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 Robotics / RCX / legOS / *4048 (-40)
Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 12 May 2009 01:44:54 GMT
Viewed: 
28040 times
  
I have again updated the Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge
at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699

A big change this time is the consolidation of the code bases of util/firmdl
and util/dll-src.  Working with all the similar-but-different code was
getting a bit cumbersome, so I finally decided to try to clean it up.  This
should make enhancing or creating other host utilities much easier.

Point by point, updates since the last lugnet posting are as follows:
* Kudos to Joe for identifying the source of the IR tower problem in Linux,
as he tracked it down to the O_NDELAY flag.  For now, this flag has been
removed.
* Made NCD tty types a runtime option instead of a compile-time #define.
* Merged patches for BrickOS with Bibo, including LDCC, lnp_printf, and
lnpmsg (formerly LegOShrink)
* Reworked firmdl3, dll, and lnpmsg under utils as well as lnp and
lnp-logic in the kernel to facilitate better code reuse, remove essentially
duplicate code, and establish a set of common functions for rcx_comm and
LNP.  Merged the resulting code into util/host, deprecating util/firmld,
util/dll-src, and util/fontdesign.c.
* Util dll--made fast mode a runtime option instead of a compile-time
#define.
* Added ability to send LNP messages directly from the lnpmsg command line.
* Added ir-server from Jochen Hoenike's BrickEmu package and used the code
reworked from above to add support for tty downlinking (e.g. serial, USB,
TCP) or TCP uplinking.


Notes and issues:
* If lnp_integrity_byte() is processing firmware download communication on
the host (e.g. if lnpmsg is listening on an ir-server repeating the firmware
download), a segmentation fault will eventually result.
* Command-line argument format and command-line argument processing - the
various programs use different methods of processing command-line arguments,
resulting in similar argument being handled differently by different
programs.  Ideally, this would be addressed in another round of code
cleanup.
* I am not currently setup to test either serial IR towers or NCD serial
connections, so any reports for these devices would be welcome.

Using the updated ir-server, I have actually been able to send firmdl3 to
ir-server (instance A) to ir-server (instance B) to USB IR tower to physical
RCX.  I then used
dll to send helloworld_lnp.lx up the same route.  Finally with one instance
of lnpmsg listening on ir-server (A) and another instance of lnpmsg
listening on ir-server (B), I ran the helloworld_lnp program on the physical
RCX.  I did have to increase RCX_TIMEOUT to 500, but everything otherwise
works as expected.

I also tried the same sequence using BrickEmu (with a ROM image from my RCX)
instead of the USB IR tower.  The only anomaly was that "unlock firmware"
fails, but everything else seems to work fine.


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 9 May 2009 12:14:06 GMT
Viewed: 
28416 times
  
Hey folks

I've created a very basic site here: http://www.rcxzone.com/

When I say very basic I mean VERY basic.. it's just an empty instance
of mediawiki, but I'll look to adding content when I get a chance.
Any help appreciated.

Cheers
Tom

On 20/04/2009, at 6:29 PM, Joe Bradley wrote:

Revised version [BrickOS patches] at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?
func=detail&aid=2722649&group_id=58151&atid=486699

Now for Bibo....  I have merged these patch rollup collections
with Bibo
(where appropriate) and have posted the resulting diff files to
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?
func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699

I have found two problems with the patches. I narrowed down the
problems to
specific patches from the Bibo set. However the symptoms are
identical under
BrickOS so I assume they would be linked to the same patches there.

Patch 10: Under Ubuntu with the usb tower, this causes firmdl3 to
exit with
error "read: resource temporarily available". However the light
does light up on
the tower for a small moment.

Patch 11: This seems to do something funny with the motors. Power
does not seem
to be supplied to the motors. when running the motor, the arrows
appear on the
lcd however there is no power being outputted.


Subject: 
Simple Lego traffic light
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:12:00 GMT
Viewed: 
27589 times
  
After all the amazing post across lugnet the past few weeks, it feels
a bit lame putting this one up:

http://rubyredbricks.com/2009/4/27/simple-traffic-light

I guess once it's running up on an RCX it'll be a bit more interesting.

