Newbie seeks advice from jedis

[sbala]

Hi
I am an engineer (not a techie, though). Have always been fascinated by sensors and robots, but never ventured there before.

If I had to start and my objective is to make basic robots to just whet my appetite to see if I can sustain interest, what hardware and software should I be buying? Also, while I live in Asia I am traveling to the US where I believe I can get what I need faster and probably cheaper. So I am looking to get a starter kit, books and any other supplements while I am here.

Apologize in advance if my description is not clear. All I know is I cant wait to get started. Appreciate the help.

[mightor]

Hiya sbala,

The EV3 Retail set (31313) is a great robotics kit and would allow you to do a great many things. There are plenty of books available, one of which is my favourite, Laurens Valk's "The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book". The book has everything to get your started with building and programming. You don't need to buy software straight away, you can download a graphical programming environment from the LEGO website that works with your robot. Once you're more comfortable with the system, you can consider alternative programming languages such as ROBOTC or Lejos. If you're a bit of a hacker, you might even want to check out ev3dev, a full-blown Debian Linux distribution for the EV3.

If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask!

= Xander