September 10, 2006
I got an NXT!!
Finally got an NXT today! Went to the Lego Store, which was a madhouse because of a promotion they were doing in the mall. The person ahead of me at the cash register was also getting one. They didn't have the (expensive) rechargeable batteries in stock, and they don't carry the adapter (very weird - how do you charge the battery without an adapter?). But I walked away happily with my NXT.
Home later, I opened the box, which is a bit hokey. You have to tear the box flaps along a curve to get it open. One of the smaller boxes inside says "start here" but you really need to open many of the other boxes and at least three of the part bags.
The first model is the "TriBot" which isn't too hard to build. It is made with all three motors that hook together next to each other, but strangely, only two of them are actually used. The new phone pluggey wires are a bit bulky, and the ones they tell you to use (they come in three lengths, I think) are a little too long, and you have to figure out how to stuff them in so they don't trail behind the bot.
From here, things got a little confusing. First I tried programming the bot to the Quick Start instructions. These are not videos that take you step by step like for the old Mindstorms. They are step by step, but they don't always show you how you are supposed to accomplish a step, so it takes some hunting and guessing. After ten minutes or so I had the two-step program done.
I'd bought a USB Bluetooth dongle today, so I thought I'd try to use that to download the program to the NXT, instead of the USB cable that is included. There is no IR tower with the NXT. You use either USB or Bluetooth. After half an hour I gave up on Bluetooth without successfully connecting to the NXT. Very frustrating. Maybe I got a dongle that is not compatible. That would be an annoying waste of 25 dollars. So I switched to USB and that worked after a try or two.
The program just goes forward a couple feet on the test pad (which is a little nicer material than the old ones) and then goes bad. The instructions tell you to place one of the large balls on a certain spot, and they lead you to believe it's stopping when it gets to the ball, but it's really just going a certain distance (wheel rotations or time - not sure which) and then reversing.
One very frustrating part of the software (which installed very easily) was the NXT window that shows you connected NXT's (via either method). This would often lock up, sometimes for a few minutes at a time. Modern software should not do this.
All in all, there is good and bad for a first day's experience. I'm hoping for more consistent good news on further investigations.
Home later, I opened the box, which is a bit hokey. You have to tear the box flaps along a curve to get it open. One of the smaller boxes inside says "start here" but you really need to open many of the other boxes and at least three of the part bags.
The first model is the "TriBot" which isn't too hard to build. It is made with all three motors that hook together next to each other, but strangely, only two of them are actually used. The new phone pluggey wires are a bit bulky, and the ones they tell you to use (they come in three lengths, I think) are a little too long, and you have to figure out how to stuff them in so they don't trail behind the bot.
From here, things got a little confusing. First I tried programming the bot to the Quick Start instructions. These are not videos that take you step by step like for the old Mindstorms. They are step by step, but they don't always show you how you are supposed to accomplish a step, so it takes some hunting and guessing. After ten minutes or so I had the two-step program done.
I'd bought a USB Bluetooth dongle today, so I thought I'd try to use that to download the program to the NXT, instead of the USB cable that is included. There is no IR tower with the NXT. You use either USB or Bluetooth. After half an hour I gave up on Bluetooth without successfully connecting to the NXT. Very frustrating. Maybe I got a dongle that is not compatible. That would be an annoying waste of 25 dollars. So I switched to USB and that worked after a try or two.
The program just goes forward a couple feet on the test pad (which is a little nicer material than the old ones) and then goes bad. The instructions tell you to place one of the large balls on a certain spot, and they lead you to believe it's stopping when it gets to the ball, but it's really just going a certain distance (wheel rotations or time - not sure which) and then reversing.
One very frustrating part of the software (which installed very easily) was the NXT window that shows you connected NXT's (via either method). This would often lock up, sometimes for a few minutes at a time. Modern software should not do this.
All in all, there is good and bad for a first day's experience. I'm hoping for more consistent good news on further investigations.