On the topic of RCX - and the whole old-school Mindstorms
preservation idea - I haven't forgotten about it. I've registered a
domain and will aim to get a wiki up and running over the weekend.

Cheers
Tom


Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:50:53 GMT
Viewed: 
27357 times
  
I have updated the Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699

The primary changes are in Patch 11, which provides DCC support, and the key
change in that patch was the modification of some assembly code that
performed motor controller bitmasking.

Still known to be outstanding is an issue using firmdl3 on Linux when using
a USB IR tower.


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:16:09 GMT
Viewed: 
28674 times
  
Patch 10: This works for me under Cygwin with a USB tower, but some of the
files such as rcx_comm.c have a bit of platform-specific code.

Patch 11: I've noticed that the linker command file is a little different in
Bibo than it was in BrickOS.  If _motor_controller is 0x00 in bibo.ld and
dm_mask is set to 0x00 in dmotor.c dm_init(), there is "regular" motor
output; if _motor_controller is the BrickOS value of 0x80, DCC motor output
functions as expected.


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:29:14 GMT
Viewed: 
28209 times
  
Revised version [BrickOS patches] at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2722649&group_id=58151&atid=486699

Now for Bibo....  I have merged these patch rollup collections with Bibo
(where appropriate) and have posted the resulting diff files to
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699

I have found two problems with the patches. I narrowed down the problems to
specific patches from the Bibo set. However the symptoms are identical under
BrickOS so I assume they would be linked to the same patches there.

Patch 10: Under Ubuntu with the usb tower, this causes firmdl3 to exit with
error "read: resource temporarily available". However the light does light up on
the tower for a small moment.

Patch 11: This seems to do something funny with the motors. Power does not seem
to be supplied to the motors. when running the motor, the arrows appear on the
lcd however there is no power being outputted.


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:02:41 GMT
Viewed: 
28100 times
  
A very useful site is the cs university page here:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs148/old/2004fall/brickos.shtml
Agreed.  There is also a set of pages from the following school year at
http://cs.brown.edu/courses/csci1480/old/2005/brickOS/quickstart.html .
Unfortunately (at least from a code merge perspective), their "version 1.2"
is based on BrickOS 0.2.5.  The lnp_printf functionality has been adapted
and included in the recently-posted rollup patches, but incorporating other
modifications, such as "Reliable LNP," is more involved due to the
difference in BrickOS versions.

A page of patches: http://carl.troein.com/
[@Carl]: Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe these patches are
already included in the rollup posted to SourceForge?

If the SourceForge project wiki for BrickOS could be enabled....

I've noticed another thing that is disappearing is the custom sensors and
multiplexor boards that were created for the RCX....


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:38:55 GMT
Viewed: 
26341 times
  
Now for Bibo....  I have merged these patch rollup collections with Bibo
(where appropriate) and have posted the resulting diff files to
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699

Most of this follows the pattern of the previous patch rollup collection for
BrickOS, with the following notes:
* 00 - Update configuration and make slight makefile modifications to work
with Cygwin
* 10 - As Carl noted, there are similarities between rcxtty.c and
rcx_comm.c.  I updated this patch to add code to rcx_comm.c that previously
was only in rcxtty.c.  There are still some differences (such as in return
types, use of exit(), and FileDescriptor handling), but this should reduce
the gap.
* 13 - I originally added LegOShrink as lnp_shrink (due to the OS naming
issue) but have added it here as lnpmsg.
* 16 - [@Carl]: I have not included the edgecount patch.  Most of the
edgecount code appeared to be fairly straightfoward to incorporate into
Bibo; however, the assembly code in ds_interrupt in dsensor.c is a little
different, which could impact the edgecount patch.  If you have the time to
take a look at it, that would be great, as it would be nice to have it
included.


