• Lucy :3@feddit.org
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    3 months ago

    Mindstorms, my beloved … the only product by Lego of the last few years that didn’t suck, or was hugely behind competitors in quality, quantity and price. And they killed it.

    • Blastboom Strice@mander.xyz
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      3 months ago

      Wait is it dead? I wanted one 10 years ago, but I never got one, cuz it was too expensive (arduino became an alrernative later but havent tried to build ~anything).

      • Lucy :3@feddit.org
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        3 months ago

        From Wikipedia

        Lego Mindstorms […] is a discontinued line of educational kits for building programmable robots based on Lego bricks. It was introduced on 1 September 1998 and was discontinued on 31 December 2022.

        Holy … that sounds like cashing in for christmas 2022 and then just dropping all support, including addons and the (required!) software.

      • Lucy :3@feddit.org
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        3 months ago

        I only know Mindstorms Ev3, which is an electric robotics set. You basically have a main brick, 15105 cm or smth, and motors and some sensors. You can plug it all together with phone wires (I believe), and program the main brick either with scratch(-like stuff), or python afaik. There are some official models you can build with it, eg. a car.

        I prefer Fischertechnik’s Robotics TXT Controller more though, as Lego’s system is just yet another closed and very limited system, eg. only the official mindstorms motors are supported. It’s also more open, running an open source rom of Linux, and using the same +/- plug system for basic motors (+ support for servo and stepping motors) since the very beginning - from simple regulatable transformers in the last century over battery/accu boxes to simpler remote controlled boxes and the TXT controller. And it works with multiple remotes, the app or just by using python, the camera and object recognition. All which Lego also can’t do, to no surprise. And, of course, it wasn’t killed off to be replaced by a slightly different and therefore incompatible system.