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Update: The book is out now! Go here for a more recent post. The original announcement is below:
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A lot of you have been asking about my new book and rumors were spreading fast, but now it’s official! I’m working on a new book about EV3! It’s got everything you loved about the NXT 2.0 Discovery Book, and more. It comes with instructions for 6 completely new EV3 robots, complete hands-on coverage of the EV3 software, and over 150 building and programming challenges.
Best of all, the book will be in full color to make building and programming much easier!
I started working on this book more than a year ago, and it’s been a lot of fun creating new robots and writing about the EV3. Because we decided to print this book in full color, it’s going to take a while before it’s out (June 2014), but it will be worth the wait. You can pre-order the book from the publisher (Use coupon code DISCOVER to get 30% off!). Amazon is taking pre-orders as well. You’ll get more updates along the way, so stay tuned.
Here’s the back cover copy text:
LEGO MINDSTORMS has changed the way we think about robotics by making it possible for anyone to build real, working robots. The latest MINDSTORMS set, EV3, is more powerful than ever, and The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book is the complete, beginner-friendly guide you need to get started.
Begin with the basics as you build and program a simple robot to experiment with motors, sensors, and EV3 programming. Then you’ll move on to a series of increasingly sophisticated robots that will show you how to work with advanced programming techniques like data wires, variables, and custom-made programming blocks. You’ll also learn essential building techniques like how to use beams, gears, and connector blocks effectively in your own designs.
Master the possibilities of the EV3 set as you build and program:
- The EXPLOR3R, a wheeled vehicle that uses sensors to navigate around a room and follow lines
- The FORMULA EV3 RACE CAR, a streamlined remote-controlled race car
- ANTY, a six-legged walking creature that adapts its behavior to its surroundings
- SK3TCHBOT, a robot that lets you play games on the EV3 screen
- The SNATCH3R, a robotic arm that can autonomously find, grab, lift, and move the infrared beacon
- LAVA R3X, a humanoid robot that walks and talks
More than 150 building and programming challenges throughout encourage you to think creatively and apply what you’ve learned to invent your own robots. With The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book as your guide, you’ll be building your own out-of-this-world creations in no time!
About the Author
Laurens Valk is a member of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners, a select group of MINDSTORMS enthusiasts who help test and develop new MINDSTORMS products. One of his robot designs is featured on the EV3 packaging as a bonus project. His previous work, the best-selling LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book, introduced tens of thousands of beginners worldwide to the powerful world of LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics. He blogs about robots at robotsquare.com.
Requirements: One LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 set (LEGO SET #31313)
Congratulations for your book, I’ll be waiting for it, I live in Mexico and build robots it’s a hobby for my kids and me, even we teach other children to build robots, and your books have been very usefull for me, I’ve just imported and lego mindstorm ev 3 and now I’m starting with it.
Thanks, Ricardo! (Tell your kids I said hello!)
Sure!!!
thanks ricardo @itsunikitty next
Congras to you, Laurens,i will going to buy your book as soon as posibble.
Thanks Paul 🙂
I want to preorder the book right now. 20.96 dollars is a really good price.
But adding 23.95 dollars for USPS shipping is too much (because USPS is unreliable). Is there a Dutch or European website that accepts orders ? I mean, you are in Europe right ?
cheers,
paul
(not the Paul from the previous post btw)
Thanks Paul. Amazon pages should start taking pre-orders next week or so. Amazon Germany might not charge for shipping, but do check to be sure.
If you’re in NL I can probably get you a signed copy once the book is out next year.
Confirmed, amazon.de does not charge for shipping.
I placed the order at 21.12 euro, thanks Laurens!
Fantastic – that’s a pretty good price.
Thanks for the early support, I really appreciate it.
From amazon: ”
Guten Tag,
wir möchten Ihnen hiermit mitteilen, dass wir Ihre Bestellung versandt haben.”
I am hoping for tomorrow, but it ‘ll probably be Monday.
I just received it, very good book, thank you!
Any idea when NXC,NBC will be released for the EV3 ? Will John Hansen (or you) write a book similar to ‘Power Programming the NXT’ ? The brixcc website has no updates since last year 🙁
paul
Thanks Paul.
