Parts for NXT Robots

[FayRhodes]

Every time one of us designs a model for publication, the first question readers have is, "Can it be built with the base kits (education or retail)? That is extremely frustrating for many reasons---the two most important being that :

1. The base kits are thinly-supplied, and lacking some very important parts.

2. LEGO has chosen not to offer many individual parts for sale.

I offer this topic as a resource for people who want to build cool robots, but lack the necessary parts. I hope others will add their suggestions about parts and how to best acquire them.

[FayRhodes]

I'm going to start this topic off with the basics of NXT part acquisition as I know it:

First, you can find a list of all parts included in any LEGO set at www.peeron.com. If you already own a set---or sets---this will help you figure out what you have without counting everything.

I consider the Education Resource set (supplemental), offered by Lego Education for $59 (www.legoeducation.com) to be a *Best Buy.* It is chock full of extra basic parts and unique parts which expand your ability to build robots dramatically.

However, this set still lacks enough basic parts to build the kinds of robots most people really want to build---like walking animals, which require multiple parts for multiple legs, etc....

To fill those gaps, I suggest:

1. Buy pins and Bionicle teeth from the LEGO site  under Pick-A-Brick. These parts are available for pennies a piece.

2. Also on the LEGO site, check out the parts packs, which are located under "Building Accessories" in the Store. Once you get into Building Accessories, select Technic. (The parts used with the NXT are the same pieces used in Technic kits.) The black beam packs offered here are basics that you will use again and again. There are also gears available. Unfortunately, LEGO only includes two of each piece in each pack, so I had to buy four packs to get enough for my four- and eight-legged creatures. These packs are about $10-$13 each.

3. www.peeron.com offers a valuable service in finding other sources of parts. If you enter a part name in the search box, they will provide you with a list of all the LEGO kits which include that part, plus links to Bricklink sellers who actually have that part---and the price they are charging.  www.bricklink.com is a source of thousands---even millions---of LEGO parts in a rainbow of colors. Looking at all the colors and parts available makes me giddy. (I experience the same thing in a yarn shop!)

4. Go directly to Bricklink.com. It is the LEGO equivalent of Ebay.

5. Some  parts are available from the LEGO Education site; but, apart from the resource set, their quantities and prices are high. (They assume they are selling to educational institutions for the most part.)

6. Selective purchase of Technic sets is also a ready resource. Remember, you can learn which parts are  included  in each set at peeron.com or bricklink.com.  You can also buy Technic sets through Bricklink.

7. Check out yard sales for Technic sets.

Anyone have other  helpful suggestions?

[LEGOmom]

Thanks for the write up!  I can't wait for your Zoo book to come out. I don't mind that the projects need more than the retail kit to build. Will it be designated what the extra pieces are so we can get them before starting to build something? I have the LEGO Science and Tech kit (from my JFLL team) and the LEGO Motorized Simple machines kit which has a number of gears, pens, and beams. I will pick up the Edu Resource kit though b/c as you say, it's a bargain at $59.

[FayRhodes]

Thanks for the encouragement, LEGOmom.

There will at least be a bill of materials list for each chapter, which will show the parts used---and how many are used.  You can tell the parts (and their quantities) in the sets you have by looking them up at www.peeron.com.

[mpscholz]

Fay,

will you provide an extra page somewhere that lists only the parts you need for the robots that are NEITHER contained in the Retail NOR in the Edu/+Resource kit?
So one would know which parts one had to get additionally.

[FayRhodes]

Plans now are to include a spreadsheet with how many of each part are necessary to build each robot---and all the robots in the book. The chart will also show how many of each part are in the two different base kits and the education resource set. The idea is to have an at-a-glance way to see where you stand.

For example, in the row for the yellow axle pin (without friction), it will have
an image of the pin,
the name of the pin,
the maximum # parts used on any model,
# pieces in the education base set,
# pieces in the retail base set,
# pieces in the education resource set,
(a space for you to record) the # parts you own (from these and other resources)
# pieces required for each model, individually
and, finally,
(a space for you to record) the number of pieces you need to acquire
               (# pieces required)-(# pieces owned) = (# pieces you need to build a--or all--robots)

Because everyone has different resources, I'm also encouraging people to try substituting parts they DO have when preferred---for example, in some places pins can be used instead of axles, or long pins instead of short pins, or a combination of smaller parts instead of one larger part,... There are so many different resources people have that it makes addressing the issue in a comprehensive way crazy-making. You may own a different part that works better than what I have.

