Re: Nemesis4Lego controller

In lugnet.robotics, Joe Strout wrote:
> In lugnet.robotics, Titus Gabriel Petrut wrote:
>
>> All in all, this is a fun project for me, and if there is a real demand, I 
>> will
>> consider building more units. I will make some Slaves for myself and keep you
>> all posted with the results.
>
> Gabriel, please do keep working on this!  It's exactly the sort of thing I've
> been looking for for years.  I get frustrated with the high cost and hard 
> limits
> of the RCX; it sounds like your units would be far superior in terms of entry
> cost and flexibility.
>
> I can imagine other slave units for things like an LCD display output, a 
> keypad
> input ("sensor"), and custom sensors like ultrasonic range finder, electronic
> compass, etc.
>
> Incidantally, I haven't managed to see your web site about it yet -- when I
> tried, you had already exceeded your bandwidth quota!  That should give you 
> some
> idea of the interest among the ALE community in your project.  I have extra
> space on my site, if you'd like, perhaps we can consider hosting your project
> notes there.
>
> Best,
> - Joe

Joe, the controller, as it is built right now, has two 3 pin ports exacly for
sensors like ultrasonic, Sharp SP2D12, compass, accelerometer, etc. and servos.
And I have in the works a module with a serial LCD.

About my site. I just cheked it and it works. I guess if too many people try to
access it at the same time it will give out that message. But my friend Jona
offered to hosted it on our club's website, probably
<link>www.24tooth.com/nemesisforlego<link>
 Give him a day to put it on.


I have to add a few things that sliped my mind yesterday.

First of all, these modules will be independantly programable and they can be
used separately. For this purpose I have chosen to make them have their own Lego
power connector. To program them, you will need a RS232 interface and a serial
cable. ($15 for the interface)

Secondly, I forgot to say that these controllers have commands to work with
1Wire devices and I2C devices. Use the 3 pin ports to set up your own I2C
network for instance.

There can be a module with a EEPROM so you can store all your maping coordinates
or data received from a CMUCam. The program memory still remains 2048Bytes for
Nemesis and 256Bytes for Athena and Perseus. But the compiler uses a compressing
technology, so you can make programs a few times bigger than the allocated
space. And when you hit Compile, it returns the number of Bytes your program
will use, so you can adjust it acordingly. (Commands like "print" use a lot of
memory space, so you can cut them off in the final version, after you do all
your testing)

There are 2 other controllers that work at a higher speed using a 20MHz cristal
at the expense of using 2 input/output ports. These are AthenaHS and NemesisHS.



I have thought to do the same controller using a Megabitty Atmel AVR board that
has I think up to 8 sensor inputs, 2 motor outputs, Serial, 1Wire, I2C... more
speed and memory... However it is hard to program. Well, for guys like Steve
Hassenplug it will be no big deal. But I am not a programmer as I am not an
electronic engineer. And it is pricey at $50 just the board. Plus $10 for the
serial interface, plus the brics, etc it will be too expensive.


I hope this will give everybody a better ideea of the capabilities of these
micro-controllers. As I have said before, if there will be a real demand for
them, I will start manufacturing them.

Gabriel