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:24:44 GMT
Viewed: 
27370 times
  
A very useful site is the cs university page here:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs148/old/2004fall/brickos.shtml
Plenty of useful tutorials and instructions. It would be unhelpful to have it
disappear.
All of the stuff at the legos/brickos sourceforge pages, however a backup
probably isn't needed of these.
A age of patches: http://carl.troein.com/

These are just the ones off the top of my head.


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:31:38 GMT
Viewed: 
27445 times
  
A list of all the current versions and patches, along with links and
perhaps backups would be very useful.

Nice to see a few of us share the interest.  :-)  The best I can offer for a
list of patches is what I listed in the post here [
http://news.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx/legos/?n=4032&t=i&v=a ], along with
Carl's follow-up post.  That list was culled from links I've collected over
the years.  As was noted, there are different patches out there for
different versions of BrickOS, and those two posts are an effort to merge
together appropriate patches against the latest SourceForge version of
BrickOS.  From Carl's post, the link to download the latest version of this
collection of patches is
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2722649&group_id=58151&atid=486699 .
The patches are numbered and are intended to be applied in numerical order.

As was also noted, patches yet to be merged deal with "reliable LNP," task
prioritization, task scheduling, memory allocation, real-time sensors, etc.

To the tools versions--
* binutils: 2.16.1 - h8300 COFF support was dropped from subsequent
releases, so unless BrickOS is updated to h8300 ELF, we will have to stick
with this version
* gcc: 3.4.6 - this is the version that I use; I think Carl has had some
success with some releases in the version 4 series

Dr. Jochen Hoenicke's Bibo is also worth considering as a "next version" of
BrickOS.  I have started going through that list of patches to carry over
any relevant changes to Bibo.  If I can get them ported over to Bibo, I
expect I will base any of my future "legOS" development on Bibo.

For some 404 pages, http://www.archive.org/ might be your friend; no
guarantees, though.


Hope this helps,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:30:17 GMT
Viewed: 
26664 times
  
After surfing through many sites, and (sadly) even more 404s I have been
unable to find a definitive list of gcc, binutils, BrickOS etc. versions and
patches that I should and could be using.

Presumably everybody here has up to date versions of all the necessary programs
working with BrickOS.

What would be very useful would be to have a solid list of patches, version
numbers, problems as of now.

I spotted the patch list on the first post of "BrickOS Patches and Development"
and found it very handy.

The main problem in getting everything together is that every site I visit seems
to have been left unattended for many years, and are all recommending old and
outdated versions of compilers and patches.

A list of all the current versions and patches, along with links and perhaps
backups would be very useful.


Subject: 
Preserving old-school Mindstorms resources
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:57:16 GMT
Viewed: 
26330 times
  
Hi all

Lately I've noticed a lot of old-school Lego Mindstorm resources are
starting to disappear from teh webz. I've blagged about wanting to
preserve this stuff here: http://rubyredbricks.com/2009/4/12/back-to-
the-brick

If anyone knows of any resources you think should be maintained
please let me know. I'm going to do my utmost to make sure stuff
doesn't just "blow away". TIA

Cheers
Tom


Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 5 Apr 2009 02:31:22 GMT
Viewed: 
26327 times
  
It is really hard to find a working binutils version.  The newer ones
do not officially support the architecture any more and with many of
the older versions I was hit by some bug that produced buggy code
without even issueing a warning.

binutils-2.16.1 has problems with local labels ("bne 1f ;....; 1:"),
so make sure they're not used in inline assembler code.  I removed
them from my second performance patch, but they are still in bibo at
several places.  I'm not sure if they will lead to crashes there.

