You may get the impression reading this review that I don't like the Fischertechnik robotics platform. That is not true. I like it well enough to spend hours writing this blog. However, I am going to point out the shortcomings along with the cool features.
Upon opening the set, I was a little disheartened at the size and number of pieces relative to the cost of the unit. Like the modern day Lego sets, Fischertechnik has chosen to market a set around a theme and set number pre-defined models that the person can build. The TX Training Lab is quite unlike older Lego and Erector sets where you just get a wide variety of pieces and parts which would force you to use your imagination to dream up things to build. The photo below shows all of the building blocks that come with the ROBO TX Training set.
The instruction manual shows you how to build 11 models. This booklet is well illustrated but has almost no text. My 13 year old son had no problem building several models the first day. I put
together the Line Tracing Robot. Overall, it was not too bad but a few times I really had to study the diagram closely to understand the order to put pieces together.
If you are looking to learn about robotics, this should be a great set. However Fischtechnik provides NO instructional information about robotics. Nothing, nada, zip, nothing. Unlike the Legos Mindstorm that has a bunch of great books available, there are NO books written in English that I could find. I find this an amazing shortcoming. Hello Fischertechnik marketing department, are you listening?! Even with the open source Arduino robotics platform, I can find 5 or more books at my local Barnes & Noble bookstore on Arduino programming and projects. The same goes for web sites. One good German site but no English language sites are available. I spent hours looking for information on the web but I found very, very little.
Building BlocksThe core of the Fischertechnik system is interlocking blocks made of nylon. It is an ingenius system that allows you to build some very cool designs. The black blocks have grooves on all four sides allowing the blocks to be connected end-to-end, side-to-side and side-to-end.
There are also thin red panels, gray straps and a whole bunch of connectors. There are angled
connectors that allow the block to be connected at angles of 7.5 degrees, 15 degrees, 30 degrees
and 60 degrees.
Your imagination is going to soar well beyond the number of supplied building blocks. One source of cheap building blocks is eBay. I was able to pick up an old sets of FT blocks, gears and connectors for $20. Old sets going back to the 1970s appear to be compatible with the new sets. You can also purchase individual spare parts from FT or Studica.com here in the US.
Wheels
Two wheels are provided for you to build mobile robot designs. A small, pivoting wheel set is provided to allow the two wheel robot to balance.
Motors
There are two large motors and one small motor. The two large motors are called "encoder motors" and the purpose in this set is for driving the wheels of the robot; one motor for each wheel. The encoder motor does provide some feedback to the controller (brain of the robot) to measure the number of rotations. These motors can be set to run a different speeds and directions through the ROBO Pro software allowing the robot to make curved paths and or quick turns.
The downside to these large motors are that they are notoriously inaccurate. A speed of 5 on each
motor is different. This means it is almost impossible to make your robot drive in a straight line. The ROBO Pro software only allows integers from 1 to 8 doesn't allow real numbers to be entered for the speed, such as 5.2. Allowing real numbers might allow small adjustments to be make to speeds consistent (are you listening Fischertechnik?).
I believe that Fischertechnik's solution to the inaccurate movement was the "line tracing" sensor that is included in the kit. The tracing sensor will follow a black line. The kit comes with a large fold out "track" made of heavy paper with an oval track printed on the paper. We found out that we could create our own tracks by using black electrical tape on our hard wood floor.
The small motor is the called the XS motor. This motor has a "worm" shaft that is for turning a gear. This motor is used for operating the rack and pinion mechanism. The rack and pinion is a linear actuator; meaning that it moves things "in and out" or "up and down." This allows you to build things like elevators and fork lifts. One cool feature of the XS motor is that it is the same size and configuration as a building block so it can easily be placed into small places.
As with any robotics platform, more motors means more interesting and fun projects. Three motors is a very limiting factor. You can buy new motors from FT but the cost is high. Individual encoder motors are $88 and individual XS motors are around $25. Motor sets are also available that provide 1 motor and a set of parts and gears to go with the motor.
Two last complaints about the motors. There are no servo motors in the kit. Servos are key
components in robotics so the lack of a servo is surprising. Servos typically do not rotate in
complete revolutions. Instead, they operate in a limited range of motion; from 0 to 180 degrees
making them ideal for robotic arms. The other compliant is that on the "rover" models is that the
gears slip easily or the wheels will sometimes bind and not turn.
Sensors
Robots need to interact with their surroundings; they need inputs from the outside world. Otherwise, the robot can be pretty boring. Therefore a variety of sensors are provided.
Line tracing sensor - seems pretty accurate as it even sensed the thin lines on the supplied track. As I mentioned earlier, it followed black electrical tape on a oak floor.
IR sensor - detects a beam of light allowing you to create cool on/off switches when the beam is broken.
NTC Resistor (Thermistor) - which can be used to measure temperature.
Two switches - these switches can be used for manually controlling the robot - in other words as push buttons for the human. They can also be used as switches to determine when contact with another element occurs. For example, you could contruct a simple ramp for a marble to roll down. Placing the switch on the ramp could detect when the marble rolls over the switch and then opens a gate, allowing the next marble to roll down. As with the motors, two switches leaves you wanting more. Additional switches are around $12.
I would rather have seen FT place the distance sensor and the color sensor in this kit. The distance sensor seems essential for building an autonomous robot. If the color sensor and the distance sensor are your thing then you might want to investigate the ROBO TX Explorer instead of the TX Training Lab.
TX Controller and ROBO Pro software
This is the brain of the robot and is included in the set. It provides a number of inputs (for sensors) and outputs (to control motors). It also supply power to the motors and sensors. The controller is fairly small which makes it suitable for mounting on your robot. You'll need a Power Supply like the Accu Pack which is NOT included in the set. The TX Controller can be programmed with the included ROBO Pro software; a drag-and-drop, icon-based programming environment that is well suited for children ages 10 and up.
You create your programs on the computer and download them over a USB cable. Once the program is on the Robot, you disconnect the USB cable and press a button on the TX Controller to start the program. If you need to fix and "tweak" the program, you need to hook the USB cable back to the robot and download the new code. This whole process is easy but tiresome.
Luckily, the TX Controller is contains Bluetooth wireless communication. This allows you to communicate with the computer without the USB cable. Once again, there is little information about setting up the Bluetooth connections. It took me several evenings to get this working.
My Dell laptop features the Toshiba Bluetooth hardware. If you PC does not have a Bluetooth adapter, you can find many on eBay for just $2-$3 including shipping! I had to uninstall my Toshiba Bluetooth drivers, download new drivers from the internet (ZDNet) and reload. I also had to download the newest version of ROBO Pro. Once the Toshiba driver was installed, it detected my iPhone and the TX Controller - victory! Well not quite...ROBO Pro still was not communicating to the TX Controller.
I emailed FT and Studica responded quickly but the information was still quite vague. I downloaded the USB Drivers for FT per the Studica email. There were no instructions for installing these drivers. If I remember correctly, I installed them on the COM port under the Windows Device Manager. The last step was to set up ROBO Pro under the USB/COM icon and under the BlueTooth menu, use the Scan function.
Conclusion
The ROBO TX Training Lab is a very powerful set in the hands of a creative child or adult. You'll need to be extra creative in order to think of things to create beyond the initial models and the limited selection of parts. For a "Training Lab," the lack of information on robotics is frustrating.
Overall, there is enough stuff to keep a kid (or adult) busy creating new stuff. However, you will certainly be wishing for more parts soon enough.
