Subject:
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Re: LEGO Dacta/Technics Kits from years agao
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.people.newbie
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Apr 2004 17:23:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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3606 times
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In lugnet.people.newbie, Dwight Beebe wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been trying to figure out how I can resurrect 5 lovely kits. The folks at
> LEGO have been less than helpful. These are programmable kits that ran off
> Apple IIgs computers. There's an interface with wires that connect to various
> switches/motors. What I need:
>
> 1. A chance to talk with a guru about getting these kits working, especially
> through the computer interface.
>
> 2. A source for the software (I have the interface card and everything else).
>
> 3. Any helpful advice. I teach k-6 science at a small, rural public school.
> The kids that have seen and built from these kits are drooling over the
> possibilities these kits represent.
>
> I apologize for the lack of part/model numbers, etc. as I'm at home and don't
> have the sets at hand.
>
> Thanks in advance! Dwight
A few years ago I bought some of the sensors that work with the 4.5 Volt
interface unit. There is a switch in a 2x3 brick and a light sensor in a 2x3
brick 4 plates high, that works with a counting disc.
Inside the light sensor there is an LED emitter-detector pair. I think the
terminals on the sensor are effectively shorted whenever the light is reflected
sufficiently onto the detector. I think the LED is in parallel with the
transistor driven by the detector. Either of these sensors connects to the two
input ports. The six output ports drive 4.5 volt motors or lights.
I worked out how the interface would work from a BBC micro, even though I don't
have the interface. The BBC micro has an 8-bit bidirectional "user" port. As
indicated by the numbers on the interface ports, the two top bits (7 and 6) are
used for the sensors and the bottom 6 bits (5 to 0) for the motors etc...
Therefore you need to get or write software that will set the bottom 6 bits of
your computer's port to be outputs and the top two bits to be inputs.
On a BBC micro that would be easy, but I don't know anything about the card in
your Apple.
Mark Bellis
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | LEGO Dacta/Technics Kits from years agao
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| Hi all, I've been trying to figure out how I can resurrect 5 lovely kits. The folks at LEGO have been less than helpful. These are programmable kits that ran off Apple IIgs computers. There's an interface with wires that connect to various (...) (20 years ago, 6-Apr-04, to lugnet.people.newbie)
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