The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor’s Guide

Since the NXT 2.0 set was released this year, many people have been asking whether many of the existing NXT books on the market are compatible with the 2.0 kit. Generally, the answer is no, and my book is no exception. The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor’s Guide was written for the first version of the NXT set (#8527), and its projects are only compatible with the first version (what I call the NXT 1.0 set). In other words, because of piece differences between the NXT 1.0 and 2.0 sets, the projects in my book can only be built with an NXT 1.0 set. However, much of the other information is still helpful. Much of the building, mechanical, and programming information is still applicable.

So what if you’re the proud owner of an NXT 2.0 set and want to use the NXT Inventor’s Guide with it? I’m currently working with my book’s publisher, No Starch Press, to get out a second edition specifically for the NXT 2.0 set. I do not yet have a firm release date for the book. In the meantime, you will need to either purchase an NXT 1.0 set or hunt down the necessary pieces to build the robots if you own only an NXT 2.0 set. The second option can be difficult although this resource might help.

The ULMN Inventor’s Guide uses the retail version of the NXT set, known officially as LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT. However, there is also an educational version of the NXT set, known officially as the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT Base Set (see below). Unfortunately, while the robots in my book can be built from the pieces in one retail NXT set, the educational NXT Base Set does not contain all the pieces necessary to build those same robots.

If you own the NXT Base Set and would still like to build the robots in The Inventor’s Guide, there is a solution. The Education Resource Set (shown below) is a $69.00 “expansion pack” of sorts for the NXT Base Set. This resource set includes nearly 700 pieces. By combining the pieces from the NXT Base Set and the Education Resource Set, you can successfully build all the robots in The Inventor’s Guide. To ensure this, I have checked the bill of materials for the robots in my book—Zippy-Bot through Golf-Bot—and compared it with the combined contents of the Resource Set and NXT Base Set.

I must mention that while you will have the correct type and sufficient quantity of pieces using the NXT Base Set and Resource Set, you will not have all the same colors of pieces as found in the retail version of the NXT set. But that definitely won’t stop the robots from working!

Previously, I made an excerpt from Chapter 4, “Understanding the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Pieces,” available on my website, but now I’ve made the entire chapter available on the MINDSTORMS website. If you’d like to read this sample chapter, visit the link below and look for my book’s section:

http://mindstorms.lego.com/Books/