Subject:
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RE: LEGO robotics on a budget?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Sat, 7 Jun 2003 02:28:49 GMT
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Original-From:
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Shawn <sgrover@open!antispam!2space.com>
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Viewed:
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1626 times
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I recently set out to buy the Ultimate Builders Expansion kit (I was after
additional motors), but haven't been able to find it in the city yet
(Calgary, Alberta, Canada). So, I decided to find a separate kit that would
provide useful pieces to my Mindstorms kit. The Technics kits are a rare
find it seems as well - some of the newer ones are available, but I don't
really see many useful parts in them for the price. I found a Star Wars
"robot" kit at Walmart for a whopping $20 (Canadian even) that had 300+
pieces - mostly axles connector beams, and some of the smaller parts for
connecting pieces together. Not much in itself, but I thought it was an
excellent find. Now, I'm keeping my eyes out for similar kits as a cheap
source of parts.
I'd like to get into building more elaborate robots, but having to buy a
second RCX or even a spybotics scout seems too expensive. I'd like to find
a source where I can get these items for next to nothing - guess I need to
start visiting garage sales and watching the classified ads... <grins>
My thoughts....
Shawn
(PS, I checked Toy's R Us, Walmart, Sears, and Future Shop - only Toy's R Us
carries the Mindstorms line... Future shop either stopped carrying it, or
was out when I was there)
-----Original Message-----
From: news-gateway@lugnet.com [mailto:news-gateway@lugnet.com]On Behalf
Of Mark Tarrabain
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 9:08 AM
To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
Subject: LEGO robotics on a budget?
Here's a question I thought might be interesting to discuss. What, in
people's opinions, are good ways of getting immersed into the building
of interesting programmable contraptions for relative newcomers to LEGO
who may not have heaping amounts of cash?
Obviously the Mindstorms RIS is a good start. But for more interesting
devices (like the ones in Mindstorms Masterpieces -- I am held in almost
speechless awe of the creative genius in people like Kevin and the other
authors), one eventually and invariably requires a far wider reaching
assortment of pieces. One can, of course, buy spare parts as one sees
they need them, but there are two problems I can see with that. One, I
am not sure that it is as fiscally efficient as buying larger numbers of
parts in prepackaged sets, and two, it's not particularly helpful for
people who need at least some amount of hands-on exerience with
something in order to visualize and invent a new and clever way of
adapting a mechanism into a device. Since a person on a budget cannot
realistically go out and buy "one of everything", they may end up
feeling constrained.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | RE: LEGO robotics on a budget?
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| (...) If you have a Zany Brainy store near you, you might try that, though assuming their prices will be "budget" minded is a bit of a stretch. I've also found some decent deals on e-bay, though you have to watch the prices carefully. I bought a (...) (21 years ago, 7-Jun-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | LEGO robotics on a budget?
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| Here's a question I thought might be interesting to discuss. What, in people's opinions, are good ways of getting immersed into the building of interesting programmable contraptions for relative newcomers to LEGO who may not have heaping amounts of (...) (21 years ago, 6-Jun-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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