Subject:
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Re: usb to ris 1.x rcx ir how
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.rcx
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Date:
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Sat, 8 Feb 2003 15:00:30 GMT
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Viewed:
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3237 times
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> From: [offline]
> Date: Wed, Feb 5, 2003 8:18am ...
> you haven't heard of the software upgrade
Not in any detail. Please can someone elaborate?
> From: [offline]
> Date: Wed, Feb 5, 2003 11:52am ...
> I have been bothered lately when reading responses
> to your posts. It seems that most people are not
> getting the idea ...
>
> I am so glad that you have stuck with it, since the
> answers usually have come out in the end.
Thanks for saying, sorry I need help rewording these questions to get them to
be more absolutely unambiguous.
> From: [offline]
> Date: Wed, Feb 5, 2003 8:18am ...
> Your best fix is probably to buy the 2.0 software
> and a USB tower. That's what I did and the 1.5 RCX
> works fine with the new software.
Can I somehow fix the Lego software for dramatically less than an entirely new
RIS 2.0 kit? I don't want to pay for an entirely new kit of robot parts, I
just want to keep using the kit I have, as the Serial port quietly dies away.
> By the way it is hard enough to support current
> hardware with a software or hardware product.
> Expecting LEGO to support future hardware is a
> little silly.
Sorry I was unclear, thanks for saying I was.
The IP model I understand is the book model. I buy the book, I use the book.
If I use it enough, or if I just wait enough decades, it falls apart and I buy
a new one. But I don't find that the ink goes invisible every two years. And
I can resell the book when I tire of rereading it.
Me, I bought my Lego Mindstorms in 2001. USB had been already ubiquitous in
new PC's by 1998 when the legacy-free iMac came out. What can I see in Lego
Mindstorms except planned obsolescence. USB is Not New. It is Serial that is
antique, and was already dying.
If/when I do find an upgrade, I might buy it to eliminate hassle from my life,
but yes I see having to pay to keep my RCX connected as extortion. I don't
mind being left free to choose to pay for new features or not. What I mind is
not having a free fix downloadable. Copyright demons out of control, I call it.
Maybe this turns on whether talking Usb in place of Serial is a Bug Fix or a
New Feature. I don't mind agreeing to disagree over which it is, especially
since me thinking it is a Bug Fix doesn't actually discount Lego prices one
cent.
Interestingly enough, I don't mind buying a USB/IR adapter in hardware. It
just annoys me that the Lego software I bought is so hardware-specific, so
committed to the dead Serial hardware, that the Lego software chokes when I try
to substitute Usb hardware.
I do have a route free of this common practice of extortion by software upgrade
in that I could buy the USB/Serial adapter to plug into my USB/IR adapter ...
but if I'm going to have to buy hardware, well then of course I'd rather buy
better hardware.
I'm thinking the USB/IR adapter is better hardware because it needs no
batteries, or less batteries, than the USB/Serial * Serial/IR solution. Is
that wrong thinking?
> a free fix downloadable
To my ignorant mind, it seems the Lego software has been reverse engineered to
the point we could patch it so it works. Is a file named Spirit.ocx the issue?
Does gcc let us roll our own substitute Spirit.ocx?
> > I don't want to pay for a new robot, I just want
> > to keep using the one I have.
I'm trying to understand what my least painful, most fun, option is.
Cluelessly, curiously, thankfully yours, Pat LaVarre
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: usb to ris 1.x rcx ir how
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| 1. Hardware upgrade to USB IR tower: Dacta is Lego's educational division. For some reason, in the US it is known as Pitsco. The Pitsco link you have found is the only way I know of getting a USB IR tower on its own. It does not need batteries. 2. (...) (21 years ago, 8-Feb-03, to lugnet.robotics.rcx)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: usb to ris 1.x rcx ir how
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| (...) From offline: (URL) I before the store shows whether or not the store ships internationally." Searching for: USB infrared transmitter yields "No Item(s) were found". Searching for: USB IR tower yields "New" "Black Electric IR Transmitter Tower (...) (21 years ago, 8-Feb-03, to lugnet.robotics.rcx)
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