Subject:
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Re: RCX Replacement Firmware
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Mon, 8 Nov 2004 04:01:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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1170 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Dick Swan wrote:
> I've written replacement firmware for the RCX with the objective that it
> is compatible with Lego's byte-code opcodes. I'm looking for volunteers
> willing to give it a test and provide feedback on any problems/bugs.
> Please send me a private e-mail if you're interested.
>
> I have two versions of firmware . One operates ten times faster than
> Lego's firmware and the other runs 100 times faster. It is the 10X
> version that is ready for testing; if testing goes well, then I plan to
> release it as freeware. The 100X version may end up being distributed as
> shareware.
>
> I've been using this firmware for several years and it's proven very
> stable in my applications. I do minimal programming using tasks and
> events and this is the one area is pretty much untested.
>
> Some of the key firmware enhancements include:
>
> - Very fast real time performance.This is the key enhancement. Programs
> tend to behave better with more real time. For example, line followers
> stick closer to the line with less zig zagging because of more frequent
> updates.
>
> - Near perfect rotation sensor support. At speeds up to 2,000 ticks per
> second (vs 333 ticks in Lego's software)
>
> - Accurate timer using 1 millisecond resolution.
>
> - Expanded messaging and IR capabilities.
>
> - Number of variables expanded to 256
>
> - 128 motor power levels.
>
> - 32-bit integer and floating point support.
>
> - Breakpoints and single step support for PC based IDEs.
>
> - And many more.
>
> I'll provide a more comprehensive list and information to those who show
> interest.
This sounds fantastic!
This may be the answer for people that need the speed but don't have the time,
patience and understanding to get BrickOS up and running.
Will there be a collaboration between yourself and John H. to sort out NQC
support of the new features?
Will there be some kind of user level "configuration" control which allows the
user to set the maximum number of concurrent processes which will be started and
thus the resource reservation necessary for it? I assume if a program can be
started in an environment in which the answer is "1", then all kinds of indexing
to the process context can vanish. I think I could really take advantage of a
single thread running at max. speed!
What changes if any are made to the sensor power/acquisition timing cycles? This
may affect the behaviour of some 3rd party sensors.
Same question as regards the motor PWM frequency and timing.
Again, fanatastic work. Please let us know when you are ready for the world at
large to take this new beast for a test drive.
JB
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: RCX Replacement Firmware
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| "John Barnes" <barnes@sensors.com> wrote in message news:I6uDu9.MqE@lugnet.com... (...) I hope this proves to be the case. (...) There's user configuration control, but not over "concurrent processes". The best way to think of it is that the opcode (...) (20 years ago, 11-Nov-04, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | RCX Replacement Firmware
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| I've written replacement firmware for the RCX with the objective that it is compatible with Lego's byte-code opcodes. I'm looking for volunteers willing to give it a test and provide feedback on any problems/bugs. Please send me a private e-mail if (...) (20 years ago, 7-Nov-04, to lugnet.robotics) !
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