Before you buy a Fischertechnik robot kit

What you need to know before you buy a Fischertechnik robot kit

For a product that seems to have a reasonable following, there is scarce information about the Fischertechniks platform or rather it is difficult to locate in English. As you are shopping for a FT set you need to be aware of a few things:

Power Supply

1. Does the set have a power supply? Chances are it does not have a power supply. The two main options are the Energy Set ($70) and the Accu Set ($82). The Accu Set is the way to go because it is the only way to have a truely autonomous robot with having a set of wires running to your robot. The Accu Set is a rechargable battery pack that you can attach to your robot.

Microcontroller

2. Does the set have a brain? Newer sets require the ROBO TX Controller. Older sets had the ROBO Interface. Essentially, this is a microprocessor that can be programmed to control the robot and read sensors so that the robot can interact with its environment. Buying the ROBO TX Controller bundled with the kit will probably save you money. The newer ROBO TX Controller has Bluetooth communication which allows your computer to speak directly too the robot without the tiresome process of connecting and disconnecting the USB cable. For example, you connect the USB cable to the robot, download your program and then disconnect the cable and run the robot's new program. If it doesn't provide the results you need, you reconnect the cable and try again. This is an enormous pain in the rear. Bluetooth eliminates this tedious cable connection. If your computer doesn't have a Bluetooth transmitter (which it probably does), you can buy a Bluetooth Adapter for under $2 off of eBay.

Software

3. Does the set have software to program the brain? Chances are it does not have the ROBO Pro Software. Buying the ROBO Pro Software bundled with the kit will probably save you money. There are several other alternatives to programming the ROBO TX Controller such as Microsoft Robotics Studio. I'm just getting started with ROBO Pro. ROBO Pro is an icon-based programming environment. My 13 year old son can easily construct simple programs to operate the robot. As a person with a degree in computer science, I find myself wishing for a more direct programming language.

So before you leave a Fischertechnik ROBO set under the tree at Christmas, make sure that you your set has the power, microcontroller and software needed to make the set more than a glorified Erector set.