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In lugnet.robotics, Brian Davis wrote:
> I know that some folks already have gotten the NXT and have started playing
> with it, but I've yet to see anybody announcing such here, so I was curious.
> Also: should I direct new NXT users into the LUGNET forums? I'm already starting
> to get more questions than I can answer...
>
> If you've got it, first impressions?
I got mine on Tuesday. I haven't done much
with it yet (that pesky job thing), but
here's what I've thought so far...
<ramble>
The small "quick start" box is great, a lot
of newbies will be up and running easily.
Only one kind of wheels? I liked the caster
on the quickstart bot, though.
The motors are *huge*, but probably smaller than
an equivalent motor+rotation sensor combo.
If you turn the output "shaft" by hand, there's
a bit of play in the gearing; I'm not sure how
well they'll work as pure rotation sensors.
The sensors are huge, too. A pity we can't
stack them as in the RCX. For nontrivial
bots, I'd probably sense with an RCX and do
precision navigation with a NXT.
The little onboard test programs for the
sensors and motors were fun to play with.
The sound sensor picks up even if you just
move an open hand quickly toward it.
Mac support! Woo-hoo! And it doesn't suck!
On my Mac, the software installed its items
into the directory I specified ("Applications"),
which meant I ended up with the NXT app, the
"engine" dir, and other items in my Applications
folder. I moved them into a subfolder afterward,
and the NXT app ran fine.
I'm a lifelong text programmer, so this block
programming is going to take some getting used
to.
I loved the first test program: "Good job!"
The voice messages are neat; kids will love
them.
But where the voice that says "Wensleydale"?
Sounds take up too big a proportion of the NXT
memory. NXT needs more memory.
The Bluetooth connection rocks. Goodbye IR tower!
The gradual build and programming tasks seem
very well thought-out; I think I'll just
walk through them all. I was wondering where
instructions for the Rex bot and others were,
until I ran the NXT app and poked around some.
I submitted a few corrections to Philo's peeron
inventory.
All in all, I think I'm going to enjoy this.
</ramble>
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> I submitted a few corrections to Philo's peeron
> inventory.
Great! could you send me the modifications list? I think that one concerns the
wheels, I believe that the ones I got in MDP kit where not the final version...
Philo
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In lugnet.robotics, Tim Rueger wrote:
> Mac support! Woo-hoo! And it doesn't suck!
>
> On my Mac, the software installed its items
> into the directory I specified ("Applications"),
> which meant I ended up with the NXT app, the
> "engine" dir, and other items in my Applications
> folder. I moved them into a subfolder afterward,
> and the NXT app ran fine.
One very big caveat about this - at the end of the installer process on a Mac it
runs chmod -R 777 on the contents of the folder installed into. Thus, every
single thing in your Applications directory (and all subdirectories, including
bundles) now has full access permissions for everyone. Running "Repair
Permissions" in disk utility will only fix those apps with receipts in
/Library/Receipts (i.e. mostly just Apple apps).
Even worse, the uninstaller script that is created for you will delete the
entire folder that you installed into. Thus, your entire Applications folder
would be deleted if you run it! Simply moving the script to a new folder
doesn't fix things - the directory it's going to delete is hard coded in the
script!
Bottom line - if you're installing on a Mac, just accept all the defaults. You
could be very sad otherwise (as I was).
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On Jul 4, 2006, at 12:28 AM, Zachary Benz wrote:
> In lugnet.robotics, Tim Rueger wrote:
>
> > Mac support! Woo-hoo! And it doesn't suck!
> >
> > On my Mac, the software installed its items
> > into the directory I specified ("Applications"),
> > which meant I ended up with the NXT app, the
> > "engine" dir, and other items in my Applications
> > folder. I moved them into a subfolder afterward,
> > and the NXT app ran fine.
>
> One very big caveat about this - at the end of the installer process
> on a Mac it
> runs chmod -R 777 on the contents of the folder installed into. Thus,
> every
> single thing in your Applications directory (and all subdirectories,
> including
> bundles) now has full access permissions for everyone. Running "Repair
> Permissions" in disk utility will only fix those apps with receipts in
> /Library/Receipts (i.e. mostly just Apple apps).
>
> Even worse, the uninstaller script that is created for you will delete
> the
> entire folder that you installed into. Thus, your entire Applications
> folder
> would be deleted if you run it! Simply moving the script to a new
> folder
> doesn't fix things - the directory it's going to delete is hard coded
> in the
> script!
>
> Bottom line - if you're installing on a Mac, just accept all the
> defaults. You
> could be very sad otherwise (as I was).
Ye gods! Those are some huge bugs. Is there any way
to report them to Lego or NI? (Guess I spoke too soon
about good Mac support.)
I'm repairing permissons now, and I've fixed up my
uninstaller shell script. But this is a big problem that
needs to be addressed ASAP.
-Tim
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In lugnet.robotics, Tim Rueger wrote:
> Ye gods! Those are some huge bugs. Is there any way
> to report them to Lego or NI? (Guess I spoke too soon
> about good Mac support.)
I sent this to Lego Tech Support:
(http://www.lego.com/eng/service/techsupportcontactus.asp)
There is a serious bug in the Lego Mindstorms NXT software for Macintosh. At
the end of the installation process, the software runs "chmod -R 777" on the
contents of the folder into which you have decided to install. Due to a lack of
clarity in the installer about where the software will actually be installed I
chose to specify the "Applications" folder on my computer to install into (I am
not the only person to have done this, based on discussions on lugnet.com). As
a result, the permissions on ALL of the files in my Applications folder,
including all subdirectories and bundles, were changed to 777. Running "Repair
Permissions" in disk utility does not totally remedy the problem, as this only
fixes applications with receipts in /Library/Receipts (i.e. mainly Apple apps).
Even worse, the uninstaller script created by the installer hard codes the
directory that you chose to install into as the directory to delete during
uninstall. Thus if I had run the script, my entire Applications folder would
have been wiped out.
This is a serious problem that needs to be fixed. I would suggest the following
changes to the installer:
1) Make it very clear where the default install directory is located. It is in
fact located in a Lego Mindstorms NXT subdirectory of the Applications folder,
but this is completely nonobvious. All you see is that it will install into
"Lego Mindstorms NXT", with no indication of where this will be placed. This
lack of clarity is what led some of us to switch the install path to
"Applications"
2) Run chmod only on those files installed by the installer (rather than blindly
changing permissions on everything in the current directory and below). Better
yet, don't use chmod at all! Use the installer's built in capabilities to set
the permissions on the files installed correctly.
2) Make the uninstall script uninstall only those files installed by
specifically specifying them, and in a relative path manner (i.e. the files you
care about should be in the same path as the installer script, so don't hard
code a path). Definitely do not blindly delete an entire directory! You don't
know where the person decided to install, so there could be all sorts of things
in that directory.
Thanks!
> I'm repairing permissons now, and I've fixed up my
> uninstaller shell script. But this is a big problem that
> needs to be addressed ASAP.
Note that just running "Repair Permissions" in disk utility won't fix all your
permissions - it only fixes apps with receipts in /Library/Receipts (i.e. mainly
Apple's apps)
-Zach "The Lego Maniac"
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