Lego + Linux HOWTO 82
luge writes "In more than a few Lego articles posted here, I've seen the question asked "But can I use the Mindstorms under Linux?" Well, the new Lego + Linux mini-HOWTO provides the answer. There are (currently) 7 different software options in 7 different languages (including C, Perl, and Java) for the Linux-based Mindstorms owner."
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Finally! A physical graph of my apache hits (Score:1)
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Re:Java - Yes! (Score:1)
Re:Lego Languages (Score:1)
FORTRAN: the bricks simulate bricks.
Forth: while you put the bricks together backwards, you can make bigger, more useful bricks.
Assembly: you have many, many very simple bricks, but there is no limit to what you can build.
Bill - aka taniwha
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Re:Where goeth Legos? (Score:2)
I think the first motors were in the mid 60's, so unless you're approaching 30 like Merlin does, they predated you.
Over the years, it seems the specialization continued to where legos are hyper-specialized. A set comes with a few normal bricks and many specialty items that don't have many uses.
Now, maybe it's reversing, with the greater amounts of generic pieces in the mindstorms and such sets, despite highly-specified star-wars, castle, and rock war sets.
Yes, this whole process is decried as the juniorization of Lego, and apparently even mentioned in Coupland's Microserfs.
Don't lump Star Wars in with the castle or Rock Raiders sets, though. The Star Wars sets are an excellent value for the money, and don't have many overspecialized parts, unlike Rock Raiders.
The X-wing for example, had R2D2, a canopy and a few printed parts for specialized parts, everything else was stock. Lots of grey slopes and plates, very tasty.
George
Re:Free software in a nutshell (Score:1)
how many real life bazaars have ever actually built anything larger than a hep of camel shit?
It appears that the cathedral builders haven't done much better in these regards. Take CDE (Please!), there was much rejoicing at the possibility that it might be replaced by GNOME etc. Microsoft don't seem to have done any better, Windows might be a bit more useable if I could run WindowMaker and GNOME on it. In short, regarding window managers, Apple seem to have built the only cathedral any bigger than your heap of camel shit. (Ignoring NeXT etc.)
Bravo to the HOWTO author (Score:3)
Now if only there was an environment that provided something outside the Algol family. Oh wait, of course, I can use Forth. I RPN like not. :-) A nice functional language (Haskell [haskell.org] being my current fave) would be well-suited to the MindStorms system. Pure functional PLs handle data flow so cleanly, and the flow from sensors to actuators is exactly that. Six built-in primitives for the three sensors and the three actuators.
A simple Braitenberg-style [amazon.com] mouse:
Simple, clear, understandable. I like it.Re:cat shooter (Score:1)
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:2)
Re:Has anyone... (Score:1)
Re:Lego Languages (Score:3)
You try to make a car, but end up with a speed boat. But you don't care. its a really cool speadboat!
After months of development your lego car starts quickly, but then grows so big it crushes you. And crashes.
After half an hours hacking you have a dune buggy that works. Unfortunatly further development is impossable.
After months of development you realise its not quite feasable.
you lego build
Your lego car works everywhere, but its quicker to walk.
Your car doesn't work, but if it did you could control it remotly with a pretty GUI
Thad
Re:Legos & Linux... (Score:2)
Re:Bravo to the HOWTO author (Score:2)
Luis
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:2)
The HandyBoard is damned cool though...
Been done (Score:1)
Tom Selleck in Runaway [go.com]. Besides, spiders are cooler than dogs 8^)
Extra Credit: Write the person tracking software for the missle/bullets in CobolScript [cobolscript.com]
Re:Free software in a nutshell (Score:1)
Either you were trying for a bit of irony (and failing I might add
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:1)
I've been meaning to check out the mindstorms, I grew up on legos, so this is obviously the perfect toy
erm... (Score:1)
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:1)
I've not used the software that comes with it since I don't run Windows, but it looks like its simple to use, sort of a simplified version of ProGraph (A visual language which may or may not still exist)
Re:cat shooter (Score:1)
Alternatively, get two mindstorm units and have them send a laser beam back and forth to each other, if the beam get's broken (i.e. the cat walks between them) spray the water.
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Re-implement Logo (Score:1)
Re:Finally! A physical graph of my apache hits (Score:3)
Re:How ironic, the MPAA (Score:1)
Re:cat shooter (Score:1)
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Re:Lego Languages (Score:2)
Re:Where goeth Legos? (Score:1)
Hm, I remember writing Lego in, well, I think it must have been shortly after the first Space Shuttle launch, suggesting more specialized parts, like curved things and such, to be able to make more smoothly looking spaceships... Maybe I am to blame....? :-)
Re:Has anyone... (Score:2)
Another needed HOWTO (Score:2)
`` [drizzle.com]
Re:Has anyone... (Score:1)
Re:Simple Programming Language? (Score:1)
IIRC, the official development environment that you get with a Mindstorms set is built around an ActiveX component that you use with a drag-and-drop Windows interface. Seems pretty easy.
