Unboxing the new Mindstorms
Posted by Huw,
It's been seven years since LEGO launched 31313 Mindstorms EV3 and a lot has changed in that time, particularly in the field of technology.
The company introduced a new electronics platform -- Powered Up -- in 2018 and has been applying it across its product range since, culminating with the replacement of the educational Mindstorms with 45678 SPIKE Prime earlier this year and the consumer version with 51515 Robot Inventor, which is released today and now available at LEGO.com.
I'm not going to attempt to review the whole thing in one go so, in this, the first of a series of articles, I'll take a look at what's in the box.
The box itself is notable because it has a lift-off top which will make it much easier to store the parts in. It's a shame that more large sets aren't packed like this.
Inside, the bottom and lid are printed with 'dividers' which I presume are to encourage you to sort the parts into plies matching the types printed in each. Without actual dividers this is totally pointless: nobody's going to want to sort it all out every time they want to use it, only have to muddle it all up again to put the lid back on the box.
I'm sure a couple of pounds could have been spent on a better solution, even if it was only some cardboard dividers.
Unlike EV3 which made heavy use of stickers for aesthetics, this set comes with a just few superfluous ones which enable you to 'pimp up' your robots should you feel the need.
There are no printed instructions whatsoever, not even for a starter robot. The book just contains safety information, instructions for downloading the app, and a parts list.
I'll discuss the app in a future article but suffice to say now that it's available for Android, IOS and Windows, which is the version I've been using.
The hub is identical to that in SPIKE Prime other than it's teal instead of yellow. It has 6 i/o ports, a 5x5 LED matrix on the top, a rechargeable battery, a USB-B socket, and built-in gyro and accelerometer sensors.
It pairs to the app via Bluetooth, or optionally using a USB cable if you're using a PC.
Four motors are included, which are the 'medium angular motor' variety. Again, these are recoloured versions of those in SPIKE.
The inclusion of a 4th motor has meant the loss of a sensor. A distance and light sensor are included, but not a touch/force sensor, which is included in SPIKE.
Compared to EV3 motors and sensors, there are pros and cons. They are more compact, rectangular and hare covered with connection points which makes them much easier to build into your models.
However, they have tethered 25cm-long cables and as there's no extension cable available this can be an issue when trying to build larger models, as I have found when using SPIKE for GBCs. On the plus-side, not having a chunky connector does mean that there's nothing to hinder building around the back of them.
Before embarking on your robotics journey with the set, you will want to sort the pieces out into something more practical than the top and bottom of the box. I used six of the sorting trays that come in the SPIKE Prime and other educational sets.
The set contains 949 pieces and the pictures below show them all. There are no new parts, but quite a few recolours, particularly in teal. LEGO has published the set inventory today, so you can click on the 'element in sets' column to see the recolours.
The most notable parts are the large ones, a teal Technic plate, four large frames and two Landrover wheel arches in white.
There are a disappointingly small number of gears. Admittedly you do not need them to gear down motors because you can contain the speed with software but there's not much scope for building complex mechanisms (like GBCs) with the few included ones.
The wheels were first introduced in SPIKE. The integrated tyre provides a high degree of friction on smooth surfaces which allows for precise movement. SPIKE's new castor wheel did not make it into set, unfortunately: instead there are several of the spherical wheels found in Boost sets.
There are very few System parts: a few dishes and tiles.
Something that this set has that SPIKE doesn't are panels, and lots of them. I guess aesthetics are not important in an educational setting but here they are more so.
Other than a lack of gears, there's a good selection of parts included and, as you'll see in future articles, the actual robots themselves use relatively few of them, leaving plenty spare for embellishing them, or building accessories or obstacles.
In the next article I'll take a look at the software and build a couple of the robots.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All expressed opinions are my own.
78 likes
31 comments on this article
I like this Mindstorms generation, £330 seems fair for what you get but I agree the lack of Gears is quite annoying.
The recloured and reused Spike elements are welcome to me as to me this is better value than the Spike sets.
I hope some of the pieces like that epic greeny blue technic beam plate, idk what to call it tbh, make it onto Bricks and Pieces soon.
Thanks for the great review @Huw
I look forward to reading your reviews, as I am keen on building LEGO robots.
Shall I go for this new set, or try and buy the now old 31313, or go for using my technic gears and a raspberry? Questions, questions...
Thanks for this first article, it helps me already!
