Need opinions from experienced community.

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
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Hello Vex Community,
I require your assistance on both some questions and opinions. I have been looking into my options for entering an exciting new hobby… Robotics! My hobby has always been my computers but now that I have worked in the Information Technology Field for the past 14 years I am looking for something new… I decided to mix all the things I love doing; Remote Control (I have built RC Planes, Helicopters and Cars since I was young) Computers, and of course Johnny 5 (My son and I love Short Circuit).

After reviewing EV3, Vex and Tetrix I have sided with Vex EDR on the overall as the best option for me to start. My intention is to start on pre-designed robots to gain experience and modify them to learn more as I go and eventually build my own from scratch. I was hoping to get your opinion on what would be must haves parts and what I would only use 1 of (example: from what I read bumper switches I could use multiple on one robot but an ultrasonic sensor only use 1 due to multiple could interfere with readings). I realize that some would ask “What do you want to build?” to narrow down the choices... What I am trying to get is an all-around starting selection for a wide variety of parts to play around with. For the sake of my marriage I will have to stick to a budget that my wife won’t leave me over lol I am planning around $2000.00 to $2500.00ish...

What I was thinking for start:

-Classroom and Competition Super Kit
-Another Booster Kit (I realise classroom kit has one already)
-Spare Microcontroller
-Advanced Sensor Kit
-Flash Light
-Light Sensor
-Power Expander
-Spare 3000mAH batteries

Basically just inquiring would this be a good all-around start??? Anything you would add or remove… More structural components?? More motion components like motors and servos??

Now the Questions! After reading and comparing… I have a couple questions that I hope you answer

  1. EV3 kits have an infrared sensor and remote… For EV3 you can use the remote as a beacon for the robot to follow. Basically I am inquiring if there is something similar for vex to give that effect. (Would be neat if I could get the robot to attempt to follow my son and things like that).

  2. The Microcontroller… 384KB program space… I write powershell scripts for work bigger then this…. As a system admin and IT Tech I am used to terabytes and petabytes across networks of space…. How do you fit anything on 384KB??? I really would like to work on autonomous programs but this amount of space makes me nervous. It is one of the few things that almost made me side with EV3 as it has more internal space + a micro SD card slot. I would love to be able to add sound files to programs (example bumper switch = Robot grumbles about junk on floor) but I could not add even 1 sound clip with that amount of space… Is there any way to expand the storage?? I would add a windows tablet to the structure for more space but for autonomous my understanding is the program needs to compile the code then send it to the microcontroller so as it goes now it would be very difficult to have a full computer manage the microcontrollers for autonomous purposes… or am I wrong?

Thanks in advance for any advice and assistance!
ER

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I will give you a more complete reply over the weekend when I have time but a couple of quick comments.

I would not spend all of the money in one go. The $1000 super kit is not a bad way to start, it gives you the basics, the VEXnet bundle, plenty of motors and a clawbot to build. More batteries are always useful but I would save the $250 for a space cortex.

You may wish to consider trying something like this.
Open Source Robot

Don’t forget to include some money for ROBOTC and a programming kit.

As far as memory in the cortex is concerned, 384K is plenty for most conventional programming needs, you would normally use no more than about 128K. Adding sound files will use much more, but the sound capabilities are very limited and we usually only use low sample rate single channel files.

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If you’re looking for plug and play VEX EDR, IQ or LEGO EV3 is the answer. Most hobby robotics users seem to go for the Actobotics system because it’s arguably more flexible and my own viewpoint is that including proper bearings makes this so much better than the alternatives. https://www.servocity.com/html/actobotics1.html
So far as control systems go most are limited in memory as you note but it’s all application dependent really. PS scripts bigger than 384kB sound scary or perhaps produce job security in lieu of actual functionality ha ha. I wrote an IP stack with TFTP and 3DES in 32kB and it could have been better optimised too so the modern bloatware is sometimes quite amusing.
Since you’re starting from scratch and don’t have a competition focus I’ll point you towards the new FTC (another competition similar to VEX) control system which is based on Android phones/tablets. Develop in Android studio and deploy to some pretty hard core processors with tons of memory and useful built in peripherals. How do you connect motors? Via the USB OTG port and some new controllers from Modern Robotics Inc.