I will also be posting information on parts and possible substitutions on my soon-to-be-created companion website. (thenxtzoo.com---don't go there yet!) Now that I think of it, I should just post the Excel file, so people can download it and let their computer do the calculating. The spreadsheet could actually be set up so that it calculates what parts you need. (What a good idea! Thanks for the inspiration.)

If my publisher doesn't object, I'll post the chart ahead of time, so people can be prepared when the book comes out.

[mpscholz]

I will also be posting information on parts and possible substitutions on my soon-to-be-created companion website. (thenxtzoo.com---don't go there yet!) Now that I think of it, I should just post the Excel file, so people can download it and let their computer do the calculating. The spreadsheet could actually be set up so that it calculates what parts you need. (What a good idea! Thanks for the inspiration.)

If my publisher doesn't object, I'll post the chart ahead of time, so people can be prepared when the book comes out.

Yes, such an overview would be useful, but keep in mind that web users are usually rather loath to download Excel files from the internet - they are known to be able to transport viruses, and many firewalls completely sort them out by default.
How about providing native web content (HTML) with that information? I have done so for my book, for instance (see http://mynxt.matthiaspaulscholz.eu/book/armoredcar/index.html, e.g.).
If you have LDRAW or LDD files for your models, I could update my Lemon application so it could generate an according HTML page automatically from it (the next release will contain comparison against the EDU/+Resource kit anyway).
What do you think?

[FayRhodes]

What you've done for your book is a great idea. I'll get to work on that.

I don't really understand how you propose to integrate Lemon with it, but I'm certain open to using it.

In any case, thanks for this helpful input, Matthias!

[mpscholz]

You're welcome. 
What I have seen so far from your book makes me think that is it going to become a great success on its target audience.

Well, the use case mentioned for Lemon would be such:

• The user (Fay, e.g.)  makes an LDRAW or LDD model of her robot(s)
• The user starts Lemon and loads the model file
• The user checks the "compare to NXT Edu/+Resource Kit" and presses "Compare"
• Lemon compares the model file against its internal Edu/+Resource data base and shows a list of parts the model contains that are not contained in the NXT Edu/+Resource Kit
• The user clicks on the "Create  web page from parts" on that parts list in Lemon
• Lemon generates a web page that contains a list of these parts with included links to the according Peeron pages (similar to that list on my web page, but additionally with the number of occurrences of the parts)

That web page could be adapted in style then and integrated by the designer of the book's web page.

Would you think that helpful?

[FayRhodes]

Yes, please!

Would the user need to download Lemon or would it be used on the site itself? If it's on the HTML page, is there a particular way it needs to be inserted? (I don't think I've ever added a software utility to a web page.)

[mpscholz]

Would the user need to download Lemon or would it be used on the site itself? If it's on the HTML page, is there a particular way it needs to be inserted? (I don't think I've ever added a software utility to a web page.)

Lemon would come into play only on the book's author's side (i.e. used by you) and (if required) the designer of the web page: only you would use Lemon to create the web page mentioned above, based on your LDRAW or LDD files of your zoo robots, and your web designer would integrate that on your zoo book pages.

The readers of your book would not use Lemon, just navigate to the book's web page and view the (then) ready-made list of the parts.

Just my understanding of the things, though - I don't think you will give away your LDRAW/LDD model files for free and let the readers use them, will you?
I don't think that that is required anyway, as the robots will not change any more after the book is published (?). Hence the parts lists on the book's web pages will not change anymore afterwards, which means they can be generated once and for all by you (using Lemon).

Of yourse you can do all of this manually, but I guess Lemon could help you a lot here (as most of the functionality is already built in there and I thought of integrating a similar "web page creation" feature there anyway).

[FayRhodes]

Actually, I did it manually for the excel chart long ago. But Lemon certainly will be helpful for future books!

[mpscholz]

Actually, I did it manually for the excel chart long ago.

Ah, I see.
So there is no need to hurry with that feature. 

After all, will be interesting to check the output of the according feature available in Lemon's next release  against your excel chart. And the HTML web page generated might come in handy nevertheless.

[basicxman]

Yeah the NXT retail doesn't come with many parts, and the education kit lacks even more.  You do get a good variety of parts just not good quantities. Also I don't like how some parts have odd amounts of parts rather than even.  That can ruin your attempts at symmetry. 

[mg1937]

I think the NXT retail kit has a odd number of the some of the parts because it contains exactly the set of parts needed to build the four robots for which it supplies instructions. I have found supplementing the retail kit with the LEGO Education Resource Kit overcomes a lot of the limitations of retail kit.