[FTC]: LEGO Mindstorms EV3

[dcribbs]

I know we are in the middle of competition season for FTC, but I saw that CES LEGO announced a new version of the Mindstorms brick available in the fall of 2013, the EV3. On a comparison of the NXT and EV3 on the Lego page it says that the EV3 is not allowed for the 2013-2014 FTC season.

I was curious to see the thoughts of upgrading to the EV3 for future seasons.

Do you feel the upgraded capabilities are worth the investment, should FTC consider other options, or just keep the NXT as is?

Here is the link for the EV3 (http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/categories/products/elementary/lego-mindstorms-education/ev3#loc=homepage_banner_jan2013).

[smtoney]

I would like to see an official announcement from the FTC team on that.

I will admit at first I was surprised that FLL announced so quickly that EV3 will be supported. But many schools and teams are working on fall budgets now so it makes sense to make the announcement so teams and schools can plan accordingly.

Well FTC what will it be? Please decide soon so we can budget if we need too.

Stan

[Enderbot]

I'm sure there are thoughts of whether the new system on the NXT will give an unfair advantage to teams. From what I'm seeing is that the processor is much more than the one being used now. In fact they've built it around the experiences of robotics in the recent years.

There are thousands of teams using the same NXT hardware version. Although I would very much like to see how well it works with the current hardware and such! Seeing a response from the GDC would be interesting too.

[Michael Coleman]

The LEGO Education web site (http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/misc/ev3vnxt.cfm) indicates that the EV3 will not be allowed in the 2013-2014 FTC Season.

This web page also states that TETRIX, ROBOTC, and LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS will support the EV3 in "fall 2013." It is likely that fall 2013 availability for critical components is too close to [or after] the FTC season kickoff in September to be allowed.

[dcribbs]

The official FTC blog just posted about LEGO's new Mindstorms brick EV3.
http://firsttechchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/01/lego-mindstorms-education-ev3-and-ftc.html

The post confirms that the first season for the EV3 will be the 2014-2015 season.

With the EV3 brick having Wi-Fi capability, I wonder if the Samantha module would still be required or optional?

The Samantha module was a big upgrade from the early years of Bluetooth, but if the Wi-Fi enabled EV3 brick offered more consistent and robust communication with the FCS, I would upgrade all of our FTC teams immediately.