VEX IQ Super Kit - Do you want to build a robot?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
2,969 words · ~14 min read
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You asked and I'm delivering more robotics videos. Today we've got the VEX
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IQ Super Kit from VEX Robotics. VEXIQ was introduced about 2 years ago and
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it's chiefly targeted at elementary to middle school students. For those of you
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who don't know what this is all about, robotics kits like the ones from Tetris,
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Makeblock, Mindstorms, and Vex are basically educational toys sort of. I
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mean, they're not exactly toys, but I don't know what else to call them. you
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won't really be able to build a practical, useful robot that will dress
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you in the morning or vacuum your floor or cook you dinner. That's not really
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the point. The purpose of these robotics kits, as far as I can tell, is the
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enormous amount of educational value that they provide while still being a
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ton of fun. When you build with this stuff, you're learning a huge amount
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about mechanical engineering and programming. And there is so much to
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learn. So, let's dig in and see what the VEX IQ system has to offer. And hit that
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like button if you want to see more robotics videos in the future.
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The Logitech G303 features a lightweight design, an advanced optical sensor with
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Delta 0ero technology for precise tracking, and RGB lighting to match your
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setup. Click now to learn more. So, if you want to get started with a
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VEX IQ robot, you've basically got three choices. There's the starter kit with a
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radio remote control and two touch sensors. There's the starter kit with no
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remote control, but it has seven sensors. Then there's the super kit,
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which has the remote control and the seven sensors, but is $50 more, which I
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think is well worth it. That's the kit I'll be reviewing today. It comes with
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850 parts, which you can use to build and program pretty much any kind of
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robot you can imagine, and there are instructions for several models to get
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you started. The learning ceiling is surprisingly high while still being easy
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enough for beginners to get started with, but we'll talk more about that later. So, opening up the box, we see,
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hey, what's this? It comes with its own storage bin and a compartmentalized
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tray, 50 points to Gryffindor. That's great. There's plenty of extra room to
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allow your collection of VEX parts to grow. You can even fit a second tray
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above the first one. Looks like you won't be needing to take any trips down
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to the Container Store, which is actually a cooler place than it sounds.
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Anyway, the VEX IQ kit comes with a getting started guide, two instructional
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booklets, and a poster with all of the pieces at 1:1 scale for reference
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purposes. Next, we get to the included sensors. Oh yes, these are awesome.
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There are seven in total, and they're all small and easy to mount anywhere
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onto your robot. We've got two bumper switches. These will let your robot know
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when it's run into something. There is an ultrasonic distance sensor. These use
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echolocation to measure distances to objects. That's always fun. And there's
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a light and color sensor, useful for line following, detecting colors, and
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measuring ambient brightness. And then my favorite, the gyro sensor, which
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measures turn rates and angles, very useful for orientation. There are also
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two touch LEDs, which I don't really think of as sensors. They can't really
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be used as extra bumper switches. They're more like extra buttons. Each
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one also has fully programmable RGB LEDs, which I've always found to be very
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useful for debugging and knowing where you are in a program. Then we get to the
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smart motors, and guess what? There are four of them. And they're all pretty
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powerful, too. Not only that, but they're easy to mount, not too bulky or
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oddly shaped, and they all have encoders and microprocessors inside to measure
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all sorts of cool stuff. You can even install them without having to worry
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about damage. Next up, we've got the radio controller, which is great, but it
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could be better. It feels kind of cheap and the buttons are a bit soggy,
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especially the shoulder buttons, which rotate as they press inward rather than
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going in straight. Also, my left joystick has a bit of a problem. It
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doesn't go all the way to the left. I've been told that this is a known issue
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which has been fixed in the most recent batch. I recalibrated mine for full
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functionality, but VEX says they're glad to do RMAs if customers aren't happy.
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Despite this, the controller is functionally excellent, and it
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definitely is still worth getting. The two joysticks give you proportional
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control in every direction, and on top of that, you've got eight buttons, and
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it's all fully programmable and customizable in software. It also comes
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with a 50hour rechargeable battery. And did I mention it's radiocontrolled?
