[Design and Technology] Which way to go with robotics?

[Robert Minato]

We have used lego mindstorms nxt for about ten years and upgraded to ev3 last year. No dramas with lego. Only used at yr7 and kids love it.

Have been using picaxe for many years for yr10 and above. Arduino looks ok and it cheap; currently playing around with it myself now.

Looked at vex; seemed quite expensive.

Regards

[cid:62216520-E4E6-4E7D-B665-1D961A16D827 at ccw.local]

On 15 Nov 2016, at 2:22 pm, Travis Burroughs <travis.burroughs at gmail.com<mailto:travis.burroughs at gmail.com>> wrote:

John,

I have worked with the Lego Mindstorm before and it is an excellent option for students in years 5 - 7. Anything past that, I find that students start to loose interest in it. If you already have some and you're working with younger students i would use it. The Lego programming software is pretty clunky so I would also consider upgrading the firmware to robot-c for lego.

If you are buying new robots I would look into VEX the IQ platform for younger students, it is much more versatile than the lego and there are multiple programming options. For year 8 - 12 students I would use VEX EDR if you want to use a kit.

I have also had great success with First Robotics and Arduino. First robotics stuff can get very expensive, but you can build some very cool robots. Arduino bots can be done for cheap but you will have to do a lot more trouble shooting. If you are interested DATTA Vic is going to release my $15 Arduino robot plans to their website in the next few months.

Travis Burroughs
Camberwell High School
DATTA Victoria Treasurer/Robotics Coordinator

On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 1:07 PM, Louk, John W <louk.john.w at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:louk.john.w at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
Hi everybody,

Thanks for your replies. You gave me a lot to research.

With regard to robotics, no one has mentioned Lego mindstorm? Does anyone use it, my school is very keen to head that way. They currently have some very old kits, I think nxt which used serial connections and the software was compatible with windows vista. So they are looking at EV3.

Thoughts, ideas, is VEX better?

Cheers

Wayne Louk=
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