Subject:
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Spybotics demo followup questions
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Tue, 23 Jul 2002 19:32:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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875 times
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All,
Several questions came up during the Spybotics demo at BrickFest that Jeff
was unable to answer on the spot. He has since passed those questions and
corresponding answers on to me:
*** How much memory is in the brick? (compared to RCX) ***
Two thirds the memory (4k compared to 6k for program download "with our
standard firmware"). And it's persistent: because it's stored in EEPROM, you
can remove the batteries and come back years later to find your program is
still there in good shape.
*** What speed are the motors ***
They run off 3 AA batteries so they are 4.5v based, but they cannot be
compared that easily.
Because of a better control scheme in the electronics the speed of the
Spybot motor are very similar to an RCX gear motor (which runs off 9v).
Furthermore, because of the more advanced, speed can be controlled much more
precisely. In the RCX gear motors, only torque is controllable, thus a motor
with no load will run at the same speed regardless of the setting. Not so
here, we have speed down to a fine art!
*** What communication protocol does the IR transmission use? “LLM”? Is it
the same as the VLL or Virtual Light Link? ***
No, they use a 'standard' IR communication scheme. Very much like the RCX's
but double the speed and half the message size, so four times as efficient.
It is possible, though, to send and receive VLL messages through the light
sensor and the red LED at the back of the robot. For that to work, the
Spybot needs to be disconnected from the PC-cable.
*** Does the SB brick have the same firmware as an RCX? ***
No, but the user downloaded programs that it runs are very similar in
nature to the RCX. (Both are LASM-based - our own byte code format - but the
Spybot has more commands and some are more sophisticated than the RCX)
Hopefully this clears things up. I for one can't wait to get my hands on one
of these sets now!
Jake
---
Jake McKee
Sr. Producer
LEGO Direct
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Message has 5 Replies:
 | | Re: Spybotics demo followup questions
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| While I doubt you'd legally be able to answer this, I'm going to ask anyways, just in case you CAN... How hard would it be to replace the EEPROM with one with a larger memory capacity? ;-) (...) -- | Tom Stangl, Sun ONE Internet Technical Support, (...) (22 years ago, 23-Jul-02, to lugnet.lego.direct)
| | | Re: Spybotics demo followup questions
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| (...) According to an e-mail I received from Michael Anderson regarding the Spybotic brick there is "4k EEPROM for persistent program storage (256 bytes available for general use)" To me this sounded like only 256 bytes were available for downloaded (...) (22 years ago, 23-Jul-02, to lugnet.lego.direct)
| | | Re: Spybotics demo followup questions
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| Now that I think about it, I didn't really like the reasoning behind making a serial product instead of usb. It actually sounds like an excuse to me... Not quite quoted words were, "this product is designed more for children who have hand-me-down (...) (22 years ago, 24-Jul-02, to lugnet.lego.direct)
| | | RE: Spybotics demo followup questions
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| (...) [...] (...) If a SB unit can send/receive VLL on top of having "RCX/Scout compatible" IR comms, is this scenario possible: A CyberMaster (using a VLL output pgrm) sends a VLL message to the SB unit that will send some other IR message to the (...) (22 years ago, 24-Jul-02, to lugnet.lego.direct)
| | | RE: Spybotics demo followup questions
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| This is a mix of a forward/pseudo-X-post and my comments to the Jake msg on lugnet.lego.direct: (...) So there's an IR on the SB unit, after all :) GREAT! I wasn't understanding how the Remote/Beacon would control the unit through visible light. I (...) (22 years ago, 24-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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