I don’t know if NXC will get an EV3 update, but there are alternatives as well. I recently made two blog posts about ev3dev, for example.
Laurens, congratulations on your new soon to be released book. I am looking forward to it. I have purchased many copies of your NXT Discovery book and it has been useful to teach students on NXT building and programming.June 2014 may be a bit too long. Can you released it in parts in e-book format.
Thanks Kim! The Ebook may come out sooner. We’ll see 🙂
HI i want to pre order for this book.
I had education pack, will this book can cover for this pack?
thanks for your reply 🙂 cheer
Hi Bukhory,
You will need additional pieces so you can build the robots. Here is a list of the pieces you’ll need to upgrade from Education edition to Home edition:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yEFujCvZp1yX__1D4gu4_4lX7kDwcavNncN4QV5hu4k/edit
Will there also be a Dutch translation?
I would like to have a Dutch version, but there are no plans yet.
when is its relese date?
Yes! I want one!
Hi Laurens,
I have a question. It is not specifically about this book, but also about the NXT 2.0 Discovery Book.
Do you build the robots before you write the book, and when you’re going to write the book, you make the instructions and info?
Or are all the robots in the book special made for the book?
I hope you understand my question, and that you soon can answer it.
That is different for every robot, but the answer is actually a combination of both. I designed these robots specifically for this book, but I started working on these robots much earlier.
In fact, I created the first prototype of LAVA R3X back in the summer of 2012, using prototypes of EV3 hardware (!) Then I redesigned it at least 5 times to improve it for use in this book.
Will be relised Polish language version of your new book?
released no “relised”
no more discount for preorder?
You can pre-order the book from the publisher. Use coupon code DISCOVER to get 30% off.
Thanks ordered now..
Thank you!
According to Amazon, the discount code is no longer valid… 🙁
The discount code is valid if you order from the publisher (http://nostarch.com/ev3discovery). If you buy the book there, you get the ebook free as well.
Another question: How can I use my name as a link if i put a comment on this site? I hope you can answer! (sorry, this is a non-topic question, but I hope you can answer 🙂 )
You can’t. I disabled that, because spammers used it all the time. 🙂
But Can I have a picture?
hi,
i just pre-ordered the e-book. when do you think you will be able to release the book for download?
thx
Hi Eyal,
Perhaps a little earlier – say April/May 2014. I’m nearly done writing, but we have very high quality control at my publisher. The work will go through many stages of review before we compile it into an ebook and send it to the printer. That’s a good thing, in my opinion 🙂
Best,
Laurens
Do you must be an official member of the LEGO Group to write a MINDSTORMS book?
No, you just need to make good stuff.
We just got the EV3 Home edition. I ordered the GYRO from Lego & I just pre-ordered from no-starch. Can’t wait for your book and your gyro EV3 Balancing Robot AnyWay program !
We’re VERY impressed with your knowledge!
Thanks Barry – I appreciate your support!
Will there also be a Polish translation?
There is a Polish translation for the NXT Discovery Book. Maybe you can write to the publisher (Helion) to ask if they will translate the new EV3 Discovery Book too?
Hi Laurens! Is this book for the retail or education version? The cover looks like retail 😉 I already have Danielle’s book and this one looks like another great buy.
It’s for the retail version, but education users can learn lots from it too 🙂
Thanks, I’ll place an order then.
Amazon advanced the order by 20 days. Yippee! 🙂
😀
So, Laurens. I kinda like your robots. But I do not think it is worth buying the whole book just for the instructions. I want to get into a different programming language that uses coding, not graphics. And like, half of the book is about the programming in the Ev3’s programming language. So can you provide instructions separately than the book? That would be nice. Though I don’t know how you would get money though.
Sorry about the previous response – I was thinking you were asking about the NXT book, but it was only your username 🙂
Indeed, this book covers the EV3 programming software in detail, because it’s a great language for people getting started with programming.
The robot project chapters do not just provide instructions to build and program them, but they also discuss how it all actually works. So, you can use the presented algorithms and implement them in your favorite programming language, if that’s your cup of tea.
