Lego Mindstorms

Okay I just discovered this and I must say I'm tempted to go out and pick it up on my lunch. Has anyone had any experience with any of the Lego Mindstorm stuff? I havn't messed with legos since I was a kid but I've always thought it would be a lot of fun to pick up a set for fun. I knew they had more advanced lego kits but I had no idea they had kits this advanced. I guess they originally released the Mindstorm kits around 1998. The new mindstorm NXT stuff is waaaaaay advanced. Check out the stuff it comes with:

Quote:
The kit includes three servo motors, a touch sensor, a light sensor (now with the ability to differentiate between colours based on greyscale readings), a new sound sensor, an ultrasonic sensor and a new NXT 'Intelligent Brick'. The NXT 'Intelligent Brick' has a 32-bit ARM7 microprocessor running at 48 MHz and an 8-bit Atmel AVR microcontroller running at 4 MHz. The brick has 4 input ports, 3 output ports, a 60×100 pixel LCD matrix display, USB 2.0 port and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. The ARM7 processor has access to 256 KiB of flash memory and 64 KiB of RAM, while the second processor only has access to (a separate) 4 KiB of flash and 512 bytes of RAM. It has four input and three output ports, though as the connections are digital, it is possible to add Multipacks to extend the amount of sensor and motor ports available. The connector used on I/O sockets is not the same design used on the RCX and use ports similar to an RJ12 connector. Built into the brick itself, there is a loudspeaker with 8 kHz D/A. The brick requires 6 AA type batteries. Alkaline batteries are recommended, though it will operate with rechargeables. (wikipedia)

I thought this would be right up the alley of some of the guys here. I've always been into robots and whatnot and apparantly you can make some pretty insane stuff with the Mindstorm pieces. Do an Amazon search for Lego Mindstorm and check out some of the books written for the Mindstorm NXT stuff. Its nuts!! I'm wondering if I should try to get ahold of the original mindstorm kit first and then move onto the NXT. The NXT kit is a little steep at $250 but there seems to be A LOT of stuff you can do with it.



Sweet!!

Lego has really done a good job with the MindStorms stuff- it's incredibly versatile (just like the original blocks).
My brother loves to do software/hardware projects for hobbies and he's got several of the kits. I collect 'robot toys' and he's given me a couple at Christmas.
To tell you the truth, though, they're not my bag. I program robots and design hardware at work and the last thing I want to do at home is the same thing. My collection is actually of 'toy robots' (like tin wind-ups) and require *much less* attention than a MindStorms kit.
MindStorms is so flexible it's like a hobby unto itself and I just don't have the time for it... but more power to you!