...and he's 7.
Anyone done anything like this with their kids?
I'm looking for a kit type answer (vs a roll-your-own-from cereal boxes and a raspberry pi)
Any suggestions on kits or things like that, STW robot meisters?
Depends on the type of robot, I suppose.
If you have a 3d printer or access to one, you could build a Vorpal Hexapod. Or you could buy a full kit including the plastic bits.
Not cheap though...
https://vorpal-robotics-store.myshopify.com/products/vorpal-the-hexapod-opts?variant=3744106086411
Maybe look on Hobbyking?
My son has Meccano one which you can programme to do actions
(& Get it to repeat naughty words!!!)
It's pretty good fun actually
It's from their micronoid range, they do some really big ones too
Relieved to see he's not a teenager when I opened this:
Lego Mindstorms is great, but not cheap.
Ms M built a makeblock ultimate 2.0 kit aged 8 and loved doing it. I thought it a fantastic thing and recommend makeblock in general...
https://www.robotshop.com/uk/makeblock-robot-contruction-kits.html
lots of people on youtube with mbots getting them to do cool stuff too.
https://www.makeblock.com/steam-kits
The Lego vernie kit was a big hit here
We had the Lego Mindstorm years ago and was pretty good. Not sure what it's like now.
We have a Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit and it is excellent - Thump (age 13) was building with it earlier this week.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">A Lego Boost kit is £120 and would be worth looking at.</span>
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Also - look at a BBC Microbit. They are cheap, easy to program and have useful functionality - building a pedometer takes less than an hour. </span>
Raspberry Pi's are awesome (I run a weather station with one) but there are easier ways in.
My kids had the Mecanno ones. For a seven year old they're a pretty good balance of construction and simple programming and control without getting into the much more expensive and complex kits.
thanks all!
no access to 3d printer although I reckon the kids would love to have one at some point
microbit looks about right for a robot controller. small step up from some of the games he has on the tablet. looks like you can drive it from a tablet app which would be a definite bonus.
mindstorms also looks cool. I had thought that might be a couple of years away but could work.
The lego boost kit is simpler than mindstorms (and cheaper). Although it was bought for me my 7 year old likes using it (the cat fart noise after eating is especially popular!). It is quite versatile though, there is some content on the lego site where they have a couple of people making lots of different random things with it.
Saw the thread title and immediately thought of this...
ha!
yeah, his idea was "just a simple one, like one that can play chess and walk or something"
lego boost, looks cool
anything that interfaces with the masses of bricks in the lego pile is good
MIndstorms is great (but expensive - although my 18 year old still uses his).
Have a look through here https://www.robotshop.com/uk/ loads of kits from toys through to full on commercial stuff. Have had some of the mid range things such as walking lizards etc over the years and they are pretty good. YOu do need to be prepared for some internet reseach however as usually the instructions are in chnglish and the code can be commented in chinese rather tahn english. My son had to recode one of the robts entirely as the code didnt wuite work and he couldn't figure out what they had done - all good experience however.
I'd say Lego, or any Pi related project (you can get kits).
Times have changed. When I was around 7, I made a robot out of a cardboard box, and flaps and things would open when I pulled on bits of string.
Times have changed. When I was around 7, I made a robot out of a cardboard box, and flaps and things would open when I pulled on bits of string.
Did something like that in an attempt to recreate Metal Mickey. Though I did have a set of walkie talkies so would stick one inside to make it talk. 😄