Many are still using the programmable bricks from 20 years ago. Safe to say they won't be using these app-controlled variants in 20 years time, because the apps will be long gone. I understand Lego's desire to keep up with the times and people's expectations, but they should also have one eye on the future use of such things, otherwise they become fodder for the bin very quickly.
Return of the Zamor Sphere.
These sorting trays which you use Huw are very useful. It’s unfortunate that they don’t come with more sets or are separately available from LEGO.
Until now, I did not find other trays which are as useful for LEGO as these are.
A lot of nice parts! I'd like to buy this without the electronics ;)
@greenhorn said:
"These sorting trays which you use Huw are very useful. It’s unfortunate that they don’t come with more sets or are separately available from LEGO.
Until now, I did not find other trays which are as useful for LEGO as these are."
Yes, they are great. You can buy a pack of larger ones from Amazon, https://amzn.to/379igkE, but as they are primarily for the education sector, they are not cheap...
@Huw said:
" @greenhorn said:
"These sorting trays which you use Huw are very useful. It’s unfortunate that they don’t come with more sets or are separately available from LEGO.
Until now, I did not find other trays which are as useful for LEGO as these are."
Yes, they are great. You can buy a pack of larger ones from Amazon, https://amzn.to/379igkE, but as they are primarily for the education sector, they are not cheap..."
Thanks, that is good to know. However, they are not deliverable to Switzerland.
This is cool, if anything this can be used for small projects in a LEGO City (rising bridges) instead of moving robots.
@greenhorn
One of the best sorting trays is Kuggis from IKEA. Not to small, not to big, very sturdy and not expensive.
When I build I pour the bags (with the same number) in one of the compartments.
Anyone remember the days when TLG wasn't as cheap as today and provided proper packaging that included dividers?
Just check out old Technic sets, or Classic Space, etc.
This set printing areas for storage but not providing the actual dividers is almost like showing the customers the middle finger! Honestly, even Xingbao has better packaging on their more expensive sets. What's wrong with TLG that they say "only the best is good enough" but deliver on "only the cheapest is good enough"?
The heart sticker looks quite Huwbot-style!
White Landrovers will be everywhere! No more horrid olive green.
So can you connect the previous Mindstorms sensors to this? Also, can you use the new software to program the old brick?
No and no. Thers is no compatability between them.
Hi all,
Do any of you know if this set's motors, sensors, hub, and app is compatible with the Boost system?
Cheers!
They are plug compatible but I'd be surprised if the Boost hub and software supported them.
You might have more luck using Boost components with Mindstorms.
@Huw said:
"They are plug compatible but I'd be surprised if the Boost hub and software supported them.
You might have more luck using Boost components with Mindstorms."
The boost light sensor wasn't recognised by the Spike hub. Yet. Maybe a firmware update at some point will appear.......
I've just ordered a load of those Teal parts from Bricks and Pieces. All because I saw the Technic waffle plate in Teal...
Wow, and a friend and I were just discussing the old CGA graphics palette--and here we are.
Man these colors don't feel right after nearly a decade of being used to red, black and white Mindstorms
@greenhorn said:
" @Huw said:
" @greenhorn said:
"These sorting trays which you use Huw are very useful. It’s unfortunate that they don’t come with more sets or are separately available from LEGO.
Until now, I did not find other trays which are as useful for LEGO as these are."
Yes, they are great. You can buy a pack of larger ones from Amazon, https://amzn.to/379igkE, but as they are primarily for the education sector, they are not cheap..."
Thanks, that is good to know. However, they are not deliverable to Switzerland."
I’ll just use ziplock bags, like I did with earlier versions. Probably sorted similarly to Huw’s trays.
Didn’t realize the set was available today, but went to lego.com for a different reason, and there it was, along with the Mini Robots GWP, along with wrapping paper. Hopefully it arrives soon!
To me, this is a downgrade from EV3 which had 8 ports (4 inputs / 4 outputs) and a 178x128 display. This one has 6 ports (all assignable to either input or output but still only six ports) and a 5x5 led matrix. I am also not particularly fond of that colour scheme (in fact, I outright do not like it at all) - nor do I like the colours of Spike. Considering this has been in existence for over 20 years, we should have a balancing walking biped (i.e. narrow feet) responding to vocal command by now.
