Wanted - Legs!

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Have you ever wondered what the best way is to make robots that move on multiple legs? Well, I have. For an exploration into this subject, I am looking for other users’ input — if you want to share with us your implementation of legged NXT bot send some images (detailed enough for reconstruction) to guy@nxtasy.org. I’ll pick up the most elegant designs and put them in the article with your name.

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NBC Debugger for NXT

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

A new debugger has surfaced for NBC and the LEGO Mindstorms NXT. Check out the wealth of features!

Basic Features
integration with BricxCC; start/stop/restart; step into/over/out; single/multi thread debugging; show/walk thread’s call stack; watch/modify variables; debug logging; unlimited soft and hardcoded break points and debugbreaks; copy to clipboard; optional periodical data collection during program execution; comm status lights; NXT keep alive

Debug logging
simple/multi-segment debug log with numeric and string support

Source code integration
jump to definition of subroutine/thread/variable/label/macro/file in the project; show/jump to next instruction; force continue anywhere; run to cursor; color coded soft/hard enabled/disabled breakpoints; user selected font

Breakpoints
unlimited hard coded unconditional/conditional/counter type with optional reset, enable/disable at run-time; unlimited soft breakpoints add/remove/enable/disable at run time; 1 soft break point enabled per subroutine; display location/type/hit count; enable all/disable all; reset hit count; jump to breakpoint; add/remove/enable/disable breakpoint for source line at run time; copy to clipboard

Variable watch/modify
display/modify variable/array/cluster during execution/pause; hex/decimal base; display variable name/type/value; display array type/length/values; display array as string; expand truncated lines in tool-tip; unlimited embedded array/cluster dimensions; collapse/expand clusters/arrays; full collapse/expand; 3 modes show all variables/user selected variables/variables in currently executed section; copy to clipboard

Thread and call stack
display location with subroutine/thread name/file name/line number; expand truncated lines in tool-tip; expand threads call stack; display/walk call stack; click to jump to source code; copy to clipboard

[via nxtasy.org forums]

Posted in development, news, software | 2 Comments »

Next Bytes Code 1.0.1.b12 Now Available

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

John Hansen has released an updated NBC beta. NBC allows users to program the LEGO Mindstorms NXT using textual code with assembly language syntax.

This beta release introduces support for two new languages related to NBC. The NPG language is a very simple 5 step declarative language for writing RPG (NXT Program) executables. NPG programs simple list the 5 steps with compiler support for C++-style comments interspersed. Unlike the built-in NXT menu system mechanism for writing NXT Programs which require alternating move and wait commands, programs written using NPG can sequence the 5 commands in any order except that the EndStop and EndLoop commands can only occur as the last step. See test.npg for a small sample. These programs require the RPGReader.sys program on the NXT. This executable is 14kb in size but a replacement version which nearly identical functionality will soon be available on the NBC site which is only ~2.5kb.

NBC also now supports a very early version of the NXC programming language. This language is a lot like NQC syntax-wise. It is still in its infancy so it is subject to substantial change and improvement. The NBC compiler converts the NXC code to NBC code and then compiles it as it would any other NBC program. See test.nxc for a basic example.

The NXTDefs.h header file has been split into NXCDefs.h and NXTDefs.h. NBC programs should still #include “NXTDefs.h” but NXC programs should #include “NXCDefs.h”.

This release also fixes a problem with unix-style line endings which made it so that multiline macros written on non-Windows platforms would not work correctly.

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Array Block for NXT

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Hi everyone, my name is Adam Parkes. I’m a new contributor to nxtasy.org. This is my first time working with robots, I’m a programmer normally, so I guess thats why most of my robots look really crummy. One of the first things that I noticed in the NXT standard development language is that there wasn’t an array block . After a few quick minutes of thinking about how to implement one I developed a block that handles reading and writing to a pseudo array of data. The reason I call it pseudo is that the block mimics an array, in reality the data blocks may not be located right next to each other, not that it matters much anyway for all intent and purpose it can be used exactly like an array. The block has one major drawback, it is unable to be resized at runtime. This is due to the block being hard-coded to have the exact number of data members needed in the array before compile time.