In fact, this can be a great way to get ideas for programs to make in other languages. If you can expand the SNATCH3R design from this book with your programming language, all the while having it post its sensor data to Twitter using WiFi, I’d say go for it 🙂
Laurens
I’ve the NXT book, and when you don’t look to the programming information, it’s still a good book. It tells good how to use the hardware, and the robots give tips for other robots (example: I used the arm of the snatcher for a humanoid). Behind all the information, the book gives ideas (discoveries) for new robots.
I’m sure the EV3 book works the same.
Hi, I would like to verify that this book is meant for home set #31313?
Thanks.
If Laurens was making it for the Education set or something he would probably say so, also if you look at some other comments you’ll notice that other people refer to the home set in their comments and questions. This is a tip to everybody though.
I am really into Lego, robots, and Mindstorms, but I can’t afford NXT, or EV3, but I have gotten the NXT discovery book and hope to get the EV3 discovery book as well as the set.
OMG I’ll be waiting I’ve got 70 EV3 sets and I don’t no a single thing but again, will it be available in China, Hong Kong SAR because there’s no Amazon bookstore here. Please tell me!
Yeah, it should be available. Maybe you can order from the publisher directly, or ask a book store in your city to order it for you?
Hi Laurens. Any update on the release date of the book? I will be travelling to the Netherlands end of June and hope to get a copy of it. Any brick and mortar bookshop you can recommend? Congrats on the release of the book btw.
While it’s a bit unusual in the book publishing business, it’s actually going to be released a bit sooner than planned 🙂
The publisher is located in the US, so it should be in US stores in June. I don’t think Dutch resellers will carry it that quickly since it has to be shipped from overseas.
However, I might have a few copies at hand by then. I could try sending you one of the first signed copies… how’s that? 😀
Wow, first few signed copy?! That will be really great!!! I will definitely keep monitoring this space till end of June. Now I have one more reason to look forward to my travelling to your beautiful country! Thanks in advance. 🙂
Drop me a (email) message when you travel just so I don’t miss it 🙂 Again, hoping I’ll have my copies by then.
Sure, will do that!
I saw on your homepage that you have received the first copy of the book, congrats! Looks good!
My travel plan has been confirmed. I will reach the Netherland on 20 Jun. Do you think you will have any spare copy by then that I can purchase from you?
How do I communicate with you?
Really appreciate you spending time replying all the queries here. Cheers!
flyfoxx,
Those were pictures I got from the publisher. I didn’t get my books yet, sorry 🙂
Please drop me a message through the contact page. (See top right menu on this page)
What are the seven robots?
Will you include an A4 printer? I know about the BANN3R PRINT3R, but it seems fitting… and I could make it write my homework!
*Is there a printer?
Just pre ordered your book. Really looking forwards to it coming – it should arrive about the same time as my 31313 and my kids and I can’t wait:-)
Thanks for all your help on the forum.
Great to hear that, Thanks Mike!
I can’t wait either — I’m excited to see the book in print 😀
I’m sorry about your computer, esepliacly since you where writing another Maya adventure book! I’ve never had a problem with Dell, maybe that’s because I’ve never had a Dell. I’ve had a Toshiba for three years and it still runs like new (aside from a rather full hard drive). The only downside about Toshiba is that they are a tad bit more expensive. Supposedly the problems with the NVIDIA G86 comes from overheating problems. I hope that you will at least get your money refunded, and hopefully get your computer fixed.
When will the book be avail? I would like to purchase, but Amazon says it’s not released yet.
I don’t really have an exact date, but I think the books have finished printing by now. It just takes a little while before they arrive at Amazon and other places. Hopefully it will be available in the next two weeks or so.
Amazon Germany estimates that the books will be delivered at my place (Belgium) August 6th or 7th.
Thanks for the response. I think we’ll soon have a more accurate estimate. I think last time Amazon Germany followed Amazon.com pretty quickly. I’m hoping it will be sooner — let’s wait and see 🙂
Ich wollte mir ein buch zulegen aber mein Vater sagt dass ich für Ev3 schon genug ausgegeben habe. 🙁
Kann man das mir nicht schenken.
in the book it has a link to dis site for a program. but I don’t see the program,can you pleas help??
sorry for my spelling 🙁