Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Best Mindstorms book I have purchased, Feb 15, 2023
This book is superior to "Programming Lego Mindstorms with Java."It is well suited to both beginning and advanced programers. It covers languages basics, but still provides much info to experienced Java developers about robotics Design Patterns. It also includes detailed instructions and pictures describing on basic robotic construction...things like how to turn a rotary motion to a linear motion, how to change gear rations, how to build differentials, etc. There is also a detail chapter devoted to building your own homebrew sensors that even someone with little to no experience in electronics could easily build. I am very happy with this purchase.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
I just bought a mind storm kit and this book, Dec 1, 2022
I just bought a mind storm kit and have had great fun during these thanks giving holidays. I explored the lejos api and have read this book. I am keenly interested in running the robot over the network, with the IR tower. And this book has just all the code and examples to help me work on that. I am using this book and the basic rover bot to test out some java code on it. I have tried a few lejos examples. This is a great book. Its just amazing thatjava can be run on 32K of memory!--Naveed
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Great information from beginning to end, Sep 24, 2023
This is a great book, for several reasons:1. The tour of all of the parts that comes with a Mindstorms kit is worth the price of the book alone
2. The step-by-step Java setup had me running my first Java robot in no time
3. The more advanced topics (Behavior Control, Navigation, Communications) are compelling. Though I haven't tried these projects yet, the author's presentation is a great read. This can easily be your first Mindstorms book (though it is my third). Enjoy!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Java@YourCommand, Aug 10, 2023
This book is a great guide to using Lejos (the Java Virtual Machine for the RCX). It starts with a basic java tutorial and an introduction to Lego Mindstorms and Lejos. The tutorial is far from complete and is not "beginner proof". Therefore I recommend that you have some basic programming skills before reading this book. The book goes on to cover several cool topics including behavior control, navigation and communication. It has two electronic projects in which you make a proximity sensor and a compass sensor. Although it has very clear instructions(it has pictures and written descriptions), I think that these projects would not be easy for a person with little experience with electronics to do. Also to complete one section of this book you need to purchase two lego rotation sensors. These can be bought at the lego-pitsco dacta shop which is located at pldstore.com I particulary like the communication section which shows how to control a robot from a web page, how to make a robot that can plot its course on a map etc. I highly recommend this book.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
I really enjoyed this book, Jul 2, 2023
Brian succeeds brilliantly in the difficult tasks of introducing the reader to the Java language, to the Mindstorms system and to some programming techniques peculiar to robotics, and he does this in such a pleasant way that he doesn't even realize he's learning new concepts. The book gives you enough elements of the Java language to make you immediately productive in using it with your Mindstorms kit, without including details about the language which would have made the book unnecessarily heavy. It won't make you a professional Java programmer, but it's not its goal. From this foundation, Brian introduces you to some of the most powerful programming techniques aimed at robotics - like behavior control and navigation - using simple and clear examples. The robots are nice and very well documented, and I have no doubt you will find them instructive and inspiring. And their code is well tested and ready to use. Brian's style is very pleasant: he is able to always keep the your attention, never boring you explaining obvious concepts nor entering complex maters without the necessary gradualness. A touch of thin humour here and there makes the reading of this book a great experience. To conclude:
- If you already know Java and want to learn how to use it for your Mindstorms robots, this book is for you.
- If you don't know Java, but want to push your Mindstorms beyond the limits of the LEGO software and are challenged by the opportunity to learn a new language, this book is for you as well. This book definitely deserves its place in your bookcase among the best Mindstorms books.
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