Lego Mindstorms EV3 Essentials

There are several new LEGO(R) Mindstorms(R) EV3 books out now. Most of them cover the kit’s parts, some programming, and instructions on building models. One new book, Lego Mindstorms EV3 Essentials by Abid H. Mujtaba, Packt Publishing (2014). includes using leJOS programming.The first three chapters: Introducing the EV3, Sensors and Motors, EV3 Brick Programming I felt were understandable particularly for the novice to the EV3 system. I did find it curious though that he used a picture of the NXT Ultrasonic sensor to explain how the EV3 Ultrasonic (they do work the same way, the EV3 is an improvement over the NXT). The author did make a note that it was not the EV3 Ultrasonic, but if he had the Retail kit, he should have just ordered from LEGO(R) an EV3 Ultrasonic to show in the book.The remaining chapters are not for the novice, but for someone who has experience with possibly the NXT and the EV3 programming, because the book explains how to program in leJOs, the Java platform for EV3.In summation, if you are new the Mindstorms(R) system and its programming, this is not the book for you, just yet. If you are interested in learning leJOs for the EV3, then Lego Mindstorms EV3 Essentials by Abid H. Mujtaba, Packt Publishing might be a good start for you.

*The book I received was an Ebook, so I don't know about the quality of the hardcopy book*The first part of the book introduces the reader to the EV3 brick, the motors, and the sensors and focuses on the port view feature which shows you the power of the EV3. But there is something that i didn’t like about this part which is using the NXT Ultrasonic sensor to explain how the EV3 Ultrasonic sensor work, i think that this is a big drawback.The book overall focuses on programming, mainly on the On-brick programming feature and on LeJOS. But honestly, if we talk about the On-brick programming feature then i’m going to say, it’s LIMITED, that’s why i prefer using the graphical programming environment on your computer. Also, Linux and LeJOS is not that common so if you are a normal Mac or Windows user then it’s totally not for you. So we can say that the book is completely not for beginners. I’m not going to talk about LeJOS or that on the last chapter, you will make only a line-following program. I’m not experienced in all of that.And if we talk about “Creating” part, the hall book doesn’t come with a new robot building instructions, because you’ll build TRACK3R and you’ll program it. We can say that most of the people(Especially young people) search for a book that comes up with new EV3 robots building instructions, and in actually I’m one of them because i want to learn mechanisms and i can see that the EV3 Graphical programming fits my need perfectly.Overall, if you are experienced in LeJOS and Linux then this book is good for you(but not very much). if not, then I don’t recommend you to get it.

Before going into the contents of this book, I'd like to highlight that the digital version of the book is available in several formats: PDF, ePub, MOBI and Kindle, so you can read the book in the format that best fits the device you use at any time. I cannot say anything about the physical book as I have not had it in my hands. As can be expected, the programs that appear in the book can also be downloaded from the publisher's websiteThe subtitle of the book "Create and program complex autonomous robots using the third generation Lego Mindstorms kit" doesn't provide many clues as to the contents, but promises an interesting book.The quality of the book left me with a strange sensation: the intention to make a quality book is evident, but there are curious details that are hard to explain. For starters, the cover: what is the relationship to LEGO MINDSTORMS? Other books show one or more of the creations contained it it, but in this case the reason why that isn't so quickly becomes evident as will be seen further down. In second place, not using capitals for the brand and theme name is , to say the least, curious. The choice of font in the PDF version is also poor. I don't know if the font is easier to read in the printed version, but in the PDF it is almost as if the letters were blurry.Two things stand out regarding the contents of this book: First, there are no instructions for any new robots - the book uses the EV3 TRACK3R from the EV3 Retail version (31313) as its testing platform. Secondly, after providing a short overview of the EV3, the motors and sensors (the building elements are briefly mentioned on a single page) and the on-brick programming environment, the book turns out to be a LeJOS primer. Chapters 4, 5 y 6 complete a project to program a line following robot, after which there is an appendix about the MAKE utility and another short one about IDEs for LeJOS.The discordance between the title of the book and its contents is surprising. Calling a line follower a "complex autonomous robot" is quite the exaggeration and not indicating the fact that the book is really about LeJOS on the front page is also inexcusable.Having said that, the book does have its merit for those who are looking for a LeJOS primer, provided your OS of choice is Linux. If you use Windows or Macyou are on your own.