Gadgetory

you asked and I'm delivering more robotics videos today we've got the vex IQ super kit from vex robotics vex IQ was introduced about two years ago and it's chiefly targeted at elementary to middle school students for those of you who don't know what this is all about robotics kits like the ones from tetrax make block Mindstorms and vex are basically educational toys sort of I mean they're not exactly toys but I don't know what else to call them you won't really be able to build a practical useful robot that will dress you in the morning or vacuum your floor or cook your dinner that's not really the point the purpose of these robotics kits as far as I can tell is the enormous amount of educational value that they provide while still being a ton of fun when you build with this stuff you're learning a huge amount about mechanical engineering and programming and there is so much to learn so let's dig in and see what the vex IQ system has to offer and hit that like button if you want to see more robotics videos in the future the Logitech G 303 features a lightweight design and advanced optical sensor with delta0 technology for precise tracking and RGB lighting to match your setup click now to learn more so if you want to get started with a vex IQ robot you've basically got three choices there's the starter kit with a radio remote control and two touch sensors there's the starter kit with no remote control but it has seven sensors then there's the super kit which has the remote control and the seven sensors but is fifty dollars more which I think is well worth it that's the kid I'll be reviewing today it comes with eight hundred and fifty parts which you can use to build and program pretty much any kind of robot you can imagine and there are instructions for several models to get you started the learning ceiling is surprisingly high while still being easy enough for beginners to get started with but we'll talk more about that later so opening up the box we see hey what's this it comes with its own storage bin and a compartmentalized tray 50 points to Gryffindor that's great there's plenty of extra room to allow your collection of X parts to grow you can even fit a second tray above the first one looks like you won't be needing to take any trips down to the Container Store which is actually a cooler place than it sounds anyway the vex IQ kit comes with a getting started guide to instructional booklets and a poster with all of the pieces at one-to-one scale for reference purposes next we get to the included sensors oh yes these are awesome there are seven in total and they're all small and easy to mount anywhere on to your robot we've got to bumper switches these will let your robot know when it's run into something there is an ultrasonic distance sensor these use echolocation to measure distances to objects that's always fun and there's a light and color sensor useful for line following detecting colors and measuring ambient brightness and then my favorite the gyro sensor which measures turn rates and angles very useful for orientation there are also two touch LEDs which I don't really think of as sensors they can't really be used as extra bumper switches they're more like extra buttons each one also has fully programmable RGB LEDs which I've always found to be very useful for debugging and knowing where you are in a program then we get to the smart motors and guess what there are four of them and they're all pretty powerful too not only that but they're easy to mount not too bulky or oddly shaped and they all have encoders and micro processors inside to measure all sorts of cool stuff you can even stall them without having to worry about damage next up we've got the radio controller which is great but it could be better it feels kind of cheap and the buttons are a bit soggy especially the shoulder buttons which rotate as they press inward rather than going in straight also my left joystick has a bit of a problem it doesn't go all the way to the left I've been told that this is a known issue which has been fixed in the most recent batch I recalibrated mine for full functionality but vex says they're glad to do RMA's if customers aren't happy despite this the controller is functionally excellent and it definitely is still worth getting the two joysticks give you proportional control in every direction and on top of that you've got eight buttons and it's all fully programmable and customizable in software it also comes with a 50 hour rechargeable battery and then I mention it's radio-controlled that's a big deal unlike infrared with radio you don't need line-of-sight to your robot so you won't get easily disconnected compare this to the Mindstorms ev3 infrared beacon with five buttons but no joysticks and the tetrax gamepad with two joysticks but no buttons and now we get to the centerpiece of the vex IQ system the fully programmable robot brain this is where you connect all of your sensors and motors using the included rj12 cables this thing has 12 serial ports that can be used as input or output so yeah if you wanted to you could hook up 12 motors the brain also comes with its own rechargeable battery so there's no need to periodically sacrifice several double a's at a time to the robot guards there's also a spot for the radio module that easily links to the controller and it even has a backlit screen at this point I think they're just showing off as for the rest of the parts there's a wide variety of beams pins wheels gears axles corner connectors rubber bands and even double and quadruple wide beams and metal axles which are overkill in most cases all the parts are strong and good quality but the axles can be pretty and annoying because they grip either too much or not enough you can use rubber shaft collars for extra grip but that can waste a lot of space the LEGO Group solve this problem with expansion gaps on all axle holes a feature that Veck iq does not currently have to recap the super kit comes with four motors seven sensors 12 in out ports on the fully programmable brain a radio controller a rechargeable battery and 850 pieces this is all really impressive when you compare the vex IQ system to its primary competition Lego Mindstorms of which the newest iteration is eb-3 the ev3 kit comes with three motors three sensors and the brain brick has four input ports four sensors and four output ports four motors but they can't be swapped so you couldn't hook up eight motors if you wanted to and it requires double-a and triple-a batteries which are not included while the Lego Mindstorms ev3 has 550 pieces and costs 350 dollars the vex IQ super kit has 850 pieces and only costs $300 Wow that is some good value so that's the hardware let's get onto the software there are two programming options for vex IQ mod kit and robot C there are also several third-party alternatives but those are not officially supported the desktop version of mod kit is 50 bucks but the online version is fully featured and free so let's check that out first mod kit is a purely graphical programming interface based on scratch from MIT you do have to install something called mod kit link on your computer first but at least that's pretty easy you program in mod kit by connecting these various code blocks together it's pretty straightforward and if you're new to all this there are a few getting started tutorials to help you along but that's all that there is just getting started once you've gotten started the tutorials run out there are no more where are the intermediate and advanced tutorials I looked all over the place but couldn't find any now I can see that despite its simplicity mod kit does have a lot more to offer than the tutorials tell you about but without any further guidance I ended up