[cbolin]

Hi,
Our team just bought a VEX starter kit and some accessories from Radioshack this week. I took the stuff home and worked with my 9 year-old. We followed the Inventor Book (comes with kit) to build the basic drive unit or SquareBot. My son had no problems building it.

Connecting the controller and plugging into the correct port was difficult for him only because he was unfamilar with these FIRST programming and electrical concepts.

It was a lot of fun. Of course, we had to build an arm to pick up 'tetras' so it would be interesting. The default code in the controller was sufficient and can allow for a lot of ideas without needing any programming.

Here's what you need from Radioshack to get started.
1. Starter Kit $300
2. Battery kit $50.

You can do lots of stuff for $350.

Now, lots of add-on kits come from Radioshack. In order to do lots of problem solving exercising such as hanging, picking up balls, stacking, scooping,etc. these add on kits are helpful if you have the money.
1. Extra hardware $80
2. Chain drive kits ?
3. Motor (1) kit $20
4. Servo (1) kit $20
5. Gear kit $13
6. Tire kit ?
7. Cutting tool ? (need to do lots of cutting of metal for various designs)

Call it about $180 since I don't know the price of three items above. This now comes to $530.

The robot does have an autonomous mode. This requires a jumper and the user cannot control the robot with the transmitter (I think!). To have fun doing this, one could use various sensor kits.
1. Programming kit ?
2. Line sensor kit. ?
3. Ultrasonic range finder ?
4. Encoders ?

Don't know these prices. Bet its around $120 or more. Please let me know the exact values.

Now for a price of $650 plus tax you and your teams can do really complex normal and autonomous things.

Radioshack only listed four items yesterday...although they stock everything in their system. (Do a search for VEX brand to see what's available).

Oh yeah, if you have an EduRobot kit, you can borrow and use most of the hardware for this VEX robot (brackets, screws, nuts, etc.)

We'll demo our VEX robot next Monday when are team meets to make preparations for the nationals (we won't be doing VEX competitions.

I definitely like the stuff. Hope to find low cost substitutes for the add-ons in the future.

Regards,
ChuckB