MINDSTORM, NXT-G & ISADORA

bruper

Hello Michel and thanks for your message.
Lego Mindstorms NXT is a programmable robotics kit that comes with the NXT-G programming software, or optionally LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS.A variety of unofficial languages exist, such as NXC, NBC, leJOS NXJ, and RobotC.
I am not a programmer at all and (beside operation), am not sure what exact protocol... what I can tell you is that I program on the very logical UI software what I want to do and send/receive live instruction to the NXT- brick and the motors/sensors connected to it and/or I download the command to the brick for a later usage, al via BT or via USB. The Mindstorm comes with the Next-brick, 3 motors & 4 sensors and a number of Lego bits and pieces like wheels, gears, etc.
It works with Mac or Windows or others like Iphone, etc.
The software is available for free on the Lego page and the followings are some of the many links talking about the NXT / NXT-G software and hardware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms_NXT#NXT-G
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/support/files/default.aspx
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/whatisnxt/default.aspx
http://education.lego.com/downloads/?q={02FB6AC1-07B0-4E1A-862D-7AE2DBC88F9E}
http://www.legoengineering.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124
http://www.stemcentric.com/nxt-tutorial/
http://www.philohome.com/nxt.htm
http://thenxtstep.blogspot.pt/p/building-instructions.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGW4DK04kCA&feature=related
http://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NIS1070
Best regards,
Bruno

bruper

Hello gavspav ,
thank you for your information, I saw the link you sent and the info:
"DiABlu LegOSC - This tool allows controlling the Lego Mindstorms NXT robots via Open Sound Control."
Unfortunately I know nothing about OSC at the moment, I will have to investigate :)

Skulpture

I will download the mac software and see what I can figure out. I understand it a little better now. Quite cool actually... I've now got a good reason to start playing with Lego again! I loved Lego! How much is a basic starter kit in the UK?

bruper

thanks Skulpture, I bough it trough ebay for £200 a few months ago

Skulpture

OSC is just a protocol abbreviated as OSC it sends numbers via the range of 0.0 to 1.0.

If you can get these numbers into your software via the LegOSC then you can apply it to your machine/lego controller(s).

Its basically a soft hack from what I can gather.

bruper

this is photo of my set-up with mindstorm

bruper

I meant the NXT-brick, the Pico-dolly and the Merlin-mount on top

bruper

I wrote to DiABlu this morning and I received already an answer, hope it makes sense to someone:

"I don't know Isadora, but if it accepts and sends OSC messages that
you should be able to control the NXT.
DiABlu is a bit old, so you might need to download recent serial
communication libraries (I used RXTX) for your system, but it should
work.
If you decide to try it out, make sure you launch it from the command
line so that you have access to the full logging messages. It might
come in handy if something goes wrong...
Jorge"

Skulpture

Isadora doe send and receive OSC so it looks like its possible.

bruper

great, so far so good, I'll need to investigate...

mark

What a great thread. Robotic legos with Isadora -- love it. ;-)

But just FYI, to correct Graham's statement: "OSC is just a protocol abbreviated as OSC it sends numbers via the range of 0.0 to 1.0." -- actually OSC can send any 32-bit floating point number or integer.

The range of floating point numbers are -3.4 × 10³⁸and +3.4 × 10³⁸. (As the numbers get bigger, you lose precision in digits nearer to the decimal point)

The range of integer numbers are -2147483648 to +2147483647

Best Wishes,

Mark

bruper

Thanks Mark, Graham did you by any chance, downloaded the NXT software to have a look? Any help on the OSC connections (Am I greedy?) would be greatly appreciated :)

gavspav

I have a mindstorms kit I got off ebay lately to explore with my kids though typically haven't used it that much.

We made an amazing pinball machine from plans off the website though!

Bruper if you dig into the Diablu stuff and let me know how to install it I can try to get it to work with Isadora.

gavspav

I've started looking into this and not surprisingly I think there are a few ways to do it.

Are you using a mac or a pc. Someone has written a GlovePie script to control the nxt with a wiimote, so it would be possible to adapt this to control it from Isadora via midi/osc/keyboard/take your pick.

http://www.norgesgade14.dk/bluetoothremote.php

On a mac maybe it would be possible to get this to work: http://code.google.com/p/nxtbluetoothbridge/

bruper

thanks gavspav, I'm using mac, I will investigate, but do you mean this?: http://code.google.com/p/diablu/downloads/detail?name=DiABluLegOSC-0.5.zip&can=2&q=

Skulpture

Nope not downloaded it yet. I will do though. And Mark is 100% right in correcting me I was just keeping it simple. It seems Gav is on the case also! Knew Gav would like this ;-)

gavspav

I do like it but I'm not really on the case. Can't think of anything I want to do with it (this week).

Bruper - one thing I wasn't sure of - does the Diablu stuff work with Nxt or Nxt 2.0 (is there a difference?)

bruper

good point Gavspav, I just sent an e-mail to Diablu and will let you know as soon as I receive an answer (from my research "...the NXT 2.0 uses Floating Point operations whereas earlier versions use Integer operation.... The 2.0 software has some great additions (.ric creator, datalogging, etc.) but the software isn't that radically different... In terms of programming and i/o ports they are the same... other differences are plastic and wheels bits and pieces..."

bruper

Gavspav, I now received an answer from Diablu: NEXT2

gavspav

I was going to have a look at this today but I couldn't get the mindstorms software to run on my system - I'm on Lion.

It returns an error 'unable to open resource files.'

A bit of googling suggests its going to eat up time I haven't got.

Bruper can you shed any light on this?

I used windows before I think - or maybe Snow Leopard - but like I said if you're going to use Windows you can just use the GlovePie script above.

The latest stable download of RXTX appears to be the same as the one on Legosc so it looks like you wouldn't need to update the serial library.