Tong Family

Fun things for the summer:

• Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0. While NXTs were fun, the new versions are amazing, the new sensor can detect colors and laso you can load images and sounds into the robots memory so it can talk and show picture. The new hardward has 3 servo motors, an ultrasonic proximity sensor, two touch sensors and a color sensor. Presales have started as #8547 NXT 20 from Amazon.com, Shop@Home and TRU.com.
• Vex Robotics Design System is used at iD Tech camps for building more complex robots. These are more expensive at $400 for the starter system with the big difference whether you want a visual C compiler or a hardcore development environment called RobotC. Looks like Trossen Robotics is one of those great specialty sellers for all robotic cool stuff 🙂 Besides Vex and Mindstorms, they also carry Robobuilder and Bioloid which are really focused on building human-looking things rather than being general purpose like Mindstorms and Vex