Book Review: LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Essentials
Packt publishing has recently entered the list of publishing houses that carry books about LEGO. So far they have a single title related to the EV3, but a second title is scheduled to be released in January.
The first title is "Lego Mindstorms EV3 Essentials". 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 website
The 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, and 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. If you use Windows or Mac you are on your own.
The next EV3 book announced by Packt Publishing is has an equally generic title: "Learning LEGO Mindstorms EV3—Build and create interactive, sensor-based robots using your LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit" but is from a different author. I am curious to see how the LEGO adventure of this new publishing house develops.
2119
