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After much anticipation it arrived in the mail today. I don't think I have ever been quite so disapponted by a new Lego release. Grabbed a pack of AA first thing, gotta get it powered up. It uses two different sizes, some AA and some AAA. Oh well, (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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I agree with EVERYTHING you just said. Lets just hope the SDK will shed some new light on the subject... I just happen to be one of those folks with NO SERIAL PORT on my laptop. I was not aware when I placed my order (before the ads came out) that (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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Isn't it ironic how the makers of a Plug-N-Play toy system keep missing the Plug-N-Play technology target? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Hendrix" <rob.removebeforesen...msltc.org> To: <lego-robotics@crynwr.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) I have one of those USB to serial cables ~ $15.00 made by BAFO. Works great and its self powered. (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | RE: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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John Wrote: (...) <deep breath> Let's all have a really good look at the outside of the box where it says 9+ for the age group :-) I have all 4 of the Spybots and I must say that after I built them and played with them with my 10 year old twins, I (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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I have really got to agree with Ralph. It is hard to believe that LEGO hit this price point when you look at what is inside the box. $60 - $30 for 2 Motors at $15 each - $10 IR transmitter - $19 light sensor - $15 touch sensor ---...--- Wow! LEGO is (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) Are all of these pieces standard Mindstorms ones, or are they integrated into the controller? (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) Think microscout - everything is integrated. 4.5v motors, built-in touch sensor and light sensor. SO.........when you see that something like the Droid Development set was going for $39 thru SAH (and $29 at TRU) with LOTS more Technic parts (...) (22 years ago, 19-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) The Spybotics brick is actually pretty powerful and uses bytecodes quite similar to the RCX. I'm working right now on updating NQC to inculde Spybotics support. I have been able to download simple programs, now I just have to clean up the (...) (22 years ago, 20-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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How many teeth on these new gears (...) (22 years ago, 20-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) Thanks for the work, Dave! Does this mean that I will be able to program Spybotics thru the USB (RIS 2.0) tower, instead of the serial tower that comes with Spybotics while using NQC? Dave K. (22 years ago, 20-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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(...) Spybotics doesn't really have a tower, just a cable with a serial connector on one end and led/phototransistor on the other (which snaps into the back of the spybotics brick). It transmits using visible light, not IR (and I don't think it has (...) (22 years ago, 21-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | RE: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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Hi :) (...) So, a bit like MicroScout, it's programmed through the inbuilt LightSensor, right ? Can you see if it uses a VLL protocol like CodePilot/MicroScout ? ...that way, any Scout/RCX/CyberMaster could download VLL snipets to it. One important (...) (22 years ago, 22-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) It is programmed using visible light, but the commands are very different from CodePilot/MicroScout. The protocol itself is just 4800bps NRZ turned into light. The packets have a simple format (preable, data bytes, checksum). The commands in (...) (22 years ago, 23-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | RE: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) So, in theory, comms between CyberMaster/RCX/Scout and Spybotics is possible, provided that a fiber optic is used and an emulator is coded, although, at 4800bps I don't know if that's feasible with standard firmware and NQC. (...) INPUT ? (...) (22 years ago, 23-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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(...) From what Jake said at lugnet.lego.direct and from what you say above, I don't understand if IR or Visible Light (or both !?!?) are used to download programs to the Spybot. About VLL, from Jake McKee: (...) That's a *very good* thing, *both* (...) (22 years ago, 24-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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(...) 36. I know someone who figured this out ahead of time by using fairly simple Lego geometry, but I counted. -- David Schilling (22 years ago, 24-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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I had a perfect opportunity to speak with Brad Justus, Jake McKee and Jeff Ardis at BrickFest on the subject of Spybotics. First of all, it was pointed out that the box says its being aimed at 9 year olds and that it doesn't say its a Mindstorms (...) (22 years ago, 25-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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(...) I haven't spent much time with Spybotics yet. It was pretty much a one-evening project to get program download working, then a few tweaks such as task numbering, sub numbering, etc. Three inputs: touch sensor, light sensor, and battery voltage (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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In lugnet.robotics, Ralph Hempel writes: <snip> (...) So Gigamesh is waiting on my doorstep last night when I get home from work. Took me a bit to install the software (~600 meg full install), then putting the thing together via instructions on my (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | RE: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) <snip> (...) Thank goodness a grownup (and I use the term loosely) "gets" the Spybots. When I watched the kids playing, I got the sense that LEGO had hit the mark because it gently guides kids to imagining they are the agent. Even better, they (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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In lugnet.robotics, Ralph Hempel writes: <snip> (...) One of the few things that playing with LEGO since my earliest recollection has taught me over the past 35 years is that you really don't ever loose that kid in you--it may get hidden away in (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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Hey Ralph, is an implementation of pbForth on the Spybotics brick a future plan?. I think it would be really cool. (22 years ago, 27-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | RE: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) As far as I can tell, there's no easy way to do replacement firmware for the Spybotics brick. Dave is adding NQC support, and LEGO has their own Mindscript language available for all of their bricks. Cheers, Ralph (22 years ago, 27-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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| | Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
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(...) The good side of this is is that I will be able to use my iPAQ PDA to program the Spybots AND I can use my linux box if I wish without much greif. (Thanks Dave!) Dean (22 years ago, 17-Aug-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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