I am new here.
My son took a robotics camp over the summer and his coach recommended we foster his talents. He recommended the Edison robot kit as a start for him. I have been trying to find out what type of tablet or laptop is best recommended for programming. I also want to make sure I order him everything he needs to start. Any suggestions would be appreciated
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Hi,
I donât really know anything about the Edison robot kit so I canât say much specific. I can give some tips on what to look for in a computer to do development work. You donât mention how old your son is and that may play a role if he is very young. But if he routinely uses a computer it shouldnât make much difference.
The first thing I recommend is that you get a laptop and not a tablet. The tablet may seem more convenient, but the more serious he gets about creating robots the more useful the laptop will be.
Second, donât get one of the bottom of the line laptops that has the eMMC âhard driveâ of around 32 GigaBytes. Get one that has an actual hard disk drive of about 500 GigaBytes. Much of the software he will find useful will take a lot of space. One of those small ones will not hold much at all. Along with that, the small ones often have slow processors and only 2 Gigabytes of RAM. You should have at least 4 GigaBytes. More than 4 isnât bad, but not really necessary.
Third, get a Windows laptop. There are others, especially Chromebooks, but the vast majority of interesting software uses Windows.
Fourth, a high resolution display is good. A lot of the interesting software is very visually oriented. Almost all the professional software developers I know use at least two full sized monitors to hold all the stuff they want to see at once. A higher resolution display allows more things to be kept visible at all times. I assume your son, being young, has decent eyesight. Iâm old and so I donât. I need LARGE displays to see them well. In his case a physically large display probably isnât necessary. A larger display usually also means a larger computer, so it is slightly less convenient. A lot of laptops allow external displays to be attached. Sometimes two. That is a good feature to look for, but certainly not required.
And fifth, USB ports. Get a laptop that has AT LEAST two USB ports. Most robots and peripherals and all the other things he will want to attach will need USB ports. An external hub can be attached, but that is somewhat inconvenient, especially with a portable laptop. More USB ports is better.
To sum up, a Windows laptop with about a 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, a fairly high-resolution display, and several USB ports. Quite a few machines that will serve quite well are available in the $300 to $500 range.
As I mentioned, I donât know anything about the Edison kit. So I donât know what else might be needed for that specifically. Perhaps someone who does can help out with that.
I hope this is helpful.
my son is 10 years old
thank you for your recommendations
oldguy pretty much said it all. Windows (7/8/10) is by far the most popular operating system when it comes to robotic software, and USB ports are needed. Also second the opinion that a laptop is preferable to a tablet as more of a long-term investment, HOWEVER, many robotics education products have apps which are meant for Android tablets and NOT for laptops, whereas actual programming languages are meant for Laptops and desktops. You indicated heâs 10 years old, so a tablet may be preferable, though if he were 13 or 14+, a laptop would be better suited.
The choice of robotic project to start with depends on your budget. The kit is arguably more important than the computer if thatâs what determines if he remains interested in robotics. The Edison robot is a great kit for programming, and you can add LEGO compatible parts, but itâs not a development platform.
Consider something like VEX IQ:
https://www.robotshop.com/en/vex-iq-construction-kits.html
Itâs a bit more of an investment, but has design and construction along with programming.
MakeBlock is also popular and heâs almost at the correct age. Ex:
Itâs very hard to go wrong with LEGO Mindstorms:
Hope this gives you some ideas. More under robots for high school students:
https://www.robotshop.com/en/robots-high-schools.html
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