Subject:
|
RE: 8450 Mission / Cybermaster expansion
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.robotics
|
Date:
|
Fri, 5 Nov 1999 14:48:04 GMT
|
Original-From:
|
Laurentino Martins <lmartins@marktestSAYNOTOSPAM.pt>
|
Viewed:
|
797 times
|
| |
|
|
At 14:15 05-11-1999 Friday , Ralph Hempel wrote:
> > The CyberMaster was never intended to be programmed by the user like • Mindstorms.
> >
> > It's *very* unfortunate to see LEGO invest so much effort and money in a • radio-controlled LEGO computer with so much to
> > offer and don't take *any* steps to make profit on it.
> > I *bet* 95% of all CyberMasters sold are in a dusty corner of the attic of
> even in the trashcan after a month of use.
>
> If the CPU in the Cybermaster is the same as the RCX (minus the extra RAM)
> or the Scout,
And minus a downloadable firmware.
> and the radio link is alive all the time (not like the narcoleptic tower),
> I'll bet
From the PC point of view, the tower behaves like the MindStorms tower.
The CyberMaster can not send messages like the MindStorms, but the PC can query literally everything in the CyberMaster at any moment in time, so if you set a variable to some value and the tower queries it, it's *almost* the same.
Of course this makes more difficult (impossible?) to get two CyberMasters communicating with one another without the help of the PC.
> that I could hack an "umbilical" Forth system, where the bulk of the
> overhead is
> in the PC (or Mac) for maintaining the dictionary, and a bare minimum of
> code is
> left in the RAM.
I've done that. The bare minimum you are talking about must be NQC code since you cannot replace the ROM firmware.
In alternative, you can do all the programming in the PC with the Spirit.ocx code and send "immediate" messages that remotely control the motors and monitor the sensors - like a radio controled car.
> Given that the Cybermaster has built in tachos and motors, some pretty
> sophisticated
> data gathering bots could be built.
Yes, pretty sophisticated. So sophisticated that got me back to geometry books, sin/cos functions, etc.
Of course this can only the implemented in the PC.
> Before you throw a Cybermaster set out or put it away in a corner,
> consider donating it to a worthy cause (me) and if I can't do any better
> than the standard LEGO software, I'll send it back.
Yeah! Good try!! ;-D
> Questions...
>
> 1. Is there a disassembly of the Cybermaster ROM?
Sorry, nobody ever accessed it - it's ROM.
Some of it must be similar to MindStorms.
> 2. Since NQC supports Cybermaster opcodes, there must be some compatibility?
I'm not sure what you mean.
I use RCXCC/NQC all the time. The CyberMaster has specific opcodes (functions) that the MindStorms do not provide, the opposite is also true (for instants, no display in the CyberMaster)
> 3. Is there some firmware that gets uploaded to the Cybermaster? There
> must be SOME arbitrary byte code loading that goes on...
Nope, no downloadable firmware.
The protocol for initializing the built in firmware is a bit different from the MindStorms, but similar nevertheless.
Laurentino Martins
[ mailto:lau@mail.telepac.pt ]
[ http://www.terravista.pt/Enseada/2808/ ]
Neither technology nor efficiency can acquire more time for you,
because time is not a thing you have lost. It is not a thing you ever had.
|
|
Message has 2 Replies:
 | | RE: 8450 Mission / Cybermaster expansion
|
| (...) Yes, but so is the ROM in the RCX. The trick was to figure out the upload sequence (via the serial link) and then Kekoa figured out the format of the packet. I'll have to look at the Cybermaster serial code in NQC, but if there is an ability (...) (25 years ago, 5-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | RE: 8450 Mission / Cybermaster expansion
|
| (...) No, the OPCODES are interpreted by the firmware, not the ROM code. The only thing hat was decoded (AFAIK) was the MindStorms firmware. And it was only decoded because incidentally it was in a separate file in the MindStorms CD, perfectly (...) (25 years ago, 5-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: 8450 Mission / Cybermaster expansion
|
| (...) The CyberMaster was never intended to be programmed by the user like Mindstorms. It's *very* unfortunate to see LEGO invest so much effort and money in a radio-controlled LEGO computer with so much to offer and don't take *any* steps to make (...) (25 years ago, 5-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)
|
10 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
