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Subject: 
SV: Brainstorms
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Sat, 31 Aug 2002 00:48:30 GMT
Original-From: 
Henrik Lind <henrik_lind@telia.IHATESPAMcom>
Viewed: 
770 times
  
There is a description including PCB and parts list of how to make an RCX to I2C
interface in the Elector Electronics magazine No. 309,APRIL 2002:
http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/ln/ln.htm

Article overview:
I2C Interface for Lego RCX 'Brick' (Parts List)
It has, by now, become well known that the Lego RCX-module is eminently suitable
for experimenting with such things as robotics. But once the designs grow beyond
simple experimentation it quickly becomes obvious that the number of inputs and
outputs that this control module provides, are rather insufficient. That's why
Elektor Electronics presents the I2C-interface for this Lego brick. An entirely
new world is opened up: in principle, no fewer than 128 I2C-devices may be
connected to the bus!

Henrik
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
To: <bdp@optushome.com.au>
Cc: <lego-robotics@crynwr.com>
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 6:22 AM
Subject: Re: Brainstorms



I2C devices are *tiny* because they don't need many pins.  If you look at the
CPU chip inside the RCX, it's 4cm long and 2cm wide - that's because it has
thirty-some I/O pins on it.  An I2C device typically needs two pins for power
and ground, a couple more for the I2C bus and a couple to drive whatever it
is it actually *does*.  Dinky little 8 pin devices are common - and would
comfortably fit inside a 2x4 - or even a 2x2 brick.

Take a look at the I2C offerings from just one company:

    http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/buses/i2c/products/index.html

Then there is the Pascalite II Piccolo microprocessor
which is in an 8 pin package and would actually fit
into a 2x2 Lego brick if you could figure out a small enough connector!

    http://www.controlplus.nl/index.htm

It has power, ground, I2C in and out, RS232 in and out and one general
digital input and one output...enough for a 'START' button and an LED!
All of it's memory is hooked up via I2C - so you'd put a boot ROM in
a second brick and a RAM in another.  There are of course both ROM and
RAM in 8 pin I2C formats.  There is also an EEPROM that can be used as
slow RAM to allow non-demanding programs to run in just two 8 pin chips!

There is a Philips application note showing how an NE5570 motor controller
can be interfaced to I2C - so that part's not difficult.

There are lots of parallel port chips - so reading rotation and bump
sensors shouldn't be hard.  There are a couple of Philips AtoD convertors
so light and temperature sensors should be easy to make.

The point is that all of these things are single chip solutions - and
in most cases, the chip is small enough to fit in a single 2x4 Lego brick.

----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
Mail : <sjbaker1@airmail.net>   WorkMail: <sjbaker@link.com>
URLs : http://www.sjbaker.org
        http://plib.sf.net http://tuxaqfh.sf.net http://tuxkart.sf.net
        http://prettypoly.sf.net http://freeglut.sf.net
        http://toobular.sf.net   http://lodestone.sf.net






Message has 1 Reply:
  i2c protocol with the rcx (was Brainstorms)
 
Hi, I tested the RCX-to-I2C-board from Elector Electronics. I think it's very good for educating and experimenting where the user learns very much about the protocol and function of the i2c bus. (...) Yes, it's right .... you can use the RCX to (...) (22 years ago, 31-Aug-02, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Brainstorms
 
I2C devices are *tiny* because they don't need many pins. If you look at the CPU chip inside the RCX, it's 4cm long and 2cm wide - that's because it has thirty-some I/O pins on it. An I2C device typically needs two pins for power and ground, a (...) (22 years ago, 9-Aug-02, to lugnet.robotics)

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