I have found the following related to the removal of h8300-*-hms from
binutils:
1)
http://ring.nict.go.jp/archives/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-4-0/src/gnu/dist/binutils/binutils/NEWS
2)
http://www.nabble.com/The-situation-of-gcc-h8300-hms-and-related-packages-td6455838.html
3)
http://www.nabble.com/Bug-387772:-Can-binutils-h8300-hms-be-removed--td6956460.html

The current Debian version of binutils-h8300-hms is 2.16.1-8
- http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=binutils-h8300

On the package page ( http://packages.debian.org/sid/binutils-h8300-hms ),
there is a downloadable *.diff.gz file.  That diff file, in turn, creates
several "*.dpatch" diff files.  At least from scanning the patch
descriptions, I'm not sure that any of those patches address the local label
issue.  I did find this bug that was reported against binutils 2.17 -
http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2101 , but it looks like more
of an issue with hex constants than local labels.


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 4 Apr 2009 14:31:03 GMT
Viewed: 
26898 times
  
Hi,

1 - 5. Dr. Hoenicke's patches (
http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/brickOS.html ),
including gcc33, highmem, performance, Makefile, and tcpcomm

The second, "experimental" version of the performance patch (which adds
CONF_DSENSOR_FAST) also works well with the following patches.

I had worked to assimilate those patches prior to the second version of the
performance patch being posted, so I'm glad to hear that it also works well.


That reminds me that there's some fairly trivial code duplication between
dll and firmdl.  It's not very important, but I'll try to do something
about it soon.

When I went back through to add TCP support to other things, that "similar
but different code" made things a little more difficult.  There are more
things that could use the addition of TCP support, including xsLisp.  I
think a nice enhancement to the TCP ir-server would be to give it the same
"--tty" interface options as dll and firmdl--i.e., directly with a serial
tower, USB tower, or another TCP ir-server.  This, for example, would enable
a "real" brick and a BrickEmu instance to communicate with each other.

Anyway, the short of it is that, yes, I think a merged communication library
would be very useful.

By the way, I don't know if you monitor the NQC newsgroup, but I submitted a
patch to add TCP support to NQC....


- RE: BrickOS and Bibo
Personally, my feeling is that Bibo improves upon BrickOS and will provide a
better foundation moving forward, and I say that as one who has spent some
time incorporating a number of patches into the latest BrickOS.  I'm not
sure yet how much effort will be involved in working back through them to
apply them to Bibo (I'm thinking in particular of patches 7 - 16), but I
think it would ultimately be worth the effort.  Of course, a few of the
patches to BrickOS may not even be relevant in Bibo, but I would at least be
interested in having the LDCC, LNP printf, and LNP communication utility
functionality in Bibo.


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:40:37 GMT
Viewed: 
27772 times
  
Hello,

2009/3/31 Carl Troein <carl@thep.lu.se>:
Matthew Sheets wrote:

This is a follow up to earlier postings discussing the development status of
BrickOS.  While the Sourceforge project has not had much activity of late,
I've come across various modifications that, unfortunately, have never made
it upstream.  Even more unfortunate is that as time passes, it seems a few
more RCX sites go offline.

Case in point: when I first started on this post some weeks(!) ago,
hoenicke.ath.cx wasn't responding.

For some unknown reason the address suddenly pointed to the old server
again which was shutdown in December last year. I noticed it myself
only by chance. It seems that the dyndns record has changed back to
the old address on March 12th, and I still have no idea how this has
happened.

I have assembled a collection of patches that I have used to update my
version of BrickOS.  Some may be more familiar than others, but I have
listed them all here for completeness.  The numbers correspond to the
numbers in the diff file name in the archive file.

Excellent. I've gone through your set of patches, making sure they compile
without warnings with gcc 4.3.2. The binutils 2.16.1 assembler (on x86_64)
prints lots of annoying warning messages (like "Warning: operand
#0xfffffffffffffffa out of range."), but they appear to be completely bogus.

Sounds like a 64bit bug: -6 is converted to a 64 bit number and then
it complains that it doesn't fit in an 8 or 16 bit operand :)  But if
it is only a warning one can ignore it.

It is really hard to find a working binutils version.  The newer ones
do not officially support the architecture any more and with many of
the older versions I was hit by some bug that produced buggy code
without even issueing a warning.

binutils-2.16.1 has problems with local labels ("bne 1f ;....; 1:"),
so make sure they're not used in inline assembler code.  I removed
them from my second performance patch, but they are still in bibo at
several places.  I'm not sure if they will lead to crashes there.

