LEGO Mindstorms and Robotics General Discussion

[Burf2000]

My first EV3 Model, built this in about a hour, not finished yet.

[Ramacco]

Lovely model Simon! Can't wait to build my first model!!

[Burf2000]

Thanks mate, I been a bit slow lately in building, this will change!

[DLuders]

The Lego Mindstorms EV3 ships August 1, 2013 (or so says The Lego Group) . There is this PDF Brief on the features of the EV3's Remote Control (with a pistol-grip style, shown in this 29-second video).

[The Ghost Racer]

This set is very interesting, I hope that the new engines develop a lot of torque.

Do you know if they are also Available adapters for power functions? If I mistake not long ago they were available, but it is a bit 'I do not see them around.

[kieran]

This set is very interesting, I hope that the new engines develop a lot of torque.

Do you know if they are also Available adapters for power functions? If I mistake not long ago they were available, but it is a bit 'I do not see them around.

There used to be office 9V to NXT plugs, you could then use a PF to 9V. They were really around to allow owners of the older RCX system to use their 9V bits with NXT, but it did work. there are plenty of 3rd party ways to do it if you don't mind being not 100% Lego.

[zux]

This set is very interesting, I hope that the new engines develop a lot of torque.

As I understood from official vieos, Large servo motor is the same, except the housing has new fixing options.

[The Ghost Racer]

There used to be office 9V to NXT plugs, you could then use a PF to 9V. They were really around to allow owners of the older RCX system to use their 9V bits with NXT, but it did work. there are plenty of 3rd party ways to do it if you don't mind being not 100% Lego.

I have the cable from 9V to PF so I can do it.

As I understood from official vieos, Large servo motor is the same, except the housing has new fixing options.

what a pity

[Junpei]

Yes that is kind of sad, I was hoping for some new motors... Well I hope the EV3 m-motor isn't just an l-motor.

Edit: Hey wait! It says on the lego education that the servo has 20 N/cm of torque and spins at 160 RPM at 9v. That's 23 RPM faster and 3.3 N/cm more torque! The m-motor is just an l-motor tho..

Double edit: The new EV3 m-motor is slightly slower than the l-motor with just a bit more torque.

[Someonenamedjon]

My robotics team will be purchasing, with funded money, about 8 bricks along with 4 l motors each.

[Doc_Brown]

My robotics team will be purchasing, with funded money, about 8 bricks along with 4 l motors each.

Oh wow!@ lucky, can't wait to see what you come up with Jon! :D

[Jim]

With funded money sounds great

I am afraid I have to fund my own robot

Really looking forward to this set. Can't wait to see what builders, programmers, hackers come up with.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Gekke Ted

[Someonenamedjon]

Oh wow!@ lucky, can't wait to see what you come up with Jon! :D

With funded money sounds great

I am afraid I have to fund my own robot

Really looking forward to this set. Can't wait to see what builders, programmers, hackers come up with.

We have already technically been funded 180000 for 6 matlab license to program our robot with.

The robot will be a large Mars Rover with a base attached to it that can sort the objects that the rover picks up. We estimated the size of the rover to be about 3 feet by 1.2 feet by about 5 inches.

The funny thing is that the last competition just ended like 4 months ago!

Edited July 17, 2013 by Someonenamedjon

[DLuders]

Yesterday, Laurens Valk posted this

about "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 and NXT Compatibility". From the full Robot Square article, here is a summary:

"Hardware Compatibility

"The cable connectors in the NXT sets and EV3 sets are the same, so that many of the EV3 and NXT devices can be used together. Some combinations are compatible, others are not, as discussed in the next. You can see a demonstration of two possible configurations in the following video.

"Most NXT accessories can be used with the EV3 brick

You can connect all official LEGO NXT motors and official LEGO NXT sensors to the EV3 brick. For example, you can have a configuration with an NXT Touch Sensor, an EV3 Touch Sensor, an NXT motor and a Medium EV3 motor, all connected to the EV3 brick, as shown in Figure 4. You use the NXT devices in the EV3 software as if they are EV3 components, as demonstrated in the video.

"You can also connect some unofficial NXT Sensors to the EV3 brick, such as some sensors from HiTechnic, Mindsensors and Dexter Industries. However, these companies will have to create programming blocks to facilitate the use of these sensors in the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 software, which has not yet been done for all sensors. If in doubt, contact the manufacturer of the sensor.

"EV3 sensors CANNOT be used with the NXT brick, but EV3 motors CAN be used with the NXT

"It is not possible to connect the new EV3 sensors to the NXT brick. However, you can use both Large and Medium EV3 motors with the NXT brick as if they are normal NXT motors. Figure 5 illustrates this (see video above for a sample program).

"The NXT and EV3 rechargeable batteries are not compatible

"Both the NXT and EV3 can be powered with 6 standard AA batteries. Alternatively, they can be powered with a LEGO rechargeable battery. The LEGO EV3 battery and LEGO NXT battery have a different shape, as shown in Figure 6, so you cannot use them interchangeably." [NOTE: In the Comments section in the article, John Hansen pointed out that "...the EV3 rechargeable battery had to differ from the NXT rechargeable battery because the battery compartment now has to have 2 mechanical latches (or a screw) due to toy safety regulations. But both batteries use the same DC charger."]

