Thomas Mueller
thomas @ tmspecial.com
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How to control LEGO® Mindstorms devices
PROGRAMMING CAN BE FUN
Outline
 timeline
 hardware
 software
 programming
 advantages/disadvantages
 resources
 questions
Timeline
Control
Center
Dacta
Code Pilot
RCX
Scout
1990
1995
1998/99
NXT
2006
Hardware
 RCX
 3 inputs/3 outputs
 8-bit Renesas H8/300 microcontroller
 32K RAM
 IR communication
Hardware
 NXT
 4 inputs/3 outputs
 32-bit AT91SAM7S256 processor
 8-bit ATmega48 microcontroller
 256 KB flash memory, 64 KB RAM
 4 KB flash memory, 512 Bytes RAM
 USB communication
Inputs (sensors)









touch
light
sound
ultrasonic
infrared
color
compass
acceleration
gyroscopic
Inputs
 buttons
 Bluetooth
 3rd party devices
 game controller
Outputs
 electric motors
 sound
 display
 Bluetooth
Software
 Graphical
 NXT-G
 RoboLab
 Microsoft Robotics Studio
 Assembly
 Next Byte Codes (NBC)
 C
 Not Quite C (NQC)
 Not eXactly C (NXC)
 RobotC
Software
 Java
 leJOS
 .NET
 NXT#
 IDE
 Bricx Command Center
 Microsoft Visual Studio
 Eclipse
NXT-G demo
Bricx/NXC demo
Fat Boy
Pinball machine
Slot machine
Advantages
 very affordable for a robotics set
 can be combined with 99% of all other Lego
parts
 huge community
 FIRST LEGO League had over 10,000 teams with
over 100,000 participants in 2007
Disadvantages
 price ($250 MSRP)
 not backwards compatible
 different sensors/motors
Resources
 General


LEGO
 http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Black_Destination/Default.aspx
Wikipedia
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_NXT
 Software


Bricx
 http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc/
 http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/
Microsoft Robotics Studio
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/default.aspx
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Robotics_Studio
Resources
 3rd party hardware


http://www.hitechnic.com/
http://www.mindsensors.com/
 Community



FIRST LEGO League
 http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx?id=970
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRST_Lego_League
LEGO user group of Los Angeles
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LUGOLA/
BrickShelf
 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=nxt&stype=dfic
 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=mindstorms&stype=fi
Questions
Contact
 Thomas Mueller


thomas @ tmspecial.com
http://www.tmspecial.com/downloads/Lego Mindstorms NXT.pptx
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