The Array Tutorial

I have provided a tutorial on how the block functions and how to make your own. Using a similar structure you could implement an aggregate data type, e.g. classes or structs. If anyone wants a tutorial on how to make an aggregate data structure with NXT just drop me an email.

Till NXTime.

Posted in development, knowledge | 3 Comments »

The LEGO Group Outsources Production

Monday, November 27th, 2006

In an effort to cut costs, the LEGO Group is moving its brick production out of Billund, Denmark, to factories in Mexico and the Czech Republic. The number of jobs will drop from 2,500 to 1,600 by 2009.

The 30,000 8,600-inhabitant factory town has been the home of all LEGO operations since the toy building brick company was founded in the 1940s (the airport was originally built by LEGO). Headquarters and research operations will remain in Billund, as well as the LEGOLAND theme park.

[via About Geography]

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Unbelievable new High Score!

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

I had to watch the videos a few times to believe it, but I must confirm this new high score, 4 days only from the deadline - and someone managed to throw the ball as far as 11 meters! This is almost twice the distance of the previous high score, and certainly a hard challenge to overcome.

Once the deadline if over, I’ll be adding a Challenges section to the main page, and describe in some detail the different submissions received for challenge no. 1. The second challenge will begin at December 1st, and will be a programming only mission using the TriBot design, and will require also the test mat supplied with NXT retail set.

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Tip of The Day - Bluetooth Connection between 2 NXT’s

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

Even after being an MDP and MCP for so many months, I am embarrassed to say that this is the first time I have really dug into connecting two NXT’s together via Bluetooth.  I toyed around with it after receiving my second NXT set, but never really did anything as I always had 2 robots on the go… After working on my latest bot, I decided I was going to stray away from my standard autonomous robot building approach and use another NXT as a remote.  There are many others out there that have already done this - (BTW Thx to Brian Davis for your help here).

After building both the host and remote apps to send / receive BT messages for the 2 NXT’s I found that values were simply not getting passed to the receiving NXT. At first I thought it was the code, but I checked, and the messages were being sent to the correct mailbox numbers.  I also checked the connection which was the correct value (#1).  But, this is where I made my mistake. I assumed that both NXT units connected on the same BT port (I looked to the client NXT to get the port number). This is not the case. In fact, the HOST showed the client on port #0 and the client showed the host on port #1.   On my host application, I had specified to send the messages out on port #1, but the BT connection was on Port #0. Once I changed the software to send out on Connection #0, it worked fine.

So, if you are having a similar issue, be sure to verify the connection from each NXT unit.  The software you are writing for the host should use the same connection # that the NXT shows when viewing connections on the LCD screen in the BT settings.

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1 Week till NXTasy Challenge Deadline

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

Just 1 week ’till the end of our 1st Challenge - “Throw Me!” ! For anyone who is still interesting in submitting robots, hurry up and read the instructions in our forums. The winning robot will be awarded a digital compass sensor courtesy of HiTechnic, and the best 5 get a 25% discount coupon from mindsensors.com!

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Flexi-Cables from Mindsensors.com

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

Mindsensors.com announces a new product - a 4 pack set of NXT compatible cables of different lengths - 20cm (1 cable), 35cm (2 cables) and 50cm (1 cable). More details and costs are available at http://www.mindsensors.com/.

Also, mindsensors.com have a Thanksgiving special sale at their website. They’re offering 30% off any purchase using coupon code BLACKFRIDAY and it’s valid until 6:00 pm, Nov-24-2006.

Posted in hardware, news | 80 Comments »

First Annual Thanksgiving RoboParade

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

Here’s a video to the first Annual Thanksgiving Autonomous Robot Parade held at Lawrence Tech University.

30 robotic floats created by grade students participated in the first event. Robots were made by 27 Lego RCXs, 2 Lego NXTs, and one Boe-Bot.

Posted in video, news, events | No Comments »

NXT Trike

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006

John Brost published on NXTLOG this beautiful trike design, built around the NXT with large wheels and remotely controlled via another NXT using Bluetooth. Some more pictures are on NXTLOG. There’s also a movie. Great work John! I hope you plan to make building instructions for this…

Posted in projects, news | 1 Comment »