2/11    Has anyone played around with lego mindstorms?  Any comments on the
        various tools available for programming them?
        \_ no, but they rock. I need some. Bad.
        \_ I have the R2D2 set. Way more fun to put together than regular
           legos. I haven't had much chance to play with the electronics
           and programming yet.
                \_ Putting together regular legos is fun? It was fun when I
                   was 12 years old ..
        \_ Unless you want to program in VBasic, I suggest checking out
           LegOS (http://www.noga.de/legOS  I haven't been able to
           get the newest version to work under Linux.  But the older
           version is probably sufficient for most applications short of
           making a robot that cooks you breakfast.  The code is not too
           clean, but it seems to work, plus it's well documented.
           \_ Is there a good site explaining how exactly they work?  I know
              they're some sort of embedded system, but how do they end
              up controlling the actual machine?  Are there little wire
              connections to the electric motors you use?  -John
              \_ I don't know about a site explaining it in full detail, but
                 I can give a little insight on it.  The piece with the
                 computer chip in it has places where lego blocks can be used
                 to connect it to motors and sensors.  There are special
                 blocks that have a cable built in to them, and have the
                 contacts as part of the normal lego connector pieces, so that
                 an electrical connection is made by snapping two blocks
                 together.  The set comes with two motors, two touch sensors,
                 and a light sensor by default.  -dlwhite