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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Thu, 31 Dec 1998 08:05:59 GMT
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Viewed:
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1437 times
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In article <368B16E8.61B4F48B@mindspring.com>, lego-robotics@crynwr.com
(Scott Cressler) wrote:
> Are you sure of this? This will bum me out, but I suppose it would save me
> some frustration trying to get it to work. :-(
Yep, I'm sure. Lots of people have tried this (including myself) and
always with the same result (software runs, but communication with IR
tower fails).
> So, how does the "Robolab" software compare to the Mindstorms software? $90
> is quite a bit after you've bought the Mindstorms kit....
Robolab is a lot better. I assume Mindstorms appeals more to younger
children (a little flashier), although Robolab is also aimed at children
(grade school education to be specific).
Robolab is more powerful than Mindstorms. You can have nested loops,
variables, etc.
> And, what is NQC?
NQC is "Not Quite C". Its actually little more than a C preprocessor,
flow control contstructs, and RCX primitives all in a C style syntax. I
find programming with a textual language much faster than visual stuff
(Mindstorms, Robolab, etc). If you're familiar with C, you should give
NQC a try. You can download it from
http://www.enteract.com/~dbaum/lego/nqc/index.html
Dave
> Scott
>
> Dave Baum wrote:
>
> > It won't work - even with a perfect cable. Mindstorms uses the RTS/CTS
> > handshaking in an unorthodox manner. The fact that the Mac is RS-422 (not
> > RS-232) means that the serial port emulation cannot be complete. While
> > VPC works for most cases, it will not work with Mindstorms. In theory,
> > one could hack Mindstorms RIS (actually spirit.ocx) not to use
> > handshaking, or hack VPC to spoof the serial port differently, but noody
> > has done anything like that.
> >
> > Robolab and NQC are currently the two options for using a Mac with the RCX.
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > In article <36894A46.BFF80F17@mindspring.com>, lego-robotics@crynwr.com
> > (Scott Cressler) wrote:
> >
> > > 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
> >
> > --
> > reply to: dbaum at enteract dot com
>
>
>
> --
> Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
--
reply to: dbaum at enteract dot com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Lego Mindstorms on Mac using Virtual PC?
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| Are you sure of this? This will bum me out, but I suppose it would save me some frustration trying to get it to work. :-( So, how does the "Robolab" software compare to the Mindstorms software? $90 is quite a bit after you've bought the Mindstorms (...) (26 years ago, 31-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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