Advanced NXT: The Da Vinci Inventions Book (Technology in Action) [Paperback]

Paul Matthias Scholz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590598431 | ISBN-13: 978-1590598436 | Publication Date: June 27, 2007 | Edition: 1

The popularity of NXT and the success of The Da Vinci Code book and movie are combined in this fascinating book. Projects for building and programming five of Leonardo’s most famous inventions are covered in detail: the Tank, the Helicopter, the Catapult, the Flying Machine, and the Revolving Bridge.

This book is written for serious NXT programmers and covers the most popular programming environments available today. The book is abundantly illustrated and includes sample code and countless "best practices" strategies.

Advanced NXT: The Da Vinci Inventions Book complements Apress’ successful line of Mindstorms books by providing advanced programming techniques in a rich historical context.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"This book describes how to mechanize in Lego five designs by Leonardo da Vinci. The book starts with a short and engaging introduction to Leonardo da Vinci and his work, including pictures of the original drawings of some of his designs. … Overall, the book is clear and well written. … The step-by-step instructions for building the different designs are relatively easy to follow for people who are not novices with Lego parts." (M. Gini, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (12), December, 2008)

About the Author

Matthias Scholz is a member of the LEGO Mindstorms Community Partners Program. His NXT-related Web site, http://mynxt.matthiaspaulscholz.eu, is extremely popular. He is also a frequent contributor to the well-known NXT blog, http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/. He majored in Mathematics at the University of Bayreuth and has held various positions in German IT enterprises.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (June 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590598431
• ISBN-13: 978-1590598436
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relating Old and New, December 9, 2007

By 

Todd Vaules "TV" (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Advanced NXT: The Da Vinci Inventions Book (Technology in Action) (Paperback)

Just the idea behind this book makes it worth purchasing. Taking the ideas of one of the greatest minds in history and applying it to a brilliant robotic platform is genius. Relating the robots to Da Vinci's designs is a great learning experience for old and young. My 8 year-old is becoming quite a fan of Leonardo due to the use of this book.

The bots in the book are great, and the potential for extensibility is even greater. There are quite a few new NXT books out this year and this is definitely one of best especially if you are interested in tying the evolution of physics and mechanization to modern technology.

I highly recommend this book. If you are running a Lego Mindstorms team or teaching robotics using the NXT platform, do yourself a favor and pick up this book, it's a great way to enhance your curriculum.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad pictures, November 18, 2007

By 

Daniel Brillhart - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Advanced NXT: The Da Vinci Inventions Book (Technology in Action) (Paperback)

I have enjoyed many of the books in this series, but was severely disappointed when I got this one. The ideas are great - and would be really useful to my students, if the pictures that accompanied them were in any way able to be seen clearly. I tried and failed to build several of the models after my students all expressed frustration at trying to figure out what was being portrayed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars hard to read, December 23, 2007

By 

Lucy A. Condon "Lucy Condon" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Advanced NXT: The Da Vinci Inventions Book (Technology in Action) (Paperback)

There are some great ideas in this book but the pictures for construction are not that clear, with pieces hidden behind other pieces. Directions are for the more advanced of Lego's Robot builders. If you already know what you are doing, you can jump right in and go to it. For the novice or the beginner its next to impossible. I love the Da Vinci connection but clean up the photographs so that more people can take advantage of the idea.