Apple 2e + legos = robot kit?

[luckybob]

When I was in elementary school, naturally the computer lab was stocked with Apple 2's. I had to have been in the 5th grade (1995 if memory serves they just got 5 macintosh LC 575's to replace a few of the 2's I had an LCIII at home), but the teacher brought in 5 sets of legos that interfaced with the apple 2's. After school she would work with anyone willing to make whatever you wanted. I was the only one that could get past project one (a stop light) and made every "project" there was and I remember making something like a crane that wasnt in the book.

Long story short, I kinda want one. I'm almost 100% certain I wont use it, as i've "moved on" and I like my 8051's. My questions is, what was that lego thing called? Additionally, where can I get one?

I'm going to "try" to not end up building an entire apple 2 system because of this. :rofl:

 

[NeXT]

Oh yes, the stuff that existed before the Mindstorm stuff. I don't remember what exactly it was called either unfortunately but I do know of the stuff you are talking about.

 

[olePigeon]

Programmable LEGO kits were created by MIT. Their old websites are still up from the 90s. You can occasionally find them on eBay, but they're very expensive for a complete kit. The obvious advantage of the original kits over the new Dacta kits is that they interfaced over standard serial to an Apple II (later Macintosh) and were programmed in C. I had the privilege of also playing with the kits because, at the time, I was working as the computer technician for a local high school when they piloted a Robotics class.


As a side note, the school I was working for was Foothill High School in San Jose, California, and were featured on a show on Discvoery about the National Botball Tournament that year. Foothill is a finishing school for students who dropped out of normal high school for one reason or another (bad grades, pregnancies, money, etc.) and had no funding what-so-ever except the money they raised from a couple of fundraisers. So a bunch of high school dropouts with about $500 in parts took their robot to SECOND PLACE against prestigious high schools from around the country that had tens of thousands of dollars in grants. The robot was mostly plywood, with most of the money going to servos, transceivers, and some aluminum struts. It was pretty damn cool. The whole staff was on cloud 9 that year.

 

[chalackd]

Back in the days before the popularity of LEGO kits sold under the Technic and Mindstorms names they were selling educational sets to schools under the Dacta name. From the sounds of it it's likely one of these sets that you're thinking of (at least in reference to the stop light project).

There's been a seller on eBay that has been listing a nice complete one on and off for a while now, but as fas as I'm concerned the price has been a little crazy, and going up...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190524975076

 

[luckybob]

wow, thats EXACTLY how i remember it! I forgot about the "washing machine" project. but good lord, he is off by a decimal place on the price. i could justify $250, but 2500? I think that guy will be keeping that set for LONG while. But thankfully I at least have a name to search for.

 

[olePigeon]

I don't know if you remember these as well, but I picked up a Sound and Motion science kit for Apple II in a computer rummage. The sound kit comes with a transparent microphone that hooks up to a breakout box. You can then record sounds and analyze the patterns. The motion kit comes with a motion sensor and another breakout box. Just plug it into the existing breakout box and you can now measure the speed of objects. I used these when I was in high school. Blast from the past. :D I'm currently working with the physics teachers at the school I work at to set up an Apple IIgs and the hardware. Should be fun.