Subject:
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Re: Lego Mindstorms on Mac using Virtual PC?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 30 Dec 1998 19:18:15 GMT
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Original-From:
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Scott Cressler <longdogz@mindspring.=spamless=com>
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Viewed:
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1456 times
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This is very possibly exactly what I need, although I suppose there could still
be a problem between the pins used in the Mindstorms software running on
Virtual PC and the pins used by the Dacta software running direct on the Mac.
Have you tried what I'm trying to do? That is, running the Mindstorms software
on Virtual PC on the Mac and then using the Dacta Mac cable to connect to the
IR tower?
For $25, I might be happy to order the IR tower and Mac cable from Pitsco
rather than trying to build my own...IF I knew it was going to work.
Thanks for any info,
Scott
Troy Williams wrote:
> Scott,
> The Lego/Pitsco/Dacta amusement park "brick" is the same that is in the
> Mindstorms I have both of them, the software that comes with the Dacta set
> is Robolab and works on both the PC and the Mac. I used an ohm meter to
> check the pin out of the Mac cable and have attached a crude gif image of
> it, hope this helps
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Walter Barnum <wbarnum@emware.com>
> To: 'longdogz@mindspring.com' <longdogz@mindspring.com>;
> lego-robotics@crynwr.com <lego-robotics@crynwr.com>
> Cc: The Cresslers <longdogz@pobox.com>
> Date: Tuesday, December 29, 1998 3:54 PM
> Subject: RE: Lego Mindstorms on Mac using Virtual PC?
>
> >
> > One thing that might be hampering you is the cabling. The cable that
> > comes with the Mindstorms kit is a null modem cable in the sense that the
> > RX and TX lines are swapped. (Hense the two female connectors). I haven't
> > checked to see if any of the other lines are different from a standard
> > serial cable, but they would need to be in order to be called a true null
> > modem cable. If the IR tower uses any other lines for handshaking besides
> > using the Rx and Tx for data transfer, your cabling (and the port that
> > comes out from the apple computer), would have to conform to the mindstorms
> > kit. Beware when buying adapters to jig stuff together that the cable you
> > buy is really what you need, all null modem cables are not alike. I once
> > spent an hour debugging a circuit to only find out my cable had ground, RX
> > and Tx, but no handshaking lines whatsoever!
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Scott Cressler [SMTP:longdogz@mindspring.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 1998 2:32 PM
> > To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
> > Cc: The Cresslers
> > Subject: Lego Mindstorms on Mac using Virtual PC?
> >
> > I'm new to this list, so forgive me if this has been discussed before.
> >
> > Has anyone managed to get the Lego Mindstorms software/hardware to work
> > on a Mac using Virtual PC? It seems this should be possible, but the
> > cables I currently have to convert from the 8-pin din connector (needed
> > to connect to the Mac's serial port) to the 9-pin serial connector
> > (needed by the Mindstorms cable to the IR tower) don't work. One of the
> > cables was included with the Palm Pilot cradle and the other was an
> > Apple Printer cable I got at Fry's (MII-9808). I've gotten the software
> > to run (slowly) and have even (with the Palm Pilot cable) gotten a green
> > light to appear on the IR tower. With the Apple cable, I don't even get
> > the green light. In both cases, it gets to the point in Setup 2 where
> > it wants to download the firmware to the brick and shifts to a
> > "Troubleshooter" page because it says it can't find the IR transmitter.
> >
> > I've also used the Mindstorms on someone else's Win 95 machine, and it
> > works fine.
> >
> > It seems doing this on the Mac using Virtual PC should be possible, as
> > long as the Virtual PC software is transferring through the Mac's serial
> > port from the Mindstorms software correctly (which it may be doing as of
> > version 2.0 which had a "non-modem device" choice on the config of the
> > COM1 and 2 ports) and as long as I have a cable correctly converting
> > from the 8-pin to the 9-pin. The latter part is where I'm stuck now.
> > If I was going to build my own cable, I don't know what pins to connect
> > to what pins. I'm trying to get the info on the serial connection
> > through Virtual PC from the Connectix people.
> >
> > I have a catalog from Pitsco/Dacta showing a $25 item which is the IR
> > tower and "PC and Mac cables". Do you think this cable would work? The
> > RCX brick pictured to work with this "Amusement Park" kit seems to be
> > the same as the one in the Mindstorms kit.
> >
> > I'm really interested in getting this to work, rather than buying a PC!
> > ;-(
> >
> > Thanks for any pointers or help,
> >
> > Happy New Year,
> >
> > Scott Cressler
> > longdogz@pobox.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
> > --
> > Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Name: Mac-Pinout.gif
> Mac-Pinout.gif Type: GIF Image (image/gif)
> Encoding: base64
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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