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That's a big deal. Unlike infrared, with radio, you don't need line of sight to
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your robot, so you won't get easily disconnected. Compare this to the
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Mindstorm's EV3 infrared beacon with five buttons, but no joysticks, and the
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Tetricx gamepad with two joysticks, but no buttons. And now we get to the
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centerpiece of the VEX IQ system, the fully programmable robot brain. This is
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where you connect all of your sensors and motors using the included RJ12
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cables. This thing has 12 serial ports that can be used as input or output. So
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yeah, if you wanted to, you could hook up 12 motors. The brain also comes with
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its own rechargeable battery, so there's no need to periodically sacrifice
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several at a time to the robot gods. There's also a spot for the radio module
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that easily links to the controller, and it even has a backlit screen. At this
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point, I think they're just showing off. As for the rest of the parts, there's a
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wide variety of beams, pins, wheels, gears, axles, corner connectors, rubber
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bands, and even double and quadruple wide beams, and metal axles, which are
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overkill in most cases. All the parts are strong and good quality, but the
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axles can be pretty annoying because they grip either too much or not enough.
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You can use rubber shaft collars for extra grip, but that can waste a lot of
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space. The LEGO Group solved this problem with expansion caps on all axle
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holes, a feature that VEX IQ does not currently have. To recap, the Super Kit
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comes with four motors, seven sensors, 12 in ports on the fully programmable
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brain, a radio controller, a rechargeable battery, and 850 pieces.
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This is all really impressive when you compare the VEX IQ system to its primary
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competition, LEGO Mindstorms, of which the newest iteration is EV3. The EV3 kit
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comes with three motors, three sensors, and the Brain Brick has four input ports
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for sensors and four output ports for motors, but they can't be swapped, so
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you couldn't hook up eight motors if you wanted to. And it requires double A and
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AAA batteries, which are not included. While the LEGO Mindtorms EV3 has 550
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pieces and costs $350, the VEX IQ Super
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Kit has 850 pieces and only costs $300.
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Wow, that is some good value. So, that's the hardware. Let's get on to the
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software. There are two programming options for VEX IQ, ModKit and Robot C.
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There are also several third-party alternatives, but those are not
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officially supported. The desktop version of Modkit is 50 bucks, but the
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online version is fully featured and free, so let's check that out first.
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Modkit is a purely graphical programming interface based on Scratch from MIT. You
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do have to install something called Modkit Link on your computer first, but
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at least that's pretty easy. You program in Modkit by connecting these various
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code blocks together. It's pretty straightforward. And if you're new to
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all this, there are a few getting started tutorials to help you along. But
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that's all that there is, just getting started. Once you've gotten started, the
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tutorials run out. There are no more. Where are the intermediate and advanced
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tutorials? I looked all over the place, but couldn't find any. Now, I can see
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that despite its simplicity, Modkit does have a lot more to offer than the
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tutorials tell you about. But without any further guidance, I ended up
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learning Modkit through rigorous trial and error. This always works, but it's
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slow and frustrating, and you're more likely to end up with gaps in your
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knowledge. I did program a pretty cool pinball game, though. Check out that
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video on Channel Super Fun right over here. I also encountered a couple of
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bugs and missing features, the worst of which is the lack of copy paste, but it
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was nothing gamebreaking, unlike my experience with Makeb block video here.
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Let's move on to the more advanced programming option, Robot C, which has a
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10-day free trial and after that costs 79 bucks for a single seat. One
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important note, the VEX firmware updater tool that works well for Modkit is very
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unreliable for robot C. Here it looks like my firmware is updated, doesn't it?
