Skip to main content

The New LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Review

By
We are about 3-4 days from retailers across most countries in Europe and North America start selling the new #8547 NXT 2.0 kits. You can already pre-order them from some online retailers (e.g. amazon.com) and LEGO shop @ home web site.

Like many of the bloggers here in The NXTStep who are MINDSTORMS Community partners, I am very lucky to have been 'involved' in the development cycle of the NXT 2.0 right from the start. MCP's have been instrumental in helping LEGO define many of the features LEGO have added to the product.

In recent weeks there has been some excellent posts here about the new NXT so you get a feel for what you get with the new kit.

I just made a video of the four NXT kit stock models in action - as seen through the eyes of a two year old. Click on the video link below:




If you missed the recent posts here about NXT 2.0 - Here is a quick blurb about the new kit:

The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 set has a bigger and revised element assortment of 619 elements, 16 building and programming challenges for 4 new fun and action-packed robotic models complete with building instructions [plus 10 more you can download shortly]

The new hardware mix consist of an NXT micro-controller, 3 Interactive Servo Motors – with built-in Rotation Sensors, 1 Ultrasonic Sensor, 2 Touch Sensors and the new Colour Sensor with triple functionality; it acts a Colour Sensor – detecting different colours, as a Light Sensor – seeing different light intensities and also works as a Colour Lamp.

Among the new software features there will be applications that makes it possible to make your robot display the images and play the sounds you want it to! There is also a Remote control application that allows for instant and direct control of your robot without any special programming needed.



Edit:

Following the last comments, I thought I will rate each of the stock models the kit comes with for ease of build and playability:

(1) Alpha Rex:



[humanoid robot - that can walk turn, dance, talk, can see and avoid obstacles, can grab and distinguish between different coloured objects]



  • Playability: 10
  • Ease of build: Pretty Hard [@ 2 hours]
  • Building instructions: Excellent


(2) Colour Sorter


[robotic sorting machine that can sort different coloured balls and dispense into sorting trays or catapult them]



  • Playability: 9.5
  • Ease of build: Hard [@ 2 hours – including optional catapult]
  • Building instructions: Excellent

(3) Robogator


[An animal robot that acts and moves like an alligator; It protect its area and jumps forward and snap at anything that comes too near]



  • Playability: 9.0
  • Ease of build: easy [@ 1.5 hours]
  • Building instructions: Excellent

(4) Shooterbot




[A moving vehicle robot (with tracks and a shooter) that can guard your room and will shoot balls at intruders!]




  • Playability: 9.0
  • Ease of build: easy [@ 45 mins]
  • Building instructions: Excellent and VERY easy to follow
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

MINDSTORMS Retires!

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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
Read more

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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
Read more

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix Part 1

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R
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
Read more