Product Description

The LEGO MINDSTORMS products are great fun for children and adults alike, and can be used in millions of different combinations to build interactive creatures. But the power of Dr. Frankenstein can be very confusing, and figuring out which of those 700 pieces goes where is a big challenge. LEGO MINDSTORMS For Dummies is the perfect answer, with insightful help that goes beyond the Constructopedia. Simple examples are used to convey complicated ideas, opening the door wide for readers to unleash their creativity and build magnificent monsters, cool creatures, or riveting robots!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #503641 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 371 pages

From the Back Cover
Step-by-step photos and robot-ready programs on CD-ROM

Get complete instructions for 12 robot projects!

The fun and easy way® to build a bodacious bot from those hundreds of pieces LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ kits let you build all sorts of robots — if you can figure out how to put all those little pieces together and program the microprocessor. That's where this friendly guide comes in. Packed with special projects and programs, it's just what you need to become a robot master, no matter which MindStorms kit or add-ons you own! all this on the bonus CD-ROM Full-color step-by-step photos for projects in the book Ready-to-run RCX programs for projects in the book PaintShop Pro evaluation version Pentium PC, 32MBRAM, 4X CD-ROM. See the CD Appendix for details and complete system requirements.

About the Author
Michael Meadhra has written or contributed to more than 30 computer books. Peter J. Stouffer is an electrical engineer who has been programming for more than two decades.

Customer Reviews

Don't bother
I'm usually a fan of dummies books and have several on my bookshelf. I'm also a huge fan of LEGO's. I have to say that this book is dissapointing on so many levels. There is nothing new in here that hasn't been covered in one of the many unofficial guides that dummies is shamefully trying to compete with. In fact the robots described come straight from the Constructopedia that LEGO gives away free in every Mindstorms box. Other than having a CD of some useful utilities don't bother. Everything on the CD you can get for free on the net. You should have no problem finding them. In fact if you don't know how to find LEGO related websites on your own you shouldn't be fooling around with robots in the first place. But I drift away from the intent of this review. Don't bother with this book. If you have a Mindstorms kit you have a computer. If you're reading this you're on the net. Spend the $20 on some more LEGO's or one of the unofficial books. You'll get more out of it.

LEGO Mindstorms for Dummies
This book (2001 edition) is of no use if you are trying to learn how to program your RIS 2.0 The programing is for RIS 1.5 and earlier.

If you are reading it for information on LEGO basic construction techniques, my question would be "Why did you buy a Robotics Invention System set?" Save your money. I don't know what to recommend, but this is not it.

Nothing new
This book was very disappointing. There is nothing new here. The RCX bots all come from the Constructopedia.