Extending the hardware? (Score:1)
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:1)
Re:Legos & Linux... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Older LEGO systems? (Score:2)
Re:Isn't Lego a bit childish for /. ? (Score:1)
Steven
Won $50 worth of Lego's in a "creative building" contest when he was seven with a cool skateboarding robot design built out of the little Lego sets that came with McDonalds Happy Meals(all I had at the time). Used the money to buy three Lego Technic sets, the pneumatic ones, and never looked back.
Is teaching his 4 year old how to program Mindstorms, and dug out the old pneumatic sets too.
Creative Juices flowing...must stop...can't.. (Score:1)
For some reason I looked back through the archive of Lego topics on
Basic idea. Put a motor on the plunger which charges a compressed air tank so it charges continually. Have two lines running from the tank to the firing plunger controlled through a SPDT switch, when air is put in at the bottom of the firing plunger, it shoots out and knocks the brick down the barrel, when I throw it the other direction, it will allow the compressed air to flow into the upper input on the firing plunger and retract it, allowing another brick to fall into the firing chamber from the clip. And I can even build the switch into the housing so it looks like a trigger.
The only real problem I see is getting the air chamber compressed to the point where there is a decent velocity imparted to the brick when the plunger strikes it. Those motors don't have near the amount of power the old Robotix building set motors did. I'll have to build gear ratios to allow the mechanism to push the compressing plunger down once there is a fair amount of compressed air in the tank already. Of course my upper limit is the working pressure in the rubber lines, I can make the gear ratio something ungodly and put tons and tons of pressure into the chamber, it may take forever to re-pressurize after firing, but that's the only way I can see to get decent velocity out of the firing plunger.
Now I'm going home and build this stupid thing, my kids will love it. I'll post the design when I get it completed.
Steven
Has anyone... (Score:2)
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Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:2)
world domination (Score:1)
Re:Has anyone... (Score:1)
Not yet, but my daughter is only 4, and is still learning how to use regular sized Lego.
Plus, I don't have a mindstorms yet, perhaps in six months.
George
lego (Score:1)
Legos & Linux... (Score:2)
Mindstorm to create a physical bar graph? (Score:2)
It'd be the first time a Lego construction ever got Slashdotted.
Java - Yes! (Score:2)
Now I can create a turtle using Java and a hare using C. Things get more realistic every day!
Now if only I could use my ultimate VB and AOL skills somehow...
Finally! A physical graph of my apache hits (Score:3)
Simple Programming Language? (Score:2)
no it wouldn't. (Score:1)
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Re:I have... (Score:1)
"I figured it'd be a lot safer than heroin...
Legos may be safer, but heroin is cheaper.
Re:Isn't Lego a bit childish for /. ? (Score:3)
It doesn't sound like you grew up so much as grew older. Your post sounds like a typical bitter old-timer, "Damn kids, when are ye gonna learn ye gots to grow up!"
I'm 26, happily married, have good financial investments and am a systems/network administrator for a small company with a good salary and bonus. However, I still play with toys (and the old Transformers and Legos are my favorites) and I still watch cartoons (Cartoon Network is only second to the sci-fi channel in my book, and those two occassionally trade places during certain months). Does that make me a child? Hardly. I work my butt off, I pay my bills, and I treat my wife with respect (or she wouldn't be my wife). Yet I'm still able to enjoy a good 'childish' thing like cartoons and toys.
You knock Legos as childish. The funny thing is that Legos are designed with the basic premise of helping you develop your mind and your imagination. You are never too old to give up on those sorts of ideals. You need to constantly exercise your brain to keep it growing. And just because it is targetted at kids doesn't mean you can't use it as an adult. If you feel that way, you've already lost part of your humanity. Hopefully you'll get it back.
Oh yeah, and if you think my wife has a problem with my 'childish' endeavors, why the hell did she pull me through Valley Fair, running from ride to ride, screaming her head off and in general acting like a big kid? Simple, she (like myself) hasn't grown old.
You can grow up without growing old. We choose to seperate those two things. It looks like you choose to combine them into one process. In a way I feel for you, but it's your choice. However, don't knock it just cause you don't like it. It's a lot more fun than you might think.
(Now, my hypothesis is you are either a troll, or the following applies: You have avoided using Legos and other 'toys' because you know deep down inside that if you went anywhere near them you would play with them and have a great time. This fear of looking 'childish' has kept you from exploring something you may enjoy. It's too bad, but it happens.)
Free software in a nutshell (Score:2)
Yup, seven different projects for Lego Mindstorms, but no window manager that works. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, the reason why Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and Bazaar" is wrong. Although we could actually have worked this out ourselves with a bit of thought -- how many real life bazaars have ever actually built anything larger than a hep of camel shit?
