Beginning Lego Mindstroms EV3

The LEGO MINDSTORMS collection, first introduced in 1998, is one of LEGO’s top best-selling sets/series. The reason for its success is the same as the reason for LEGO’s success before its release: the chance to kick your creativity up a notch.

If you are like most avid LEGO enthusiasts, you don’t just purchase a LEGO set, build what is on the instructions, and consider yourself done. If anything, you see the set as something to add to your collection. I’m not talking about a room with shelves full of completed LEGO sets/models; I am talking about several boxes of LEGO pieces, with a creator who is waiting for a brand new idea.

LEGO used to advertise in its catalog that just one set was capable of building all kinds of toys. Merging sets creates infinite possibilities of creations. LEGO began offering special types of bricks so that creators could make their creations automated, but even the later types of automated bricks (such as the Technic Power Functions) were still rather limited with what you could do. 

The problem is that LEGO Power Functions are all stop or go. For example, you can make a LEGO car that could ride across the floor, but it could only go at one speed and then stop. You could even take control of it and make it steer, but this also has limitations. Depending on what method of steering you use, you sometimes have to deliberately jam the motors in order to make it work.

LEGO MINDSTORMS takes automation a step further by making these programmable parts. With MINDSTORMS, you can make a model car go at different speeds, stop where you want it to, and turn where you want, all with a simple program. In short, the MINDSTORMS series turned what was once a mere electronic toy for amusement and turned them into programmable machines.

In this book, you will learn how to make many machines. As someone who has written two books about LEGO Technic, Practical LEGO Technics and LEGO Technic Robotics, I can teach you how to build vehicles like cars as well as other robotic machines. I will also teach you how to program these creations.

Beginning Lego Mindstroms EV3
Mark Rollins
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