Then, there is Dr. Hoenick's Bibo ( http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/bibo.html ).
WIth the only real difference from BrickOS being in the task scheduler,
would future development be farther ahead by using Bibo as the starting
point rather then the current BrickOS?

That's a very good question. From what I gather the bibo kernel is
quite a bit smaller and simpler than what we have today, but is that
reason enough to switch? Would we miss the features that we'd lose?
And what exactly _are_ the differences anyway, from a practical point
of view?

The most important difference is that the handlers are more robust, as
they are running in the idle thread with its separate stack, they can
invoke malloc/free, and they can be pre-empted by interrupts.  Another
point is the event-based scheduler:  Processes can register themselves
to wait on events and are scheduled when the event is triggered, e.g.
by a handler routine.  My plan was to make everything triggered by
events. However, to have backwards compatibility I still support the
old wait_event(&cond), which just runs the function cond every 5 ms
(in brickos cond is called, whenever the scheduler is run, which is
done every 100ms or when the system is idle or yield is called
explicitly).  The right way would be to run the function cond  when
sensors are polled or lnp message is received, depending on the type
of event we are waiting for.  However, waiting for a sensor poll is
not (yet) supported.  I would also like to see handlers for sensors in
bibo that get called after the sensor was polled.

Bibo is mostly backwards compatible to brickos, but you have to
recompile your sources against the right include files.  At least that
is the theory, I do not have so many programs to test against.  And I
didn't test if bibo compiles fine under cygwin.  Two of the wakeup_t
functions have been replaced by real event-based waiting functions:
use dkey_wait(KEY_PRESSED,x) instead of wait_event(dkey_pressed,x) and
dsound_wait() instead of wait_event(dsound_finished, 0).  A  known
missing feature is the time-slice scheduling of processes with the
same priority.  It would not be too difficult to add it.  However,
adding a yield at the right position to the user code gives much
better performance in most cases.

Regards,
  Jochen


Subject: 
Re: BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:10:42 GMT
Viewed: 
27566 times
  
Matthew Sheets wrote:

This is a follow up to earlier postings discussing the development status of
BrickOS.  While the Sourceforge project has not had much activity of late,
I've come across various modifications that, unfortunately, have never made
it upstream.  Even more unfortunate is that as time passes, it seems a few
more RCX sites go offline.

Case in point: when I first started on this post some weeks(!) ago,
hoenicke.ath.cx wasn't responding.

After finding BrickOS modifications or patches, there are at least two key
issues: 1) the changes are not always against the latest version of BrickOS
and 2) different sets of changes might modify the same section of code.

And it's not getting easier if we've collected different sets of patches
and then make further changes based on those... So yeah, we need to bring
everything that already exists together and then go from there.

I have assembled a collection of patches that I have used to update my
version of BrickOS.  Some may be more familiar than others, but I have
listed them all here for completeness.  The numbers correspond to the
numbers in the diff file name in the archive file.

Excellent. I've gone through your set of patches, making sure they compile
without warnings with gcc 4.3.2. The binutils 2.16.1 assembler (on x86_64)
prints lots of annoying warning messages (like "Warning: operand
#0xfffffffffffffffa out of range."), but they appear to be completely bogus.

1 - 5. Dr. Hoenicke's patches ( http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/brickOS.html ),
including gcc33, highmem, performance, Makefile, and tcpcomm

The second, "experimental" version of the performance patch (which adds
CONF_DSENSOR_FAST) also works well with the following patches.

6. Carl Troein's signedness patch (
http://news.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx/legos/?n=3987&t=i&v=a )

I've made some minor (I think) update to this one. Also, it now comments out
the nasty "find /" in the configure script, as I got a bit annoyed when it
printed hundreds of error messages when scanning /proc, /etc and other silly
paths (and even more annoyed when various noisy disks were spun up).

7. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - enable Makelx to handle longer file names
8. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - update entrypoint specification to the S9
record (Lego.NET)
9. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - address compatibility issues in
non-Linux/Cygwin environments
10. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - serial port init fix for Mac OS X

A line break in the middle of a comment util/firmdl/rcx_comm.c breaks
this patch. My version of the patch is almost identical (but working), and
as a bonus the indentation is consistent with the surrounding code.
[Update: ah, I see the bug is fixed in patch 13.]

11. Mark Riley ( http://news.lugnet.com/org/ca/rtltoronto/?n=14996 ) - LDCC
12. Brown.edu ( http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs148/old/2004fall/brickOS/
and
http://cs.brown.edu/courses/csci1480/old/2005/brickOS/quickstart.html ) -
LNP printf capabilities

At least with gcc 4.3.2 there's a warning about vsnprintf being implicitly
declared. I've created include/stdio.h with declarations of [v]snprintf and
made a new version of the patch.

13. Mike LeSauvage (
http://tarpit.rmc.ca/mcgaughey/eee243/labs/resources/legoshrink.html ) - LNP
communication utility; made modifications to reuse existing code and added
support for TCP communication (such as used by BrickEmu).  Please note that
I have not been able to test these changes for all platforms.

Neat. Good to see that you're reusing existing code. That reminds me that
there's some fairly trivial code duplication between dll and firmdl. It's
not very important, but I'll try to do something about it soon. As for
not tested on all platforms: the code doesn't compile on *ix because of
some calls to open() with the undefined mode flags O_BINARY and O_TEXT.
I've added a test for _WIN32.

14. Taiichi Yuasa ( http://xslisp.com/ ) - miscellaneous patches to BrickOS
that are packaged along with xsLisp

I've added the doxygen update and my edgecount stuff as patches 15-16.

I have uploaded this collection of patches to
http://sourceforge.net/tracker2/index.php?func=detail&aid=2601672&group_id=58151&atid=486699

Revised version at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2722649&group_id=58151&atid=486699

This is by no means an exhaustive inclusion of everything that is out there,
though what remains might require more effort to incorporate.
[...]
* ECU.edu (via archive.org -
http://web.archive.org/web/20070624025341/http://www.cs.ecu.edu/~hochberg/fall2002/brickOS/index.html )
- task prioritization, task scheduling, memory allocation, designate sensor
as real-time

I like the idea of being able to reliably get every sensor value, and
to do so without a long and unpredictable delay. A while back I wanted
something similar, but I want for a simpler solution: callback functions
in the sensor handler (one per sensor, called every time the sensor is
sampled), but that's a very fragile and error-prone solution (for one
thing, the user would have to disable interrupts to interact with
whatever struct the callback function uses to store the results).

* NCSU.edu ( http://moss.csc.ncsu.edu/~mueller/rt/rt05/readings/g1/ ) -
task scheduling, prioritization, etc.

While probably too large to include in a regular distribution, Olaf Christ's
TCP/IP-enabled RCX is interesting (via archive.org -
http://web.archive.org/web/20040324131317/http://users.informatik.haw-hamburg.de/~christ_o/)

It's way cool, but I'm less sure that it'd actually be useful. :-)

Then, there is Dr. Hoenick's Bibo ( http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/bibo.html ).
WIth the only real difference from BrickOS being in the task scheduler,
would future development be farther ahead by using Bibo as the starting
point rather then the current BrickOS?

That's a very good question. From what I gather the bibo kernel is
quite a bit smaller and simpler than what we have today, but is that
reason enough to switch? Would we miss the features that we'd lose?
And what exactly _are_ the differences anyway, from a practical point
of view?

Another thing: We should have a good asm implementation of the Power
Functions protocol. I've ordered the Emerald Night collection so soon
I'll have some power functions parts and a reason to control them
with BrickOS. Hopefully that will lead to something.