For those wondering if they should choose EV3 or this or raspberry: it depends what you will build, if you needs lots of actuators this new one is better, if you need an equal number of sensors and actuators, then EV3 is better (but will soon be phased out - so is this one, mind you, eventually) As far as raspberry pi is concerned, the board has 40 pins, 28 of which (0 to 27 with 14 and 15 being UART) are GPIOs (rest are grounds and power 3.3v and 5v). To accurately control a motor, you need 4 pins. So you can do a maximum of 7 motors (and no sensors) but if you need only on/off, 2 pins will do. Raspberry pi offers you way much more flexibility but you'll have to build/buy your own h-bridge controllers and make your own connectors (which will be easier when Lego will sell cable extensions). Also, you will have to provide an external source of 9v to your motors. So raspberry can do quite a bit more but it is also a lot more involved. For complex projects, it would be interesting to know how easily can two bricks communicate/synchronize together.
@AustinPowers said:
"Anyone remember the days when TLG wasn't as cheap as today and provided proper packaging that included dividers?
Just check out old Technic sets, or Classic Space, etc.
This set printing areas for storage but not providing the actual dividers is almost like showing the customers the middle finger! Honestly, even Xingbao has better packaging on their more expensive sets. What's wrong with TLG that they say "only the best is good enough" but deliver on "only the cheapest is good enough"? "
No need to look further than Mindstorms itself — even RIS 1.x/2.0 came with proper trays in the box. I agree with you, printing the sections is frankly insulting (they could've just left out the trays without drawing them on the box and it wouldn't have been nearly as demeaning).
Good to know whats in the box before spending all that money and glad the long wait is over for a more up-to-date Lego robotics set with a rechargeable battery. The lack of gears seems partly as each motor is directly connected to the axis of movement or at most 90 degrees, rather than Technic where one motor is controlling several movements through clutches and gearing. The focus here seems to be more on coding than mechanical engineering, where the instructions just saying "download the app" could be massively improved. For example an inventory of the main coding icons and some help pages with the basics of loops etc. would be helpful for kids when starring at a blank screen with too many drop down options. Although they may be able to plagiarize the 5 provided robot codes, I wonder how many kids just press play without thinking about what each icon is doing. I look forward to your review on this.
@aleydita said:
"Many are still using the programmable bricks from 20 years ago. Safe to say they won't be using these app-controlled variants in 20 years time, because the apps will be long gone. I understand Lego's desire to keep up with the times and people's expectations, but they should also have one eye on the future use of such things, otherwise they become fodder for the bin very quickly."
People using the old bricks are not using the old software. I’m sure that in 20 years people still use these bricks too, with new home made software. It’s just bluetooth after all...
@AustinPowers said:
"Anyone remember the days when TLG wasn't as cheap as today and provided proper packaging that included dividers?
Just check out old Technic sets, or Classic Space, etc.
This set printing areas for storage but not providing the actual dividers is almost like showing the customers the middle finger! Honestly, even Xingbao has better packaging on their more expensive sets. What's wrong with TLG that they say "only the best is good enough" but deliver on "only the cheapest is good enough"? "
Slightly exaggerated description in my opinion.... but I do agree, the packaging back then was better, even though as a TFOL I have never seen them at the stores
No printed instructions for a 360€ set is a joke!
@Huw said:
"No and no. Thers is no compatability between them."
Thanks....crappy news for FLL, but they will still have years of use out of the current set.
@Huw said:
"They are plug compatible but I'd be surprised if the Boost hub and software supported them.
You might have more luck using Boost components with Mindstorms."
Thank you Huw!
I think we have more to do with our Boost set before we graduate to Mindstorms anyway. A part of me wishes we'd waited for this and not bought that, but hey-ho. It is a little disappointing when Lego products aren't 100% compatible, but in reality I understand that I'm looking at it from the perspective of someone who has three generations-worth of Lego components and expects everything to work with everything else, which is probably not the main requirement of most of the people who will buy this.
I wonder how this set compares price-wise to the earliest programming toy I can remember; Big Track (I think it was called).
I was considering this or the EV3, but when I found out how the new PowerUp stuff really works, I'm happy I bought the Liebherr 42100. You can program the hubs in that in a similar fashion, you have 8 ports, and 7 motors and 4000 bricks for the same money as this Robot set. The only thing lacking is a smart brick and some sensors. I was able to buy the sensors separare for around 20-25€ each, and for the smart part I use either a MicroBit or an ESP32 as those boards have BlueTooth LE to control these motors and read out the sensors.
I really have no idea what went wrong with the plastic colour mixing in this set. Guess LEGO had some excess purple and greenish pellets they no longer wanted in their fab.