[Robotgroup] [DPRG] Starting robotics, but where?

[Gray Mack]

I would agree with this. I haven't used a Boebot, but
from what I have seen they are a good way to start,
most affordable, and with a lot of community support
and expandability.

Also, I have seen some neat things built with legos. 
The spybotics robots were a cheaper way to get into
lego robots. The hacker crowd has done some neat
things with making them programmable in languages like
not-quite-C. They are not hardware expandable (unless
you hack the thing apart or optically interface to
it's LEDs/photodiode)

It sounds like mindstorms are highly programmable:
----web article----
The "Coding4Fun" area of its Microsoft's MSDN
developer site has just published a pair of articles,
with associated downloads, that enable the use of
Visual Studio 2005 "express edition" to program the
RIS. Programs can be written in any of the four
languages supported by the .NET Framework -- C#, C++,
Visual Basic, and J#. Additionally, the "express"
versions of Visual Studio 2005 (and related express
tools) are now available at no charge from Microsoft,
via download.
----
If lego's arent your thing, you could still use the
guts and hot glue them to wood blocks :)

I only have 1st-hand experience with the vex kits.
They have good hardware, but takes some time to figure
out how to build things that work and dont fall apart.
They have a good radio controller, but very little
hacker support for actual programming. There are a few
programming examples on the vex site (which arent
simplified for learning), and google turned up nothing
else last I checked.
See my writeup here
http://robotgroup.net/index.cgi/VexRobotics
Unless the price of the vex kit+programmer+accessories
is alot better than mindstorms, I wouldnt recommend
it.

-Gray
-
-

--- ellis76016 at comcast.net wrote:

> Mohammad,
> I really like the Parallax Boebot as a starter
> robot. The kit is a great introductory course for
> robotics. It doesn't take special tools to put one
> together but it very expandable and flexible.  It
> teaches you step by step how to program the
> micro-controller. It also teaches construction and
> programming of input sensors (still no special tools
> required and all the parts come with the kit) It
> also teaches construction and control (via program)
> of output devices like servo motors for the wheels.
> 
> To get an idea of what the kit is like you can down
> load the complete manual from:
>
http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/books/edu/Roboticsv2_2.pdf
> 
> It is a very worth while start. 
> Please let us know how it goes.
> David Ellis
> 
>  -------------- Original message
> ----------------------
> From: "Mohammad El-Abid" <elabidster at gmail.com>
> > Hello,
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I'm thirteen and I've recently have thought about
> doing robots, I do have  a
> > background in programming, but not in mechanical
> and electrical. I've looked
> > at a couple of kits and listed my reasons.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > 1: VEX, cheap , not really building
> > 
> > 2: Arobot seems cool (
> http://www.robotics.com/arobot ) , limited building
> > 
> > 3: Lego MINDstorms, seems alright but not really
> programming or building
> > 
> > 4:
> http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=27311,
> cheap, but perhaps a
> > bit advance?
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Thanks for your time,
> > 
> > Mohammad
> > 
> 
> 
> > _______________________________________________
> Robotgroup mailing list
> Robotgroup at puremagic.com
>
http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robotgroup
> 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Sponsored Link

Rates near historic lows - 
$200,000 mortgage for $660/ month - 
http://yahoo.ratemarketplace.com