Mindboards

How 'bout they replace all the plastic with carbon fiber and make everything light enough to build helicopters and stuff? Probably not gonna happen, but it'd be perfect

The trouble is the targeted market here. Right now its getting to the point where it is so expensive for a toy. It is getting close to other robotic kits that use metal parts and more advanced contolers. Even say 500$( kits here in the usa are 279$ from Lego) is still very low cost compared to any other platform. BUT when a parent is looking at it they see it as a toy for a child that very well may have it end up in the bottom of a toy chest.

There is a reason why Lego uses these cables, Law suits. They must be able to be chewed on and not make you sick. They must be very strong since chidren will tug and bend them to death.

It will be rather intersesting to see where Lego goes with NXT. It is not there best selling product. Not even close compared to say Star wars. People will pay 500$ for a death star ship model made from many K of 1x2 plates. These sets are very cheep to make, the NXT has servos cables sensors a CPu and bricks too. If had say 10 motor ports then if they did not put in the ten motors people would feel cheated to have to pay yet another 140$ to have all motors. Its a balance of product line to not be so expensive that people will just not buy it or to make it and not make money at all.

doc

~doc222, I know what you mean, and totally agree.

What if some other company made a controller for the lego system though? It would be an after-market product that more advanced users could choose to buy, sort of like DI, Mindsensors, and HiTechnic do with sensors and interfaces. Then there would be no "lego" strings attached. They could maybe even have the FW compatible with NXT-G (with limitations for sure) and NXC. If it became a big enough product, ROBOTC might even support it.

This way, "they" could charge $300 or so for the controller, and only sell to the true advanced users. The average mindstormer doesn't need more than the NXT has, but I could use a controller with a 128 x 200 (or better) color display, support for mp3, mp4, SD, VGA, stereo, USB master, and 5A 12v H-Bridges. I sure would pay $300+ for a supported and developed controller like that.

I personally won't think I'm cheated if I buy a robo starter set with a big multi-I/O controller and just 3 motors and 3 sensors - but being able to attach another 7 motors and 7 sensors to my controller in future if I once wished to do that.

But yes, matt, I agree, a 3rd party controller could do that, too.

I wonder if some one like mindsensors would take that on? Hytechnic I think could not since they are a proxy almost for Lego and to make a part that may out perform Lego would well be, not in thier best interest. I would also be one to want to have something like that, very cool yes. Though with what we have now is preety amazing for the $. If you add mindsensors and Hytechs stuff it opens many doors.

off topic, im saving for this super dupper, biggest Technic kit ever, that uinmog is over the top for technic. Back on topic ,,, perhaps if this kit goes over well, and I think it will bolgs are on fire about this and everyone seems to want this kit, new pneumatics a new gear box. and just plain too cool to fool. MAYBE we will see a NXT3.o , Like anything worth having may take time though .


doc

mattallen37 wrote: This way, "they" could charge $300 or so for the controller, and only sell to the true advanced users. The average mindstormer doesn't need more than the NXT has, but I could use a controller with a 128 x 200 (or better) color display, support for mp3, mp4, SD, VGA, stereo, USB master, and 5A 12v H-Bridges. I sure would pay $300+ for a supported and developed controller like that.

The only problem with that is then there would be two types of NXT users, and the kids who got their "basic" NXT set would not be able to make all of this stuff that the people with the more "advanced" set could make

But those "kids with a basic set" already don't do what "we" do. They don't do the SW like we do, and they usually don't have more than maybe one or two after-market sensors (based on my observations). I am not saying a complete set; just the controller. Sure there are things that could use improvement with the current NXT set before going really advanced, but the base system is good for almost everything (good interface with sensors and motors...). The controller would mostly make a huge addition to what could be done as far as interfacing (especially human interface) and processing.

Almost 100% OT, but does anyone know if it is true that "Windows 8" will be able to run on an ARM? I heard "it will run on most tablets because it will be based on the ARM structure".

mattallen37 wrote:Almost 100% OT, but does anyone know if it is true that "Windows 8" will be able to run on an ARM? I heard "it will run on most tablets because it will be based on the ARM structure".

Yes, Windows 8 will run on ARM processors, but just 'cause it does doesn't mean MS will support the NXT. The NXT community will have to do that themselves .

nxtreme wrote:Yes, Windows 8 will run on ARM processors, but just 'cause it does doesn't mean MS will support the NXT. The NXT community will have to do that themselves .

Oh, I don't expect it to ever even sort-of run on the NXT. I was thinking more like if a newer mindstorm controller had an ARM9, ARM11, or Cortex processor.

mattallen37 wrote:Oh, I don't expect it to ever even sort-of run on the NXT. I was thinking more like if a newer mindstorm controller had an ARM9, ARM11, or Cortex processor.

Oh but I sure do! Just think of it, we could have anti-virus programs just because, you know, with every good Microsoft OS comes a bevy of good (i.e. completely awfully horribly bad) assortment of viruses. That'd be the best feature!