Post by thread:[OT] Lego or Fischertechnik for kid's firstelectro

> Now we get to the real moral problem -- should > I buy this for my one of my grandsons, or for me! :-) Ok, there are 3 ways to solve it ... 1) Get one only for you and keep it. But mostly will not work. Typical result is, my son see it and get it and I stay without anything :-( 2) I get one for my son and of course, I have to "test" it before I handle it to my son ... Big fun for both of us, since testing will be done at the same time from me and my son. Sometimes hard to see, how fast my son can assemble those parts .... This one works out very often :-) 3) OK, expensive, but always works. Get one for myself and one for my son :-)) Best Jens

On Nov 7, 2005, at 3:52 PM, Jens M. Guessregen / Mailinglists wrote: > > 1) Get one only for you and keep it. > > But mostly will not work. Typical result is, my son see it and get it > and I stay without anything :-( > It might work better that way. My daughter's Lego Robotics set is still sealed in it's box since last christmas, despite a fair amount of interest in prior lego kits (of the non-computerized sort.) Part of that's my fault for not "driving" use of it, but... I don't see a particular reason to restrict yourself to one building system. We've got zoobs, kinex, lego, and a few others. Kinex's attempt at robotics was pretty lame, but I like the way structures go together. Zoobs were cool, but somewhat limitted, and I think they've gone away. There seems to be a lot of third-party support for lego-based things, at least in the US, including MIT robotics classes :-) IMO, it seems to take a LOT of third-party support for something like this to work as an educational experience. The toy vendors don't seem to be all that good at designing follow-on education... I'd say for a first try in that sort of direction that either one would work fine. If it catches on, you can expand it. If it doesn't, you can try something else (or ... not.) BillW

Have a look at <http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/> this provides a GUI for NQC & might be useful for big & small kids alike. Syngress <http://www.syngress.com/marketing/lego/> sell books with some good projects. <http://www.lm-software.com/mlcad/> is a free lego cad package my kid used to use. I can't remember how well id deals with Mindstorms stuff. This is a 'fit the bricks together' only package, no programming. Lots of homebrew sensor sites out there. Just google 'Mindstorms homebrew'. Many of them use tricks such as Olin describes below. Joe > {Original Message removed}

and if you look at NQC, don't forget to look for Swan firmware, which runs NQC 100 timer or more faster !! Stef Mientki Joe McCauley wrote: {Quote hidden}>Have a look at <http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/> this provides a GUI for NQC >& might be useful for big & small kids alike. Syngress ><http://www.syngress.com/marketing/lego/> sell books with some good >projects. ><http://www.lm-software.com/mlcad/> is a free lego cad package my kid used >to use. I can't remember how well id deals with Mindstorms stuff. This is a >'fit the bricks together' only package, no programming. Lots of homebrew >sensor sites out there. Just google 'Mindstorms homebrew'. Many of them use >tricks such as Olin describes below. > >Joe > > > > >>{Original Message removed}