Considering the advances in materials, electronics and drive systems in recent years, RC is great fun and an excellent learning experience...one that translate directly to robotic building.
I can getpics probably tommorrow. One is a Team Losi and one is a Team Associate. Both run fine but one needs a $5.00 piece on the steering column. It is available at most Hobby/RC stores. I got them by doing some trading on Craigs List and they were mainly for my grandson. However, he never really showed interest and I ended up shelving them. These are the ones that run on battery. I believe I also have an extra remote I can throw in. I have thought of stripping them down and using for robot parts but I think I have enough of that around!!! If interested PM me your email address and I will send some pics over before the weekend.
If i were to use a wireless video camera, for machine vision purposes, then that would mean i would have to connect it to a laptop or desktop and not directly to the EV3 then. Is that correct? Because
the EV3 may not have enough processing power?
Ya right! I did not get the rc car i just got a TrackIR 4 pro for my computer so i can play my air combat simulations with it! Im thinking about just reviewing my work with the BOEBOT kit i got couple years ago and build other robots with the skills i developed. LEGO is just too expensive.
So umm I still got the lego ev3 on my mind but I was wondering what everyone thought about the programming capabilities comparing the gui of the lego ev3 vs gui of the scribbler s2 (strengths, weaknesses).
Thanks and happy new year!
Since the ev3 is relatively new and this *IS* a parallax forum, there may not be a lot of people with experience on both GUIs.
I don't know if the ev3 GUI give you access to any of its generated source code but that is a GREAT advantage in the S2 GUI. You can actually use it to learn Spin and/or to capture working Spin snippets of S2 functionality for your own programs as Duane Degn mentioned in another thread.
It comes down to what you want to do Lego construction or already have a Mindstorm set, get the EV3 as a follow on to that. You won't be able to experiment with electronics as easily, you won;t learn as much about programming but you will learn abotu building Legos and acquire skills usable in the Lego Robotics universe.
If you don't want to build much, and are mostly interested in learning to program a robot, the S2 is a tremendous value with its built in sensors and the GUI that gets you started and transitions nicely to Spin. You can expand it and do some electronic experimenting as long as you understand the restrictions of the hacker port.
If you want to build and want to learn to program and want to learn electronics and want pretty much unlimited expansion potential (within chassis size and design), the ActivityBot (Prop BOEbot, BOEbot) are a wonderful choice. You are truly only limited by your imagination and the size of the chassis as far as what you can attempt to do.
We CAN'T make these decisions for you. Figure out how much you want to spend and what you want to do and go for it! Each solution offers you a different set of experiences and opportunities.
I have a Mindstorm set that my daughter and I play with because she likes to build Legos. So she'll build something and then we'll play together a bit with programming it then she "recycles" it into another construction.
I have (a few) S2s that are just fun to play with when you want to try out programming something using the sensors they have or try a quick experiment that will go through the hacker port.
The BOEbot based robots are the experimental workhorses. You can do anything with them.
The folks on this forum will be very helpful and supportive on any of the Parallax adventures you choose but we're not here for Lego discussions so the best we can do in that arena is offer opinions and general knowledge.
Comments
RC can be great fun.
Considering the advances in materials, electronics and drive systems in recent years, RC is great fun and an excellent learning experience...one that translate directly to robotic building.
FYI...
http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/support/faq/
In reference to a video sensor...depends on how one uses it.
Machine vision is one thing...just using it for surveillence is another.
One can fit any platform with a wireless video camera.
To truly use it for machine vision purposes, one needs some significant processing power.
the EV3 may not have enough processing power?
I have also seen discussions about some software problems so do your research before buying.
Retailers had to resort to gift cards to drop the price a bit.
It will be interesting to see what the pricing will be next year after Lego crunches the sale numbers.
Thanks and happy new year!
I don't know if the ev3 GUI give you access to any of its generated source code but that is a GREAT advantage in the S2 GUI. You can actually use it to learn Spin and/or to capture working Spin snippets of S2 functionality for your own programs as Duane Degn mentioned in another thread.
It comes down to what you want to do Lego construction or already have a Mindstorm set, get the EV3 as a follow on to that. You won't be able to experiment with electronics as easily, you won;t learn as much about programming but you will learn abotu building Legos and acquire skills usable in the Lego Robotics universe.
If you don't want to build much, and are mostly interested in learning to program a robot, the S2 is a tremendous value with its built in sensors and the GUI that gets you started and transitions nicely to Spin. You can expand it and do some electronic experimenting as long as you understand the restrictions of the hacker port.
If you want to build and want to learn to program and want to learn electronics and want pretty much unlimited expansion potential (within chassis size and design), the ActivityBot (Prop BOEbot, BOEbot) are a wonderful choice. You are truly only limited by your imagination and the size of the chassis as far as what you can attempt to do.
We CAN'T make these decisions for you. Figure out how much you want to spend and what you want to do and go for it! Each solution offers you a different set of experiences and opportunities.
I have a Mindstorm set that my daughter and I play with because she likes to build Legos. So she'll build something and then we'll play together a bit with programming it then she "recycles" it into another construction.
I have (a few) S2s that are just fun to play with when you want to try out programming something using the sensors they have or try a quick experiment that will go through the hacker port.
The BOEbot based robots are the experimental workhorses. You can do anything with them.
The folks on this forum will be very helpful and supportive on any of the Parallax adventures you choose but we're not here for Lego discussions so the best we can do in that arena is offer opinions and general knowledge.