Thursday, October 18th, 2007
I just posted a writeup on an IR Link that allows the NXT to send commands to the Power-Functions receiver (the commands tell the receiver to turn the Power Functions motors on and off) and to receive commands from the Power-Functions remote control. The device can keep sending a “turn on” command to the Power-Functions receiver repeatedly on its own, thereby keeping the motor on without requiring further NXT communications. You can buy such devices from both HiTechnic and Mindsensors, but it was fun to build one. Some of the interesting aspects of this project are:
- Deciphering the Power-Functions communications protocol,
- Using an external AVR microcontroller with the NXT, and
- Automatic configuration of the I2C pull-up resistors.