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 Robotics / 3203
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Subject: 
RE: slightly off topic: two questions (one of them for EE types)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Mon, 25 Jan 1999 20:56:47 GMT
Original-From: 
Roland Kippenhan <rkippenhan@transactor.net+nospam+>
Viewed: 
862 times
  
Speaking of which, I saw the train in the store the other day.  I was
wondering, can the RCX control the train if I hook up an output to the
tracks?

-----Original Message-----
From: jasper@janssen.dynip.com [SMTP:jasper@janssen.dynip.com]
Sent: Monday, January 25, 1999 3:46 AM
To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
Subject: Re: slightly off topic: two questions (one of them for EE types)

On Mon, 25 Jan 1999 05:03:00 GMT, Ben Erwin <berwin@tufts.edu> wrote:

1) Does lego sell the train controller separately, and for how much?

Yep. Some sets (like 4558 - I got mine from a second hand 4558 I
bought with the controller, and traded for a Mindstorms without :) )
come without the controller, and you have to buy it separately. I
believe MSRP is arounf $50 or $40, but you can often find them for $20
or less in clearance season, i'm told.

2) Is something wrong?  When I look at the voltage it looks like a
pretty linear decrease for the full rotation, and I was under the
impression that the standard lego speeds (1-8) corresponded to equal
decrements of voltage out of 9 volts.  I guess not(?)

This is a pretty standard behavior for motors: they need a certain
voltage to work at all. I justr read 5 messages ago, that the RCX uses
Pulse Width Modulation for their motors (PWM), so that for speed 7,
it'll be on for 7 ms, off for 1, etc. If you use the train controller
to drive a Technic Motor (i have a really large helicopter as display
model, the rotor-blades alone are 70 studs long), it scales pretty
well from 0 to completely running, in an easy to adjust box. One
caveat: I've opened up the train controller, it decreases the speed in
steps, not stepless like with a pot. (It has the knob and the surface
under it basically like most cheap multimeters, if you've ever opened
one of those) --- Well, i have to go, so I can't finish this right
now. Reply if you have any questions :)

Jasper
--
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



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: slightly off topic: two questions (one of them for EE types)
 
(...) You should talk to Larry Pieniazek, he's the train nut :) Anyway, i heard him say that he had his RCX drive a train no problem. I expect the biggest problem would be battery life, and I'm not quite sure the RCX can deliver quite as much a (...) (25 years ago, 25-Jan-99, to lugnet.robotics)

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