Andrew Page

I saw one of your WIP posts, and it encouraged me to make a Bricklink order for the new gearbox parts for my own design. Thank you for sharing the finished design.

For High power models the leaving the rechargeable battery plugged in does not work. I had a 5 NXT Pinball Machine. 4 were fine. But the one on the flippers would die about 3 hours into a show. So I kept a spare battery to swap in. For most people, this is probably not an issues. But for things that never stop the motors its something to think about.

I was at AWS re:invent this year, and spoke to the team. The told me LEGO was on their roadmap, so I'll keep watching.

I just tried the 10 foot piece of 3rd party tubing on my desk. I used a small pump, and it was just like having a tank in the system. Slow but worked perfectly.

They sell beads almost exactly the same size as GBC balls. Since you are leaving purist land they might be an option.

I teach with NXT bricks, and got some of the original ones with bad caps. About 17 of 22 screens died. LEGO replaced them all, no questions asked. Contact Tech Support. They will probably help.

I own several HiTechnic ones. It is not that easy. In order to work properly, you also want the CG to be in the center. Not easy to achieve. You could build one, but I cannot imagine it coming out that much cheaper.

I was able to buy one this morning in the USA. I was the first person to ask at the local store. The store said that they had received 20 and did not know if more would come. I am keeping it sealed to be fair, but I am traveling so I wanted to stop trying to find it on my cell phone.

Just to make my previous post clear (And try and tone this thread down before it gets locked) I think frustration and disappointment are too be expected. I would just like to see the AFOL community respond like the "United Breaks Guitars" guy, and not just rant and rave at the poor USA CS reps.

Then stop buying the product. I have to admit, I have followed this discussion for a while, and I am very confused how anyone could be upset. Yes, it is a bit disappointing that they are not yet available. But no-one has a "Right" to LEGO parts. When the motors are released, lets not confuse causation with correlation. Just because someone bugged low-level customer service folks, and sometime later parts are released, that is not proof that the bugging "resolved" the matter. Unless TLG tells the back-story we will never know. When they become available, I will buy a few. Until then, I will build something else. Simple enough.

I have found LEGO RMA to be great (At least the edu side) I placed an order for the NXT kits, as soon as they came out. I got a batch with bad capacitors in the display boards. The NXT bricks would work, but the display had a random pattern on it. By three years after I purchased them 18 of the 24 had broken. I called up support and they were replaced no questions asked. Total investment 10 dollars in shipping the bad ones back. Great service, but that is what you would expect.

This might let me remove the only non-LEGO part in my pinball machine :)

I am not so sure. Clearly the new daisy-chaining trick will not work as the old bricks lack a USB host controller But the old tricks using BT or RS485 should still be possible. Having done many multi-NXT projects I am VERY excited about the new feature, but I am still hopeful that the old ones can be integrated.

There are a bunch of opensource solutions for RCX that are WAY better than the LEGO software. The new NXT software is usable, but the older stuff was just not that good. The above link is a good start, but there others. The Wikipedia article for Mind-storms has the links. If you really want the LEGO software, Lego education has Robolab version 2.9 on sale for $22.95 while supplies last Andy

Since I have taught Lego robotics from way before Mindstorms, I am always OK with non-LEGO solutions. My first Lego robots used Handyboard computers, and hand wired sensors. In general, I like the challenge of using a 100% Lego solution. But I also like being able to teach techniques that are not possible with Lego sensors, like integrating over a rate sensor. At Brickfair, the rule seemed to be, no parts from Lego competitors. I used a number of sensors and wires from Mindsensors and HiTechnic for my pinball machine. I also, like all other working pinball machines I know of, used a non-Lego ball. I think that is fair. To each his/her own I guess.