Forget the laser gun (Score:1)
Petrified grits would do more damage than some puny miliwatt-level laser. This is coming from someone who used to have hardened oatmeal fights as a child.
Re:cat shooter (Score:1)
Don't spray based solely on motion; you'd need two light sensors to do it; a person will simultaneously be on the floor as well as on the counter, due to height, where a cat will only be on one or the other. Use that discriminant to spray your cats!
The nick is a joke! Really!
wow I feel old (Score:2)
Ahh, I miss the days when you didn't have to know programming to make Lego killer robots. Now I just have to find a way to make a Technic automatic transmission.
Mindstorms Competition (Score:2)
busse
Re:Has anyone... (Score:1)
He's very good in building from the instructions that come with the sets.
Sad, but his mindstorms set (RCX 1.0) has no real step by step instructions! He likes the Cybermaster more, cause of the detailed instructions and the cooler Winbloze-CD.
I'try to get him closer to mindstorms with the PDF you can get at http://www.legomindstorms/
It's a step by step instruction for a cool looking grabber arm..He builded it in very short time and I would like to install my Sony CCD cam on it and build a webcam you can control with RCX.pm.
Perhaps I can get him closer to some programing, Maybe not, but it's fun anyways...:-)
Yours
Michael
Logo and Lego Turtles!!! (Score:1)
and then drive it using Logo. Put Van Halen on the stereo and pretend it is 1985. Maybe even dig out an Apple ][ as I'm sure it has enough CPU for the job.
to square
repeat 4 [forward 50 right 90]
end
square
pen up
forward 100
pen down
square
...
I am having the most intense deja-vu...
X.
"Free" as in ... (Score:2)
I can see it now. The next movement in Open Source meets Mechanical Engineering:
"Free" as in "Free your hand from the vise-grips."
Try a tripwire... (Score:1)
Or you could go lower-tech and just use a mechanical contrivance... After all, the cat might just chew up your Mindstorms device :-)
re: lego (Score:1)
and that (the commercialization of a relatively simple system) "just doesn't seem right" to you!?
now that scares me. i hope you have a plan for surviving technology saturated world your going to live in...
Re:I have... (Score:1)
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Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:1)
It works great! (Score:1)
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Books, too (Score:2)
Sure, it's nice to have an online resource, but I find a printed book easier to use. That, and the pictures in the book for assembly of lego monsters take no time to transfer over the wire!
Lego Languages (Score:3)
Perl: You have over 43,000 different bricks, though most of them seem to do the same thing. The model is built quickly, but seems to have used a lot more bricks than you expected.
Java: The bricks can also be used with Duplo and Meccano. However, they operate so slowly that you go for a coffee instead.
Come on, someone who actually knows what they're talking about continue/correct me...
I have... (Score:2)
... I figured it'd be a lot safer than heroin... :)
a site (Score:2)
What the ding-dang are you talking about? (Score:1)
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Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:3)
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Re:no it wouldn't. (Score:1)
George
Where goeth Legos? (Score:1)
Over the years, it seems the specialization continued to where legos are hyper-specialized. A set comes with a few normal bricks and many specialty items that don't have many uses.
Now, maybe it's reversing, with the greater amounts of generic pieces in the mindstorms and such sets, despite highly-specified star-wars, castle, and rock war sets.
Thoughts?
Why wait? (Score:1)
Plus, it may help prevent carpal tunnel.
George
Luddites on /. ? (Score:1)
-={(Astynax)}=-
Bug warning (Score:1)
Re:Extending the hardware? (Score:2)
if you look at the web you'll find many examples on how to do this.. www.google.com is your friend.
Re:Isn't Lego a bit childish for /. ? (Score:1)
Re:Try a tripwire... (Score:2)
Problem solved!
Re:world domination (Score:1)
"Good evening Mr. Gates, I'll be your server today"
Guess it could really happen....
T2 by a script kiddie? (Score:3)
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:2)
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:4)
Yes. Me.
"Was it easy to work with?"
Hardware: Just like regular (technic) legos.
Software: I use nqc--it's very very easy for a person who already knows C. Probably also quite easy for someone who knows programming. Probably a challenge for someone who doesn't know programming. OTOH, the nqc docs (and the book by Dave Baum) has A LOT of examples.
"For what age group would it make a good gift?" Upper age limit: none. There is plenty here to keep anyone occupied--it's not a "toy" (it's like a Palm compared to a PC--it does less, but it is still a general computing device).
Lower age limit: Depends on the child. Probably an 8 year old could handle it with help from someone who knows how to program. A 10 year old certainly could (with less help). The real controlling factor is the software. From the screenshots, the Lego-provided IDE is very easy to use.
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Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before? (Score:1)