Subject:
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Not totally satisfied with the Lego Mindstorm concept: Mathematical variables and direct connection PC/mechanical device
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:50:55 GMT
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Original-From:
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Stig Anders Mastad <STIGAM@STUDENT.SV.UIO.NOsaynotospam>
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Viewed:
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506 times
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Hi group!
I got some questions. For those not interested in my pre-LegoMindstorm history,
go diretly to THE POINTS
HISTORY: I learned to program in Basic in 1985 on a Commandore Vic20 and was
fantacising about connecting mechanical items to my computer and make programs
to manage them. Two years later, a friend of me borrowed the computer. When I
got it back, it was broken. Unfortunately I did not continue with computer
programming.
Last year I had a kind of "boy-revival". I wanted to start "the dream" again.
From people I met, I learned that I needed to program the ports of the computer
to manage external devices. I started to learn JAVA, but I'm not sure if that's
a good language for my purpose; I got "old" computers from friends of mine to
experiment with; and started my little research.
THE POINTS
As a suprise I got a Lego Mindstorm set (LM-set) for Christmas. However, I'm not
totally satisfied with the LM-set:
1. There is no direct contact between the PC and the LM-set. I was hoping to
make use of the capasity of the whole computer (such as memory, speed,
complexity). I understand that having the RCX makes it easier to make mobile
creations and such work, but there's a lot of other things to make, f.ex. the
Satelite uplink by Jerry Kalpin http://www3.sympatico.ca/jdkalpin, Ice-hockey
game (made by myself - not pictured on net), and so on).
2. I can't program the RCX to make and manipulate mathematical variables (f.ex:
X=1, X=X+1). One of the first things I wanted to make, was a car driving around,
counting how far it has driven, identifying obstacles, memorising all these
information and having them in mind the next time it was out driving: to
observe, remember and act "intelligent".
QUESTIONS
ad 1. Can I program directly to the ports by using JAVA or should I learn
another language?
- please send links and information.
ad 2. I've seen some internet pages for programming the RCX in languages similar
to C (NQC) and Java (http://lejos.sourceforge.net/) . From what I understand,
they do not operate with mathematical variable.
- I'm I wrong or not? I'd like to make my LM-set creations more "intelligent" by
using mathematical variables. Any help willl do!
I'm not sure if these themes are discussed earlier on this mailinglist or any
other place. If it has, please send me copies or links.
Kind regards / Vennlig hilsen
Stig Anders Mastad
www.geocities.com/stiggissen/
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