"Software Compatibility

"The EV3 brick is programmed with new programming software. Although the software is different than the NXT programming software, existing NXT users will recognize many of the features of the EV3 software. You can still program the robot’s actions using drag and drop programming blocks, as shown in Figure 7.

"It is also possible to use the EV3 software to program your NXT bricks. If you have both NXT and EV3 bricks, this allows you to program both using just one application. Note that this does not give your NXT brick additional features. For example, you still cannot use EV3 sensors on the NXT brick. It just helps keeping all your programs in one place. The EV3 software (home edition) will be a free download from the LEGO MINDSTORMS website [Link not yet available], so you can use it even if you do not have an EV3 set."

Edited July 18, 2013 by DLuders

[afoldad]

EV3 Retail will hit store shelves on September 1st! As stated before, the Edu set is available today.

http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/News/ReadMore/Default.aspx?id=493880

In addition, the bonus models were revealed also:

http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/News/ReadMore/Default.aspx?id=493881

[skriblez]

Cool bonus models!

[Jim]

Indeed nice bonus models!!

Preordered my retail version online, so I hope to get it in September.

I would also like an educational version, or at least some things of it. The educational version comes without the retail software, right?

[Philo]

The educational version comes without the retail software, right?

Right. Anyway retail software doesn't support Edu specific sensors (gyro and ultrasonic)

BTW, if you want to get you feet wet with EV3 building before buying it, I have uploaded EV3 LDraw parts today... See http://www.eurobrick...7

[Jim]

Right. Anyway retail software doesn't support Edu specific sensors (gyro and ultrasonic)

How comes? Which software do you need for the ultrasonic? The educational version obviously, but how is that different? That kinda bugs me. It will probably all work with RobotC or some other Dev environment in the end, but I figured the gyro and ultrasonic would work in the retail software as well.

BTW, if you want to get you feet wet with EV3 building before buying it, I have uploaded EV3 LDraw parts today... See http://www.eurobrick...7

Great! Have been waiting for those! Thanks

[Kwon]

Wow!

[Junpei]

Wow what?

I might want to get EV3, but I have quite a limited budget. Maybe I'll just get some motors for moc's.

[Jim]

How comes? Which software do you need for the ultrasonic? The educational version obviously, but how is that different? That kinda bugs me. It will probably all work with RobotC or some other Dev environment in the end, but I figured the gyro and ultrasonic would work in the retail software as well.

Does anyone know why this is?

Off topic: what happened to David (DLuders)? He got banned?!

[Philo]

more sophisticated sensors

Marketing mysteries are beyond me... All I can tell is that - as I write this - there is no support for gyro and US sensro in retail version, but at some time LEGO could provide downloadable blocks for that. Note that this already occured with NXT: the temperature sensor never got support in retail version (but it's an I2C sensor that is easy to use with generic I2C blocks). BTW, this sensor is also supported in EV3 Edu software, not in retail one...

[Jim]

Marketing mysteries are beyond me... All I can tell is that - as I write this - there is no support for gyro and US sensro in retail version, but at some time LEGO could provide downloadable blocks for that. Note that this already occured with NXT: the temperature sensor never got support in retail version (but it's an I2C sensor that is easy to use with generic I2C blocks). BTW, this sensor is also supported in EV3 Edu software, not in retail one...

Strange and a bit disappointing. However, since it's Linux based, there will be loads of alternatives for getting this to work. I am currently not using the NXT-G software anyway and this won't be any different for the EV3.

Yesterday I got all my NXT stuff downstairs and did a little building and programming. Really can't wait to get my hands on the EV3.

Thanks for the heads up about the sensors BTW. You have prevented some major frustrations

[Impact1]

Over the weekend my son was gifted a LEGO Education EV3 Core set. He was also given a single user software license. Which is good, as the home software isn't released yet that I can tell, and I believe doesn't work with a couple of the sensors in the education set (gyro and ultrasonic). We plan to pick up the new IR sensor and transmitter as well, so he can build some of the non educations models.

Neither he or I have used NXT. And my use of Technic is limited to what I've needed for trains, so this is all new to us.

We've had a couple of glitches with the software. First the license key was mis-printed on the paper, withe the first letter being cropped. So if you have the same issue, I was told by support that it's always a letter "W" for the first character. The next issue is downloading the software. I have a zippy internet connection, but it will only download at a few kilobyte per minute. I'll let you know my impresions if it ever finishes downloading.

Another issue I'm haveing is the rechargable battery. We left it on the charger over night. But when we tried it this morning the EV3 wouldn't boot. And it booted fine with AA cells.. The green power light comes on, and the charging light is red. Then the red light goes out after about 20 minutes. There are no instructions for charging. So it may be another call to customer service.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Impact1