BOOK: "The Mayan Adventure" chapter excerpts

UPDATE: Not long after I posted this, I received an email telling me that MAKE magazine has posted a little blurb about my book - but the best part is that they've included a PDF download that includes ALL of chapter 1 and chapter 2, not just an excerpt. Read it here.

I've received requests for chapter excerpts for my book "LEGO Mindstorms NXT: The Mayan Adventure" and I'm happy to comply.

Below are links to numerous items, including the Design Journal Page that is used in the theory chapters (chapters 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18) to help develop the 5 robots included with the book (and useful for helping design your own robots).

The Design Journal Page is all yours - make as many copies as you like. The PDF file contains 6 blanks for you to print out and I hope you find it useful. If you're not sure how the Design Journal Page works, be sure to check out the Chapter 2 excerpt below - each section of the Design Journal page is covered in detail in those theory chapters (mentioned above) and by the time the reader has completed all 5 robots, the Design Journal Page will be very familiar territory.

Click here to download Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 - The fictional storyline starts (Ch1) and Theory Chapter with Design Journal Page (2)

Click here to download an excerpt of Chapter 3 - Building Instructions for a robot

Click here to download an excerpt of Chapter 4 - Programming Instructions for a robot

Click here to download the Design Journal Page

Click here for bundled excerpts of Chapters 2, 3, and 4
and finally click here to download the Table of Contents

MINDSTORMS Retires!

2023 is the 25th Anniversary of the MINDSTORMS brand. For 25 years, MINDSTORMS has educated and inspired a generation of robot builders, both children and adults. Unfortunately, the LEGO Group decided to end the line on December 2022. Many ROBOTMAK3RS have been passionately involved with the development of MINDSTORMS through the MUP and MCP programs. Even with the newest Robot Inventor line, several ROBOTMAK3RS were invited to submit additional bonus models that were included in the official app. Regardless of the retirement of a major LEGO robotics product line, ROBOTMAK3RS continue to MAKE-SHARE-INSPIRE using all LEGO robotics platforms available to us. Here is the official statement from LEGO. Since its launch in September 1998, LEGO MINDSTORMS has been one of the core ‘Build & Code’ experiences in the company’s portfolio, carrying with it significant brand equity and becoming a stand-out experience for the early days of consumer robotics and leading to current Build & Code

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we take a trip through history. Please also visit ROBOTMAK3RS Community every week as we highlight different projects all through 2023 in celebration of the anniversary. Some of the early history is based on the content shared by Coder Shah in our MINDSTORMS EV3 Community Group . Some of the text and links may have been edited from his original posts for consistency and clarity. 1984 - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen watched a TV program called "Talking Turtle," where MIT professor Seymour Papert demonstrated how children could control robot "turtles" using LOGO, a programming language he developed. 1988 - The collaboration between MIT and LEGO resulted in LEGO TC Logo in 1988, which allowed students to control LEGO models using computer commands. The video shows Papert demonstrating TC Logo. 1990 - LEGO TC Logo was hampered since the robots you built had to be tethered to a personal computer. LEGO and MIT

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix Part 1

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we asked ROBOTMAK3RS to combine a LEGO set of their choice with a MINDSTORMS set. Here is what these five ROBOTMAK3RS came up with. MINDSTORMS Chess Assistant by Arvind Seshan Overview: When you are new to chess, it can be a challenge to remember which pieces go where. Now, you can use machine learning and LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor to build a tool to help you learn where all the chess pieces go on the chess board. Sets used: LEGO® Iconic Chess Set (40174) and MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor (51515) Review: I really like how the chess set base can store all the pieces underneath and that the board neatly splits in half for handy storage. The chess pieces themselves are very sturdy and well built. My only criticism is the building of the box itself. It was quite difficult to see what pieces to use and since the entire box is made mostly of thin plates, it took a lot of time and patience. I would have liked the storage area to be sliding dra

ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Search This Blog