavon wrote:
| The Spike system seems like an odd side-step to me. There are
| some minor improvements, but not really enough to justify
| breaking compatibility and making people repurchase everything
| from scratch.
|
| In contrast, Mindstorms replaced the old LEGO/Logo system
| (which I was fortunate to use in high school), and was a big
| step forward in a number of ways most noticeably that you
| didn't have to be tethered to the computer.
| adastra22 wrote:
| > not really enough to justify breaking compatibility and
| making people repurchase everything from scratch
|
| That's LEGO's game plan though X)
| Nullabillity wrote:
| EV3 was largely compatible with NXT, and while NXT wasn't
| directly compatible with RIS they sold separate adapter
| modules. 51515 was a huge regression compared to the rest
| of the series.
|
| The general LEGO system has also had decades of
| compatibility at this point...
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I don't know if thats true. Lego as a corporation has been
| fairly low on the fuckery index.
| adastra22 wrote:
| LEGO kits used to be composed of fully interchangeable
| parts. While that is still true of the core build, there
| are now unique parts in every kit. This is driven by
| sales.
| xrd wrote:
| I love Legos and by extension the company that makes them,
| and I still believe what you are saying, that everyone will
| have to buy new stuff, is exactly the reason the LEGO company
| is making this choice. They don't make a penny (unless they
| are somehow involved in a secondary market which probably has
| much lower margins and higher costs) unless you buy something
| new, and migrating to a new ecosystem makes so much sense if
| that's the goal.
| Nullabillity wrote:
| > unless they are somehow involved in a secondary market
|
| LEGO owns BrickLink, as of a few years ago.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| FYI if you want to get beefy on the compute side, they make a
| raspberry pi HAT for integration with the lego spike stuff:
| https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/build-hat/
| colechristensen wrote:
| As I grown man who has built actual robots with all the skills
| to do embedded programming and mechanical engineering to make
| robots... I'm still envious of Mindstorms and yet never
| purchased any despite having the funds to do so.
|
| I think this is the same part of my brain that still thinks
| getting a PDA is a good idea despite having had a smartphone
| for I don't know how many years now.
|
| Is there a word for holding on to a desire which has entirely
| been satisfied with new but different solutions?
| alanbernstein wrote:
| Nostalgia?
| bnycum wrote:
| My kid was selected into the robotics club this year, and they
| are using the Spike Prime kit. Seems like a decent set all
| things considered for younger kids. My child is in 5th grade
| and first year robotics. Probably wouldn't invest into it if
| your child is middle-school or older, but from what I've seen
| of it a very good kit.
| zebnyc wrote:
| At what age is it appropriate? My kid is going to be 5 soon
| and loves playing with Legos. Thanks
| andrepd wrote:
| Man I wish I had a robotics club growing up x)
| k__ wrote:
| What would you recommend to kinds these days?
| markscianna wrote:
| Spike Prime is the replacement, and it's been a nice upgrade
| for us
| perryh2 wrote:
| Make Twitter bots :)
| [deleted]
| DanCarvajal wrote:
| Bummer, I remember loving the system when was on the school
| Botball team in the early 2000s.
| XnoiVeX wrote:
| They should open source the software so it will be supported by
| the community.
| lasftew wrote:
| Looks like https://pybricks.com/ is a usable alternative firmware
| for the Robot Inventor hub.
| jph wrote:
| Mindstorms has a long compelling history before LEGO, that
| includes cybernetics, the Logo programming language, turtle
| graphics, Braitenberg vehicles, and the rise of the MIT Media
| Lab.
|
| See the book "Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful
| Ideas" by Seymour Papert. Free from MIT.
|
| https://mindstorms.media.mit.edu
|
| https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)
|
| https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_graphics
|
| https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Braitenberg_vehicle
|
| https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Papert
| the_mitsuhiko wrote:
| The robot inventor set is awesome. Such a shame to see it being
| retired. :(
| tomcam wrote:
| Is limited app support a problem anymore? I assume there are
| complete replacements for the firmware these days?
| dybber wrote:
| Yes, you can run a debian based distro on them, so they can be
| programmed in Python or whatever. I guess the question is if
| they will stop being supported by platforms such as Scratch,
| which is a very popular way to program them these days
| tomcam wrote:
| Far out, thanks
| jer0me wrote:
| What a shame, I loved my set as a kid. Hopefully the software
| will still work or can be made to work with now-discontinued
| models.
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(page generated 2022-10-26 23:00 UTC)