Fischertechnik ROBO TX Training Lab

Welcome to the Fischertechnik (FT) blog. Because I could not find much information in English on the Fischertechnik robotics platform, I decided to blog my experiences to help others with their decision to buy an FT set or help with getting started. Please add comments below to add your voice and your experiences with the Fischertechnik platform.

I am a new to the field of robotics having gotten drawn in by my 13 year old son, Jacob. My wife and I signed up my 13 year son for a robotics summer camp at the local community college. The class used the Fischertechnik platform for teaching the basics of robotics. Jacob really enjoyed the class building robots to compete against each other. Athough my first impression of Fischertechniks was that it looked like a plastic Erector set, I was really impressed with the simplicity and power of the Fischertechnik sets after seeing the robots that the kids were building and programming to do amazing things.

A year earlier, I foolishly promised my son a robotics kit for hitting some goals we set out for him. Now I was getting excited about coming through on the promise and purchase a robot kit. I was not prepared for the price tag on even the more beginner robot kits. Yow, expensive! After much research, I decided that the Bioloid Beginner Kit was the way to go. At $350, it was way over my budget of $150. But it offered 5 servos and the technology really seemed impressive. I also looked at Legos Mindstorm ($280) and the Sumobot platforms ($150). Each robot kit had its strengths and weaknesses.

With the exception of the Lego Mindstorm, my son was not interested these other kits. He really had his heart set on the Fischertechnik platform. I could see why, the Bioloid was a humanoid style and there were not a lot of models that you could build. The power of the Bioloid was in the programming of very life-like animations. Fischertechnik was very different with almost no possibility for humanoid creations. The FT sets were more building blocks with motors. With FT you could make autonomous rovers and cool factory-like automations. The strength of FT is the ability to be more creative building whatever you can imagine, much as you could do with Legos or an Erector set. If I wanted to motivate my son, Fischertechnik had the best chance of luring him from his treasured video games.

The problem with Fischertechniks is price. A basic FT ROBO TX Training Lab robotics set is going to cost almost $600. Don't be fooled by the FT ROBO TX Explorer's price of $250 - you still need a controller, software and power source bring the cost to over $600. To compound the situation, the robotics summer camp had completely spoiled my son. They had an almost unlimited number of parts and motors available for their creations. With the FT ROBO TX Training Lab, you get a very limited supply of parts and motors. The cost of the ROBO TX Training Lab bundle at Studica is currently $521 and includes everything you need including the software ROBO Pro and the Accu Set power supply.

Because the ROBO TX Training Lab was WAY over budget, I had to scratch and save and sell some things on eBay. Lucky for me, I also spotted a new ROBO TX Training Lab on eBay and I was able to win the auction and get it for $405 including shipping.

The next installment of the blog with start to drill into the set and what you can do with it.