How to Control a LEGO Mindstorms kit with AI and Raspberry Pi 5

[@jasonwillis1178]

I wanted a Mindstorms so much when the came out. And I was nearly 30! Unfortunately my kid was all about the Power Rangers at the time. Thanks for sharing this. It's great!

[@TheAppleFreak]

God, that kit kickstarted my entire tech journey. This is definitely a trip back. A few small things: * You should be able to use a different serial converter to make it work with your existing hardware. * RCX 2.0 units include a USB IR transmitter that might work a bit better. Might be able to find one secondhand.

[@andywest5773]

That's a good point. The converter I used is a few years old and it looks like there are new ones that might be compatible. The problem with the USB IR tower is the ancient drivers. I'd rather just stick with RS-232 than deal with that.

[@TheAppleFreak]

@@andywest5773 That makes total sense, yeah. Apparently the old USB driver doesn't work on 64-bit Windows, so serial's definitely the way to go. Kinda surprised no one's hacked together their own custom driver or made a commercially available third party tower that's a bit more readily purchasable.

[@tonykaze]

me too - now I'm an automation engineer XD (albeit mostly software now)

[@frikifectonotengo6609]

The box design is awesome.

[@MultigrainKevinOs]

Woa talk about good timing. Just picked up a ton of thrifted Lego and technic parts earlier this week from this era and later that I was trying to sort out what to do with for fun with the kiddos. This is perfect ! Thanks for all the great ideas!

[@vivek.m.n]

Good memories with the Lego Minstorms. I participated in Robotics competitions by Lego (WRO/NRO) for a few years with the Mindstorms 2.0. That kit started my love for tinkering and programming. Quite interesting to see that they can still be put to use!

[@jessArcade]

You're not really going to make me dig out my 1998 MindStorms kit, are you?

[@element14presents]

Yessss

[@bobthemagicmoose]

Do you have the vision command camera as well? ;) so many great memories. I probably have my nqc files somewhere…

[@grogyan]

I was actually think of getting out my old RIS 1.0 to show a kid something. Then I stumbled into this video 😅

[@jessArcade]

@bobthemagicmoose hell yeah I had the vision command! I wanted the movie maker kit, but my mom got me that one. Guess she knew I had a better shot with STEM.

[@jessArcade]

@grogyan so I broke mine out while I was in college because my 5 year old sister loved Legos. My laptop still had a serial port and was able to get the software running on XP. I built her a simple line following robot and she LOVED it.

[@Wii505]

The Original Mindstorms RCX Computer Progame worked very similar to your new program. Also, you should have used the Offical Lego Web Camera that have the option to work with Mindstorms RCX

[@42Hertzer]

Brilliant, thanks! Got a bunch of Mindstorms bricks! =)

[@rigilchrist]

I bought that kit for my son. It is still in the attic...

[@Waltkat]

I'll take that Lego kit. I still have a couple or three computers running Windows 95 with serial ports. 😊

[@tonykaze]

I had a Mindstorms kit growing up and it was probably my favorite thing I've ever owned. My mind is so blown that Lego dropped this, I will never understand it. I can only imagine what you paid for a new box like that but I'm gonna guess $1500?

[@turbochardged]

To make the serial adapter work use the pl2303 win10 driver. The win 11 one doesn't work.

[@MAYERMAKES]

I had the mindstorms r2d2. .but that kit was a lot to expensive for me... 😢

[@jessArcade]

So did I. I didn't know about Mindstorms until the guide mentioned it. My mom would get it for me for Christmas one year.

[@ehabgassem]

You can still use it in windows. That message is ok. Yet they all need the profiolic driver

[@andywest5773]

I eventually got it to work by rolling back to an old version of the driver, but it reinstalled the new one every time I restarted my machine. Not ideal to say the least.

[@ehabgassem]

A problem faced with every old driver that no one wants to manufacture again or differently. Lucky as said in the video Linux supports it out of the box 😊

[@scottdebruyn7038]

Vampire connector? It's what is known in the industry (at least it used to be) as an IDC or 'Insulation Displacement😁 Connector'

[@andywest5773]

I was thinking of vampire taps from Ethernet going way, way back to the days of 10BASE5. Not the same thing, I know. But it reminded me of that.

[@TheSliderW]

Styro isn't recyclable ?

[@andywest5773]

Styrofoam recycling is inefficient and, at least where I live, they don't allow it in the recycling carts that we put out by the curb for pick up. It is technically possible to recycle Styrofoam.

[@Workshopshed]

I did try to revive a Furby using an Intel Edison but that wasn't particularly successful.

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

What is the current version of Mindstorm??

[@element14presents]

They were discontinued in 2022. The last versions were the "EV3" and "Mindstorms Robot Inventor"

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

@@element14presents Shame ... these also appear to be discontinued. At least on the Lego site they say retired.

[@frikifectonotengo6609]

​@@element14presents But is there something now for robotics with Lego?

[@Blood-PawWerewolf]

Ages 12 years and up me being in kindergarten in 1998: gets one for Christmas in 1999 or 2000 (all i know i got it way before i was 12)

[@daveyio87]

nice maybe someone will want my kit now. lol

[@AJB2K3]

Be warned, that generation of motor are prone to failure. BTW I still have mine but I had the RCX 2.0 in mine.

[@andywest5773]

Yeah, one of them was already going bad when I got it. I'll have to see about 3D-printing some adapters for other, newer motors. I'm sure I could get something working.

[@AJB2K3]

@@andywest5773 I've thrown away dozens of them over ye years