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> Ralph - I'm interested in the use of servos with the RCX, but I have
> no interest in learning the quirks of another computer language. I'm
> already a bit familiar with Visual Basic,and control the RCX with it.
> Can your pbForth solution be duplicated with VB? Also, Have you ever
> thought about doing up a small batch of PC boards for your interface?
> Thanks --- John.
I hear you, John. Learning a new language can be a bit tricky, and I
won't go into the details of why I think it's a good idea to learn
different languages to get the benefit of different ways of thinking
about problems...oops, don't get me started :-)
When you use Visual Basic to control the RCX, you are really just sending
opcodes to the RCX via the IR link. The RCX executes them for you and then
waits for more input. Without changing the basic firmware on the RCX
there is no way to get the benefits of servo control with Visual Basic.
Even if you use NQC, you are still just executing the base firmware that
LEGO ships with the product. Now, the good news is that by swapping
out the firmware (like with pbForth or legOS) you have way more control
over the RCX, and can do stuff like control servos.
Here's the neat part. If LEGO wanted to, they could release new firmware
with new opcodes for servo control. There is nothing in the hardware that
prevents them from doing this.
That being said, it's not a trivial matter to distribute the new firmware
to the many users of their product. Do they put out a new CD, do they do
it over the net? The also have to update the docs, do really good
testing, and then they have to develop their own special servo housings.
If they started on this right now, the very best we could ever hope for
official LEGO servos would be about 1 year (in my opinion). This would
make a fun Christmas present for the LUGNUT with everything though...
Cheers,
Ralph Hempel - P.Eng
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Check out pbFORTH for LEGO Mindstorms at:
<http://www.hempeldesigngroup.com/lego/pbFORTH>
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Reply to: rhempel at bmts dot com
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Drive R/C Servos with the RCX and pbForth (long)
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| Ralph, What about the new QC. Since it does not use the Lego Firmware and allows you to use pure C. Could your asm code be used under it. I am interested in using Servos but like John I too do not want to learn another language. I am a Sr Software (...) (25 years ago, 14-Feb-00, to lugnet.robotics)
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