Good building platform for robotics/mobiles?

Projects General Guidance
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I know there are Arduino kits for building robotic mobile vehicles, etc. But I'm interested in building organically. I was thinking a Lego style build would be cool, and would allow modifications to happen easily. Does anyone have experience using any cheaper Lego alternatives? What other building platforms would you recommend?

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You will need to explain that a bit. I see lots of organic stuff in the grocery store, but never considered mechanical stuff as being organic.

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Ha! I figure if I have a Lego-like platform, I can build anything, any shape or size my projects need. I have lots of electronic pieces, motors and sensors, at my disposal. I'm confident I can build my own "cars" as I learn. This, unlike a prepackaged kit you "assemble by numbers".

I don't want to pay the Lego tax, so am looking for alternative ideas, similar to Lego, or not.

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Have you considered a home machine shop? Can do wonders with metal!

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With the Arduino ecosystem, you can go as granular as you like. You are not limited to just using kits or libraries.

You can create your own library instead of using one that has been made by someone else. You can write to the microcontroller registers directly in parts of your program.

You can make your own electronic designs that control motors or servos, make patterns with LEDs, etc, and then write the appropriate program to control them.

The good thing about the Arduino system is that it allows you to start slowly and gradually dive deeper. In fact many other MCUs have the ability to be programmed in the Arduino system, such as the ESP32, the STM32 series, etc.

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My garage space is shared between my hand-tool woodworking, and storage. I really don't have room for more machinery! I know, you're thinking ... woodworking, just make a car out of wood! But for this, I want to keep as modular as possible, and make changes quickly and easily as needed.

Thanks for the response, but I'm talking about physical platforms.

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Sorry, my mistake. It was under Using Arduino/Project Guidance :grin:

Don't know of cheaper Lego alternatives for building robotic vehicles. They all tend to be designed for more rugged use than Lego.
If you want to have some ideas, check out ServoCity. Get some ideas from there, and buy some parts/make some parts

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