learning mod kit through rigorous trial and error this always works but it's slow and frustrating and you're more likely to end up with gaps in your knowledge I did program a pretty cool pinball game though check out that video on channel super fun right over here I also encountered a couple of bugs and missing features the worst of which is the lack of copy paste but it was nothing game breaking unlike my experience with make block video here what move on to the more advanced programming option robots see which has a ten day free trial and after that costs 79 bucks for a single seat one important note the vex firmware updater tool that works well for mod kit is very unreliable for robots see here it looks like my firmware is updated doesn't it but it's not I had to close the dedicated firmware updater tool and download firmware through robot C instead and keep that updater tool closed because it interferes with your serial port seriously what is it with serial ports and connection problems it's frustrating anyway first up we've got the robot C graphical mode there are some great tutorials for this which seem to be pretty comprehensive it's kind of similar to market but it actually has less functionality there are no functions and no variables and like mod kit there isn't a working copy paste or undo but you can turn your graphical code straight into text-based code with the click of a button which certainly helps to smooth out the programming learning curve so let's move on to robot C's text-based mode it's worth noting at this point that vex IQ comes with a free online curriculum for students and teachers it explains all sorts of robot stuff in detail but once you get to the actual programming it just says become familiar with the programming software and doesn't bother to tell you how now there are tutorials link from the software page which I've been following but there's nothing for text-based robots c4 vex IQ so how is someone supposed to learn how to use robot C well I made some phone calls and I got an interview with local vex IQ team leader cheresa she tells me her students teach themselves first I have a problem because I'm not a programming teacher when it comes to see it's my my club that really gets involved in this and they take it kind of on their own time to learn the language and I really don't have a lot of a part of that well then it looks like I'll have to piece everything together using the online documentation the included example programs and the forums and wiki that's okay but without a dedicated tutorial to give you a solid foundation of knowledge in robots see your progress will be slower and you're more likely to end up with gaps in your knowledge at least that's been my experience one suggestion I've heard is you can just learn see itself there are plenty of tutorials and books to help you with that and then robot C will be easy yeah however you do it once you learn robot C you will have full control over your robot creations even though robot C is apparently not as full featured as C itself I was able to program some cool stuff like a PID line follower a self-parking robot and a robot that only hordes rescue robots C works pretty well but it's got some problems too the windows can get messed up especially when you enter debugging mode and the windows freaked out for a couple of seconds and you can't do anything I also encountered a bug where robot C crashed when the debugger was launched something I had to fix by deleting registry files and reinstalling also I really wish that robot C had something like the function screen tips in Microsoft Excel that kind of guidance is really useful when you're still learning to code however it looks to me like not many students will even learn to program in robot C for their vex IQ robots instead they'll learn it when they move on to the bigger badder vex edr robots which are aimed at older students in middle to high school at this point I've really come to understand that vex IQ is not really intended for individuals like myself it's been designed for teams and classrooms and it's a lot easier to learn all this stuff if you have other people around you to help you in fact there are yearly vex competitions with hundreds of participating teams something which provides an excellent environment that encourages students to learn programming engineering collaboration teamwork and so on you know it's basically a sport like basketball but for your brain brain sketball anyway considering that vex IQ is so classroom oriented sarissas perspective as an educator is particularly important for this review so I'll let her provide some concluding remarks this school board has a restriction as to like with software you can install on your computers and have a robot programming platform that is free and web-based is a call from the heaven so then you would recommend the vex IQ system for teaching controller and I kind of like an advocate for this stuff at these very eager students they had a hard time grasping programming and I feel like effects I you kind of fills in that gap for between 250 and $299 Canadian you can purchase a box that has all the pieces in it and everything necessary to build one robot with step by step instruction affordability I think it's fair so there you have it I recommend it sure is recommend it what more do you want that all being said I do have quite the laundry list of suggestions for improvements to the system ranging from nice to have to why don't you have this vex robotics has already proven that they listen to user feedback so don't be surprised if you see some of these implemented in the future as for the price I feel like $79 is a lot to ask for robots see but compared to the alternatives it's actually still competitive the vex IQ Hardware though is a steal at its current price of $300 for the super kit considering how much is included if you buy one of these just make sure that it gets used and appreciated this is not the kind of thing to be assembled and played with once and then left to collect dust on a shelf properly utilized this kit can and does provide years of fun and education and that is valuable and if you don't like robots maybe you'll like today's video sponsor ting because when you call ting you get to talk to a real person and not a machine sorry buddy ting is a mobile carrier that's focused on customer service and satisfaction first and best of all in my opinion you only pay for what you use which is really how all mobile carriers should work I mean why should anyone have to predict how much they're going to use their phone and then be punished for predicting wrong that's stupid well no more the average ting bill is only $23 a month per device but don't take my word for it head over to Linus ENCOM and try out their savings calculator to see for yourself also if you're stuck in a contract and switch the ting they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to $75 and when you sign up at our link you'll also get $25 in service credit or $25 towards a new device so go ahead and check it out thanks for watching guys and let me know your thoughts on the vex IQ system in the comments below and tell me were you ever on a robotics team or have I inspired you to join one so how do you feel about the inevitable automation of your job and the upcoming robot apocalypse let us know with a like or dislike I dislike the robot apocalypse also you can get subscribed and even support us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon buying a cool t-shirt like well one of these or with the direct monthly contribution through the community forum and if you're looking for something else to watch I suggest you check out the aforementioned bug-eating pinball challenge see you next time