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Video of StringBot


I received a video showing a student running a modified version of the StringBot from my Mayan book. He has made some minor changes in the design as well as completely re-writing the program... and he's able to explain how and why he made these changes.

I have to admit, it's nice to see someone creating a real-world version of one of the book's five robots and actually running the challenge from the book.

Be warned: the video is over 5MB in size and is in MOV format. You can click here to view it and/or download and save it.


If you're a student or teacher and have a video of any of the other robots in action, please let me know. I'm also interested in whether you're incorporating the Design Journal Page into your projects - is it useful?


Comments

Anonymous said…
Jim, I just ordered the NXT and your Mayan book and I plan to teach myself and my son about robotics and programming. As a newbie, I've been trying to see some code samples, but many times, the samples posted are just jpgs of the nxt-g screen. I don't think the jpg is enough to show how the program works... Does nxt-g generate C or some other programming language? How do we see the details?

Thanks, Tom
May 2, 2007, 11:04:00 PM
Rick Rhodes said…
Tom,

There's an online tutorial on NXT-G that covers the basics:

http://www.ortop.org/NXT_Tutorial/index.html
May 3, 2007, 1:21:00 AM
James Floyd Kelly (Jim) said…
Hi, Tom.

Nope, no C code generated... but as Rick mentions, the online tutorials are visual with commentary and are very well done.

As for seeing a block dropped on a screen, you're correct - you're missing the configuration panel settings for that block. Not all blocks have items to be configured (STOP block, for example), and some have quite a bit to play with... and this isn't counting what you can do with the data hub and data ports using wires.

Don't worry about getting overwhelmed... NXT-G is fairly easy to figure out - most of us who were playing with the beta software had very little documentation to start with (basically the HELP screens that come with the software) - so your best bet is to learn like we did and just experiment with each block and figure out what the settings do... some will surprise you.

Jim
May 3, 2007, 1:35:00 AM
Anonymous said…
Jim, I think your Myan book is terrific. I have already read most of the book and built the robots. I am an older man, retired, and the NXT along with your book is helping me use my hand and eye coordination and think. Thank you to you and Legofor helping an old man stay younger. I plan to suggest the Myan book to a friend that just bought NXT for his grandson. I think it is the perfect way to move on from the basic robots suggested in the set. I have already suggested the book to my daughter who is home schooling our grandson. I am really looking forward to your next book. Keep up the good work.
May 6, 2007, 10:17:00 AM
James Floyd Kelly (Jim) said…
Thank you! I'm glad you find the book useful. And thank you for recommending it.

As for a sequel/follow-up... I've got some ideas :)

Jim
May 6, 2007, 10:40:00 AM
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