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But it's not. I had to close the dedicated firmware updator tool and
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download firmware through robot C instead and keep that updater tool
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closed because it interferes with your serial port. Seriously, what is it with
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serial ports and connection problems? It's frustrating. Anyway, first up,
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we've got the robot C graphical mode. There are some great tutorials for this,
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which seem to be pretty comprehensive. It's kind of similar to Modkit, but it
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actually has less functionality. There are no functions and no variables. And
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like Modkit, there isn't a working copy paste or undo. But you can turn your
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graphical code straight into textbased code with the click of a button, which
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certainly helps to smooth out the programming learning curve. So, let's
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move on to Robot C's textbased mode. It's worth noting at this point that
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VEXIQ comes with a free online curriculum for students and teachers. It
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explains all sorts of robot stuff in detail, but once you get to the actual
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programming, it just says become familiar with the programming software
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and doesn't bother to tell you how. Now, there are tutorials linked from the
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software page, which I've been following, but there's nothing for textbased robot C for VEX IQ. So, how is
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someone supposed to learn how to use robot C? Well, I made some phone calls
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and I got an interview with local VEX IQ team leader Sharissa. She tells me her
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students teach themselves. There's even curriculum in BC for learning C. That's
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where I have a problem because I'm not a programming teacher. when it comes to C,
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it's my my club that really gets involved in this and they take it kind
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of on their own time to learn the language and I really don't have a lot
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of a part of that. Well, then it looks like I'll have to piece everything
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together using the online documentation, the included example programs and the
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forums and wiki. That's okay, but without a dedicated tutorial to give you
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a solid foundation of knowledge in robot C, your progress will be slower and
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you're more likely to end up with gaps in your knowledge. At least that's been my experience. One suggestion I've heard
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is that you can just learn C itself. There are plenty of tutorials and books
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to help you with that and then robot C will be easy. However you do it, once
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you learn robot C, you will have full control over your robot creations, even
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though robot C is apparently not as fullfeatured as C itself. I was able to
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program some cool stuff like a PID line follower, a self-parking robot, and a
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robot that only hoards red cubes. Robot C works pretty well, but it's got some
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problems, too. the Windows can get messed up, especially when you enter
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debugging mode and the Windows freak out for a couple of seconds and you can't do
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anything. I also encountered a bug where robot C crashed when the debugger was
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launched, something I had to fix by deleting registry files and
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reinstalling. Also, I really wish that Robot C had something like the function
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screen tips in Microsoft Excel. That kind of guidance is really useful when
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you're still learning to code. However, it looks to me like not many students
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will even learn to program in robot C for their VEX IQ robots. Instead,
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they'll learn it when they move on to the bigger batter VEX edr robots, which
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are aimed at older students in middle to high school. At this point, I've really
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come to understand that VEX IQ is not really intended for individuals like
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myself. It's been designed for teams and classrooms, and it's a lot easier to
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learn all this stuff if you have other people around you to help you. In fact,
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there are yearly VEX competitions with hundreds of participating teams.
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Something which provides an excellent environment that encourages students to
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learn programming, engineering, collaboration, teamwork, and so on. You
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know, it's basically a sport like basketball, but for your brain.
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Brainball. Anyway, considering that VEX IQ is so
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classroom oriented, Sherissa's perspective as an educator is
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particularly important for this review. So, I'll let her provide some concluding
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remarks. the school board has a restriction as to like what software you
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can install on your computers. So to have a robot programming platform that
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is free and web- based is a call from the heaven. So then you would recommend
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the VEX IQ system for teaching kids. Yeah. And um I kind of like an advocate
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for this stuff. I have these very eager students. They had a hard time grasping
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programming and I feel like VEX IQ kind
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of fills in that gap. For between $250 and $299 Canadian, you can purchase a
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box that has all the pieces in it and everything necessary to build one robot
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with the construction affordability. I think it's totally there. So, there you
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have it. I recommend it. Sharesa recommends it. What more do you want?
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That all being said, I do have quite the laundry list of suggestions for
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improvements to the system, ranging from nice to have to why don't you have this?
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VEX Robotics has already proven that they listen to user feedback, so don't
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be surprised if you see some of these implemented in the future. As for the
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price, I feel like $79 is a lot to ask
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for Robot C. But compared to the alternatives, it's actually still
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competitive. The VEX IQ hardware though is a steal at its current price of $300
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for the super kit, considering how much is included. If you buy one of these,
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just make sure that it gets used and appreciated. This is not the kind of
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thing to be assembled and played with once and then left to collect dust on a
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shelf. Properly utilized, this kit can and does provide years of fun and
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education. And that is valuable.
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Thanks for watching, guys, and let me know your thoughts on the VEX IQ system
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in the comments below. And tell me, were you ever on a robotics team or have I
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inspired you to join one? Also, how do you feel about the inevitable automation
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of your job and the upcoming robot apocalypse? Let us know with a like or
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dislike. I dislike the robot apocalypse.
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Also, you can get subscribed and even support us directly by using our
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or with a direct monthly contribution through the community forum. And if
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you're looking for something else to watch, I suggest you check out the aforementioned bug eating pinball
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challenge. See you next time.