So Christmas has definitley come early this year for me and has come in the form of 3 wise companies!
The first of these was HiTechnic.com who sent me a SuperPro Experimental kit AND a MiniScope. Both of these products where on my Christmas list for my wife to get me!
So the first of these products allow you to build your own circuits and sensors that can be used with the LEGO NXT (and a whole lot more). It comes with a handy Experimenter’s Kit Handbook to take you through the basics up to some more advance stuff. I will be doing a full review of this very soon and hope to build some very neat things!
The second product which has only been released recently is the MiniScope. This is a full featured dual channel digital oscilloscope with an auxiliary 4 channel digital input option. This is the perfect companion for the SuperPro because it will allow you to see what your circuits/sensors are outputting on your PC
The second of these wise companies was Matrix Robotics. They make a metal building kit that is completely compatible with LEGO. You still use the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT as the brain however you plug the MATRIX Controller (supports 4 motors and 4 servos) into the NXT sensor port (amazing!!). Don’t get me wrong, I love my LEGO and I believe that you can build most things out of it however, sometimes you wish there was a longer/stronger beam, a more powerful motor, servo support or that you want your model to be indestructible.
So what did they send me? 1 of each of their sets!!!! (yes I must of been a very good person this year!). My plan is to build a few small models first and then build something epic!! Matrix Wheelchair, a Terminator? who knows!
So who was the 3rd wise company? The popular blog/magazine MAKE who featured my LEGO Wheelchair a few months back.
So what did they send me? Well to answer that I first need to tell you that for Christmas I hope to get some Arduino stuff including a Mindsensors NXShield which will allow me to control 4 LEGO NXT motors, 4 sensors and 12 Mindsensors servo’s from a single Arduino. Also the Arduino I hope to get will have ADK support so that I can control it via an Android phone. Again, I am not moving away from LEGO, I love it however its always good to know what other options are out there that I can use with LEGO.
Knowing what I hope to get for Christmas, you can appreciate how happy I am to get what MAKE sent me: Make: Lego and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics. Another item that I had on my wishlist for Christmas! Again, I plan to do a full review once I get my Arduino!
Well, I am going to have a very busy few months with this stuff! Many thanks goes out to HiTechnic, Matrix Robotics and MAKE.
Merry Christmas
