Lego Mindstorms Nxt or is there something cheaper and better?
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NXT is excellent for kids. I have been coaching kids 8 years up in a world wide challenge call First Lego League or FLL. Not only does this program involve teaching building and programming robots but also teamwork and problem solving in a fun competitive environment. Especially great for kids that don't compete in sports. First Lego League
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see: http://www.delicious.com/birbilis/education+robotics[^] http://www.delicious.com/tag/education+robotics[^]
Computer & Informatics Engineer Microsoft MVP J# 2004-2007 Borland "Spirit of Delphi" QuickTime, QTVR, Delphi VCL, ActiveX, COM, .NET, Robotics http://www.kagi.com/birbilis http://birbilis.spaces.live.com
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No, NXT (32-bit ARM) or the older RCX (8-bit H8) and Robolab 2.9 are the way to go. You should check out FIRST www.usfirst.org, at 6 they would be in Junior FLL because FLL starts at 9. Also you can download C compilers for RCX and NXT that are far fewer issues than using the Labview of RoboLab but they can't be used for FIRST. You can even get the Lego video camera and do serious image processing with the RCX or NXT. And because of FIRST there are tons of resources for both the RCX and NXT.
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My six year old has been building some basic robots with the OLLO Action Kit from robotis.com (or http://www.makershed.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=ollo). It's an amazing deal for only $30, and then they can graduate into more advanced OLLO stuff or the upper-level Bioloid series. I've been really impressed with the system.
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My six year old has been building some basic robots with the OLLO Action Kit from robotis.com (or http://www.makershed.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=ollo). It's an amazing deal for only $30, and then they can graduate into more advanced OLLO stuff or the upper-level Bioloid series. I've been really impressed with the system.
Yes, that's truly look likes an amazing deal. :thumbsup:
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The Mindstorms Nxt is not really above 6 year-olds. It's very much if...then programming. My 6 year old and my 8 year old and I have built 20+ robots in the last month or so with NXT. The programming is not really great for a 6 year old. My 8 year old gets it, but is a little overwhelmed. I am frustrated by the IDE. The building is fine...the bi-ped is not something your 6 year old will build. It took me and both boys over an hour to build, heads down. On the other hand, I came home from work yesterday and the boys had built "robogator", who uses the ultrasonic sensor to detect proximity, then runs towards the object, snapping it's jaws. There are 5 models of varying complexity that comes with the kit, for which there is a demo program at each of stages of building. My boys are perfect capable of firing up the bluetooth connection, compiling the app and uploading it to the 'brick'. I have a CodeProject article that is 82.7% complete on this topic, I'll get to posting it here before week's end. I will sum it up as this: extended periods of frustration with sudden moments of "holy s#!t look what we freekin' built!". Cheers.
I will sum it up as this: extended periods of frustration with sudden moments of "holy s#!t look what we freekin' built!". That's exactly what we feel when developing code! Don't put that burden on your kid :laugh:
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6 years... clearly lego... When she will be a little bit older... then constructing the complete set (mechanically and electronically) + connecting it + programming it with C would be the choice... but at 6 Mindstorms is a good thing.
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Nice thing with NXT is that you can program them in C... http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc/