Today, I've been working on #WebPBrick again. One thing is input validation - which is where I've made progress. The second thing was working on support for the #LEGO USB IR tower... this thing is giving me headaches, though. It seems that using the USB TX endpoint works... the IR tower also receives data which can be seen in the statistics - but the USB RX endpoint stays silent. Will have to do some logic analyzer measurements in the future, I guess. Are there any spare #Mindstorms #RCX around?
#Mindstorms
@heiseonline Was für ein unnötiger Scheiß! Bringt doch einfach #MINDSTORMS wieder zurück ihr 🤬🤬🤬
@IrrationalMethod I've also been trying my old #Mindstorms set with my daughter a few weeks ago. The built in programs still worked. My IR sender seems to be broken, but maybe fixable. The connectors still work, but are in bad shape. Let me know if you have found a good method of protecting them. (Maybe taping is good enough?)
I guess you're aware of this project? http://webpbrick.com/
The author, @maehw, also has some valuable slides in German: https://www.luga.de/static/LIT-2024/assets/talks/20240420_LEGO_Mindstorms_RCX_reaktivieren__Entwick.pdf
Well I had planned to introduce my kid to my old Lego motors, and eventually #Mindstorms kit, but discovered my #LEGO wires (1990s era) were all losing their insulation.
So, having looked a bit online, I found a few pages detailing how to repair these and just gave it a try. I'll have to write up a bit more on a blog post with thoughts, but I'm so glad I got a couple of these functioning again.
Looking for a fun indoor project to try during your Christmas break? Have a LEGO Mindstorms kit? Then you might want to try building my Viper Printer v3.0!
It's a EV3-based dot-matrix printer.
https://www.joshrenaud.com/family/archives/2021/06/revisiting-my-dot-matrix-ev3-lego-printer.html
Models and Python code here:
https://github.com/Viper-Bots/viper-printer
Junior hat meinen alten Lego #Mindstorms #NXT ausgebuddelt und würde den gerne benutzen, leider hat die Software ebenso schon etliche Jahre auf dem Buckel und ist Windows-only.
Mein erster Gedanke war Open Roberta, aber das bekomme ich irgendwie nicht zum Laufen. Der NXT wird zwar erkannt, beim Download eines Programms auf den Baustein bricht die Verbindung ab, leider ohne aussagekräftige Fehlermeldung. OS ist Debian Trixie.
Weiß jemand zufällig einen guten Trick?
FOSS Advent Calendar - Door 8: Programming LEGO Robots with NQC
Today we explore NQC (Not Quite C), a wonderfully nerdy and lightweight programming language for the classic LEGO Mindstorms RCX robot brick.
Inside the RCX lives a tiny 8-bit Hitachi H8/300 CPU running at about 16 MHz together with 32 KB of RAM. Even with this extremely small hardware budget, the RCX can handle multitasking, read sensors, control motors and communicate via infrared. It feels like pure retro embedded magic.
NQC lets you write C-like programs on your computer and upload them directly to the RCX. It is minimalistic, fast, easy to learn and perfect for anyone who loves old-school robotics or wants to revisit the early days of DIY programming before Raspberry Pi and Arduino existed.
Working with NQC is a wonderful reminder of how much creativity is possible with almost no resources. Watching a tiny 32 KB robot happily execute parallel tasks still feels incredibly charming today.
Pro tip: If you still have an RCX somewhere, power it up. These yellow bricks are more alive than you remember once you start programming them again.
Link: https://github.com/BrickBot/nqc
Which small robot would you build or revive with the RCX?
#FOSS #OpenSource #Linux #CLI #Terminal #NQC #Mindstorms #LEGO #RCX #Robotics #Embedded #RetroComputing #NerdContent #AdventCalendar #Adventkalender #Adventskalender #TechNerds #STEM #Programming #Fediverse #FOSSAdvent #OpenTools #Robotik #OldSchoolTech
Today we explore NQC (Not Quite C), a wonderfully nerdy and lightweight programming language for the classic LEGO Mindstorms RCX robot brick.
Inside the RCX lives a tiny 8-bit Hitachi H8/300 CPU running at about 16 MHz together with 32 KB of RAM. Even with this extremely small hardware budget, the RCX can handle multitasking, read sensors, control motors and communicate via infrared. It feels like pure retro embedded magic.
NQC lets you write C-like programs on your computer and upload them directly to the RCX. It is minimalistic, fast, easy to learn and perfect for anyone who loves old-school robotics or wants to revisit the early days of DIY programming before Raspberry Pi and Arduino existed.
Working with NQC is a wonderful reminder of how much creativity is possible with almost no resources. Watching a tiny 32 KB robot happily execute parallel tasks still feels incredibly charming today.
Pro tip: If you still have an RCX somewhere, power it up. These yellow bricks are more alive than you remember once you start programming them again.
Link: https://github.com/BrickBot/nqc
Which small robot would you build or revive with the RCX?
#FOSS #OpenSource #Linux #CLI #Terminal #NQC #Mindstorms #LEGO #RCX #Robotics #Embedded #RetroComputing #NerdContent #AdventCalendar #Adventkalender #Adventskalender #TechNerds #STEM #Programming #Fediverse #FOSSAdvent #OpenTools #Robotik #OldSchoolTech
@leon_p_smith
‘Mindstorms’ is full of quotable text, here’s just one:
“Imagine that children were forced to spend an hour a day drawing dance steps on squared paper and had to pass tests in these ‘dance facts’ before they were allowed to dance physically. Would we not expect the world to be full of ‘dancophobes’?Would we say that those who made it to the dance floor and music had the greatest ‘aptitude for dance’? In my view, it is no more appropriate to draw conclusions about mathematical aptitude from children’s unwillingness to spend many hundreds of hours doing sums.” — Seymour Papert (p. 43)
#mathematics #ITeachMath #MathematicsEducation #MathEd #MathsEd #SeymourPapert #Mindstorms
@leon_p_smith
Yes, I think programming can be a good way to learn mathematics (and more).
Seymour Papert wrote about this in Mindstorms (1980).
I was fortunate to learn Logo and turtle programming on a modest home computer in my early teens. I don't know which was cause and which was effect, but I still like geometry and programming today.
For those not familiar with Mindstorms, a good summary is at
https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/mindstorms-what-did-papert-argue-and-what-does-it-mean-for-learning-and-education-c8324b58aca4
#mathematics #programming #Logo #TurtleGraphics #ITeachMath #MathematicsEducation #MathEd #MathsEd #SeymourPapert #Mindstorms
Hi there! We are happy to announce that we made nxt-as available on #SourceHut! It's an assembler for native RXE files on #LEGO #Mindstorms #NXT. It is yet unfinished but already pretty usable. Can't wait for it to be checked out and have feedback!
https://git.sr.ht/~g518c/nxt-as
#LegoMindstormsNxt #Rust
Ich müsste mal wieder mein Lego #Mindstorms 2.0 auspacken und den RCX mit seinem Infrarot-Sender am PC auf Immer-noch-Funktion testen. Die Entwicklungsumgebung zickte damals schon auf Windows XP mit jedem SP mehr, auf Win98 lief sie am besten. Das sollte sich heute in einer Win98-VM ja elegant lösen lassen.
@beli3ver Lego #Mindstorms mit der sehr guten grafischen Entwicklungsumgebung für den Controller-Baustein hat mich damals angefixt. Gibt’s leider so nicht mehr, aber soll ähnliche Produkte von anderen Herstellern geben. Gerade die Robotik-Kombination aus Hardware zum Anfassen, Formen und Beobachten und steuerbarer Software hat mich damals beeindruckt.
(War im strengen Sinn kein Mädchen, aber find’s trotzdem mitteilungswert.)
I saw this on Kickstarter, looks closer to basic electronics than robotics, might still be interesting
SparkBlocks: STEM blocks that click onto LEGO bricks, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blockandcode/sparkblocks-stem-blocks-that-click-onto-lego-bricks
Our now 7-year-old is having an absolute blast with the Robot Inventor set this school holidays. So glad I snatched it up back then. I wish at some stage there'll be #Mindstorms content here again: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/mindstorms
Can you help this project to extend the useful life of Lego Mindstorms?
(Boosted from @laurensvalk but in case the instance is blocked where you’re reading this.)
Random thought: #LEGO #Mindstorms #RCX(!) to LEGO #DUPLO adapter plate/housing.
A few months ago, I announced our initiative to save #LEGO #MINDSTORMS. It's high time for a progress update!
You might have seen hundreds of code updates recently, so now is a good time to demonstrate where we are.
This is clearly not the most impressive EV3 robot you've ever seen, but we're excited about the progress we've made on motors, sensors, and the EV3 brick.
One of the next big steps will be to enable USB communication with the brick. This is necessary to download and run programs.
A new step in my LEGO sorting machine: After 4 years, I have finally extended the EV3 code so it can handle errors. And package it as a Debian archive
for easy installation. On the other hand, it has become clear that the EV3 has run its
course and needs to be replaced. More details in my newsletter:
https://ml.streamhead.com/preview/445139/emails/150600515716121693
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Discover my latest LEGO Mindstorms NXT find! 🤖💻 Check out what I uncovered and learn how to build amazing creations with this kit! https://bricksandbuilds.charleshartmann.com/my-awesome-lego-mindstorms-nxt-find-2/ #LEGO #Mindstorms #NXT #Robotics #DIY
NEW VIDEO ALERT! LEGO Mindstorms NXT Bringing Bots to Life! #lego #afol #streaming #bricksandbuilds #legobuilder by Bricks and Builds with Chay
LEGO Mindstorms NXT Bringing Bots to Life! Check out the link in my bio for full vid and more! #lego #afol #streaming #mindstorms
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZFKxP34fnc
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