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Comment by codeflo | Hacker News Reader

Slightly off-topic, but I was recently very disappointed to learn that Lego Mindstorms was discontinued some time ago without replacement. It’s such a shame that hardly modifiable licensed IP shovelware sets are now by far the most profitable product lines for Lego. Supposedly that’s true in Asian markets in particular. The kinds of sets we grew up with that inspire creativity and technical understanding are at best kept as a niche, at worst abandoned.

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For what it's worth, it seems like "lego spike prime" is effectively equivalent to mindstorms, in that it includes a programmable brick that can connect to multiple motors, sensors, and can be programmed in a scratch-like environment.

I don't know why there was a branding change, but the capabilities seem pretty similar to the RCX I had as a child. Though programming over bluetooth is likely to be more reliable than the IR adapter.

All the current motors are very controllable (absolute position, speed, etc).

They can be hooked up to:

- A battery box, with simple buttons.

- A hub, controlled via bluetooth (protocol is documented, and there are some libraries).

- A hub that can be programmed (spike).

- A raspberry pi, with an official hat (build hat). This also comes with a python library.

I'm actually pretty happy with these motors. The only downside is that the technic sets are meant to be controlled with an app.

Yes, i learned this recently as well and was devastated. A very core part of my journey to becoming an engineer.

> recently very disappointed

Here too. Apparently the components are scattered through the education-oriented Spike Prime sets. If you can stomach the kid-oriented colors, that’s the best route to recreating childhood Mindstorms robots.

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