NXT Building plans
Dave P. emailed me today to share his new website that contains plenty of fun NXT robot building plans. From the site:
"If you have a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robotics kit, then this site provides free building instructions and downloadable programs for several fun projects.
Projects designed for the young and young at heart!
Full building instructions with color photographs
No programming experienced required! You can simply download and use the programs provided.
Know some programming but want to learn more? Study the fully commented programs to learn how they work, and try modifying them or using what you learn in your own programs.
Check out the site here.
"If you have a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robotics kit, then this site provides free building instructions and downloadable programs for several fun projects.
Projects designed for the young and young at heart!
Full building instructions with color photographs
No programming experienced required! You can simply download and use the programs provided.
Know some programming but want to learn more? Study the fully commented programs to learn how they work, and try modifying them or using what you learn in your own programs.
Check out the site here.
Comments
First, I absolutely agree with the quality of Dave's site. It's a wonder, and I plan to build several of these models with my own son. Well done, Dave!
Second, I'd like to respond to your comment:
"(Dave's site) is a model for how building instructions should be presented. NXT book writers take note."
If you're talking about Dave's clarity of presentation, then I'd absolutely agree. But presenting building instructions in print is complicated.
There are many ways to produce LEGO building instructions in print and each one has its limitations.
For example, we don't know of a publisher who would print a large book of NXT BI's in full color. And if we could find one, the cost of the color production would be so prohibitive that few could afford the book.
There are various pieces of software that produce LEGO building instructions for screen and print, and each one has its limitations, too.
My point is that the transition from "pixels to dots" is not a simple one. Those of us on the blog will continue to refine the print tools available, given the constraints of each one.
Maybe one day, we'll have that (almost) perfect method of producing photo-realistic images in print of all LEGO parts, at a cost that people can afford.
I'd agree with you on the quality of the online building instructions and with Rick on his statements on the difference between the web and a book.
Take these pictures, convert them to gray scale, reduce their size and number (so the book does not get more voluminous than the publisher is willing to allow for) and send them through the printing process (if one finds a publisher at all who accepts photo-style BIs) - I bet there would be a lot of readers then who'd complain on the "bad quality of the building instructions"...
Great blog but I have about two dozen feeds I subscribe to and double posts are a slight irritant.
David R