Real World Test
OK, we've been talking theoretically about books and kits. Now, here is a real world example.
As you can see from this list, the parts used in my Endangered Species robots are all very common parts--it's all a problem of quantities. In fact, I first designed all of these robots for the 2.0 kit, but modified them so teachers and FLL leaders could use them.
Does a parts list like this make no one happy...everyone happy...?
Comments
I love this - they layout is clean and easy to tell at a glance what kinds of parts are required.
What would be nice is if we could come up with some sort of standard for describing a quantity of parts relative to a kit... for example, let's say you're robot uses a fictional Beam 25...
Would it be useful (or not) to have a diagram like the one you show here described as follows:
Beam 25 (6) [0, -3, +1]
What this means is that for the robot in question, you need 6 and, after using those 6, you'll have none left with a 1.0 kit (0), you will lack 3 with a 2.0 kit (-3) and you'll have one left over with the Education kit +1)
Just a thought... but I think it would make it easier for a quick glance to tell you if you lack a LOT of parts (a lot of minuses) or will have a lot of spares (lot of pluses)
Jim
I like that idea you just posted re: Beam 25 (6) [0, -3, +1]
Looks great Fay! BTW and OT (sort of) While I was drooling over NXT2.0 BIs and lamenting we didn't have one, you should have heard me scream when my son, when looking at your Spitting Llama, said, "Oh we have that zamor shooter. It was in my XXX LEGO kit." We sat down and built Spitting Llama that day.
LEGOmom
If you think about it, if you have a list like the one below, you just add up the column that belongs to your kit... if you have a positive total, it means you have less parts to hunt down... a negative number means you've got to buy more parts than you may like:
Beam 25 (6) [0, -3, +3]
Beam 1 (8) [+2, -2, 0]
Flux C (1) [-1, 0, -1]
Sonic S (1) [-1, -1, -1
Total [ 0, -6, +1]
Owners of 2.0 kits will have a larger number of parts to purchase... 1.0 and Ed not so much
LEGOmom