Lego mindstorms

Hackers are chomping at the bit to tinker around under the hood of the new Lego Mindstorms microcontroller brick, the EV3, which packs an ARM9-based processor running Linux.

It's been six years since Mindstorms NXT became Lego's best-selling product ever. Now, the global toy giant is ramping up the platform to be more flexible and powerful than ever.

Here are 12 surprising details I discovered while unboxing a Lego Mindstorms EV3 set. There are many differences between it and the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0.

This is the book you need to get started in learning robotics with the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 retail set 31313!

A LEGO WALL-E made with LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3. Get the building instructions and program now!

Lego EV3

This is the book you need to get started in learning robotics with the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 retail set 31313!

Found a bunch of my old LEGO Mindstorms robotics stuff and realized that I could still use all the old motors and most of the sensors. The old versions of the motors (RCX 1 & 2) are just 9v DC motors so I can easily control them with an Arduino. These old motors are super sturdy, reasonably powerful and the gearing makes them great for any hobby level robotics project. And of course, they fit into the entire LEGO ecosystem so they are easy to prototype with. Just a few leftover LEGO…