Cool Newer Toy

Technical Technical Discussion
1

This is made by a company in our region and with the add ons and plans this looks to be a fun platform to experiment from as well as play with. Stay tuned for a possible robotics competition using these someday soon (I hope). I’ve actually been encouraging and trying to assist in that endeavor and I’m even offering a camp this summer using the products through a local non-profit: www.discovertechnology.org

www.mymindsi.com

Recently featured in Servo magazine. This system is pretty durable (ABS and polycarbonate), totally configurable and allows for standard RC and hobby additions (motors, servos, wheels, etc.) With metal differentials and gearboxes you can build just about whatever you can think up and then even torture test it a bit. You can build it as an R/C device or add computing power to it as well and program it in 3 different languages. I think it will be good for prototyping ideas and training new members of the team. They even took my team leadership and myself on a tour of the factory floor and development rooms and shared with us all of the SolidWorks models so we can build virtual models and instruction sets for our own projects.

They are also really nice people to deal with if you have an interest or a question…and they support FIRST teams in our area…so double bonus!

http://mymindsi.com/img/gallery/full-10.jpg

The basic connector that makes this happen is here:
http://mymindsi.com/img/gallery/full-19.jpg
It has a solid polycarbonate core and a slippery/flexible outer body that allows it to lock in place and come back out only with the tools (so your model doesn’t come apart unless you take it apart or shatter it somehow).

I PROMISE I’m not making any money off of this, and I don’t want to sound like a spammer, but I’ve been watching the development of this product for over 3 years and I’m excited it’s finally here!

2

Very cool! And reasonably priced for what it delivers.

3

Dear FIRST gods,
PLEASE MAKE THIS THE NEW MINIBOT!!! PLEASE!

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Andrew

4

Alas, TLC (The LEGO Company) will probably not release FIRST from its tyrannical grasp. We’ll be using tetrix to the end of time.

5

It is hard to convey in pics how cool it is to build stuff with these. Some of the connectors are ribbed to lock the angle, others are partially ribbed to allow a movable joint. They lock flush with the surface of the beam so as not to interfere with moving parts or adding parts on (unlike bolts/nuts) and the R/C motor that ships with the car model is faster than I would normally put in the hands of students (so of course they loved it).

You can break them…but my students were building jumps and driving the model really poorly when they did that “yeah, if you run any car into a concrete wall at full speed you just might break something kiddo”. But usually it was one connector or beam that would break and it’d just be a few minutes until they did it again.

6

As a fellow resident of Idaho, we also have experience with this company. We were able to participate and help in a competition hosted by our sponsor, PCS Edventures. We had an amazing time, and the parts are amazing. It was even sweeter as PCS Edventures were able to bring over teams from Saudi Arabia. Also in the competition were other teams from our area. I would fully support any part of this program.

7

I will never spill my pop ever again, (or soda for you different folks)…:smiley: