LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders: Ten Inventions to Spark Your Imagination,   ISBN:9781593271886

Customer Rating: 

I liked the book, but it assumes that you are using the NXT 1.0 set and it turns out the sets have different parts. So when I purchased the book I found out that I could only make a few of the items. I have since purchased the additional parts I needed and can build them all now, but it was a little bit of a let down when I received the book and could not build them all.

Customer Rating: 

This does look like an interesting book with several great projects. I was intrigued enough to order it along with the NXT 2.0 set, based on the Amazon recommendation. This book uses parts that are not in the NXT 2.0 (especially gears). You can not build some of these projects with just the parts in the NXT 2.0 set. As a novice to these kits I didn't know enough about them to even consider the differences. Now I need to find the pieces that I need to actually build these projects, because they are too compelling to ignore. I like the book, just beware of the differences between the older NXT set and the newer NXT 2.0 set.

Customer Rating: 

I am teaching a robotics course using Lego Mindstorms NXT and this book was full of challenging builds for my students.

Customer Rating: 

This book shows you how to build and program 10 robots . . . that is pretty much it. The authors do not teach you about the NXT or NXT-G they just get right into building. The models are cool but you should get the Mindstorms Idea book if you want to learn more about the NXT itself.
They do give you some helpful tips as they go along in the book. In the beginning of each chapter, they tell you about what the robot does, then they will say "By the time you have finished building the model, you should have a good understanding of. . ." then they list some examples.
At the end of each chapter, they give you ideas on how to expand and advance the robot you built.

Over all, you should only get this book if you understand the basics of NXT and programming.

Customer Rating: 

Having just gotten the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit, I was very excited to see this new book on the market. One-Kit Wonders offers ten new projects that can be built with just the NXT kit - no extra parts necessary.

This book provides detailed layouts and step-by-step instructions for building each project (including illustrations). It also gives thorough information on programming each robot. This is very important for users like me who do not have any programming background.

One great aspect about One-Kit Wonders is that it features something for eveyone in the family. The projects included range from an M&M Sorter (my kids favorite) to a dragster (my husbands favorite) to a bike that steers and moves by itself (my personal favorite).

Adding color to the illustrations is the one thing that I found I would change about One-Kit Wonders. At times it is hard to tell which pieces needed to be used because the pictures are various shades of gray. This would make it much easier to use, especially for kids who might be trying to do these projects on their own.

Another useful feature about this particular book is that it is bound using RepKover so that it will lay flat. This comes in handy when you're snapping lego together and need both hands. I won't say that this worked perfectly, but it was definitely better about staying open than the standard book.

Overall, however, I was very pleased with LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders. It provides hours and hours of entertainment and was fairly easy to use despite the lack of color. I had a blast with my kids building some of these great projects, and we'll definitely be on the lookout for the next book of this type.