//Carl


Subject: 
BrickOS Patches and Development
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:14:30 GMT
Viewed: 
24294 times
  
Greetings,

This is a follow up to earlier postings discussing the development status of
BrickOS.  While the Sourceforge project has not had much activity of late,
I've come across various modifications that, unfortunately, have never made
it upstream.  Even more unfortunate is that as time passes, it seems a few
more RCX sites go offline.

After finding BrickOS modifications or patches, there are at least two key
issues: 1) the changes are not always against the latest version of BrickOS
and 2) different sets of changes might modify the same section of code.

I have assembled a collection of patches that I have used to update my
version of BrickOS.  Some may be more familiar than others, but I have
listed them all here for completeness.  The numbers correspond to the
numbers in the diff file name in the archive file.

0. There is a slight difference between the 0.9.0 source release and the
current Sourceforge CVS
1 - 5. Dr. Hoenicke's patches ( http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/brickOS.html ),
including gcc33, highmem, performance, Makefile, and tcpcomm
6. Carl Troein's signedness patch (
http://news.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx/legos/?n=3987&t=i&v=a )
7. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - enable Makelx to handle longer file names
8. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - update entrypoint specification to the S9
record (Lego.NET)
9. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - address compatibility issues in
non-Linux/Cygwin environments
10. Outstanding Sourceforge patch - serial port init fix for Mac OS X
11. Mark Riley ( http://news.lugnet.com/org/ca/rtltoronto/?n=14996 ) - LDCC
12. Brown.edu ( http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs148/old/2004fall/brickOS/
and
http://cs.brown.edu/courses/csci1480/old/2005/brickOS/quickstart.html ) -
LNP printf capabilities
13. Mike LeSauvage (
http://tarpit.rmc.ca/mcgaughey/eee243/labs/resources/legoshrink.html ) - LNP
communication utility; made modifications to reuse existing code and added
support for TCP communication (such as used by BrickEmu).  Please note that
I have not been able to test these changes for all platforms.
14. Taiichi Yuasa ( http://xslisp.com/ ) - miscellaneous patches to BrickOS
that are packaged along with xsLisp


I have uploaded this collection of patches to
http://sourceforge.net/tracker2/index.php?func=detail&aid=2601672&group_id=58151&atid=486699


This is by no means an exhaustive inclusion of everything that is out there,
though what remains might require more effort to incorporate.
* Brown.edu also includes "reliable LNP" code
* Powolny had several postings in 2008 on serial communication
* ECU.edu (via archive.org -
http://web.archive.org/web/20070624025341/http://www.cs.ecu.edu/~hochberg/fall2002/brickOS/index.html )
- task prioritization, task scheduling, memory allocation, designate sensor
as real-time
* NCSU.edu ( http://moss.csc.ncsu.edu/~mueller/rt/rt05/readings/g1/ ) -
task scheduling, prioritization, etc.

While probably too large to include in a regular distribution, Olaf Christ's
TCP/IP-enabled RCX is interesting (via archive.org -
http://web.archive.org/web/20040324131317/http://users.informatik.haw-hamburg.de/~christ_o/)


As a side note, several programming languages are available for developing
programs that run on BrickOS.
* XS [Lisp] ( http://www.xslisp.com/ )
* Esterel ( http://www.emn.fr/x-info/lego/ and
http://www.emn.fr/x-info/lego/esterel-tools/ )
* Lustre ( http://www.emn.fr/x-info/lego/ ) - The Lustre compiler is no
longer available at the link given on the Lustre page; it appears you now
have to go through
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~raymond/tools/lv4-distrib.html to get it.
* Grafcet ( http://www.emn.fr/x-info/lego/ ) In French; doesn't appear to
be any software to download
* Lego.NET ( http://www.dcl.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/research/lego.NET/ ) -
Supports a subset of the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Colibri ( http://opensource.se/colibri/ ) has some API's that could
potentially be incorporated.  "Version 0.1.1 has a reentrant scheduler,
timer functions, advanced semaphores (enhanced POSIX style), interrupt
handling code, some h8 uart code and a small collection of generic data
types."

Then, there is Dr. Hoenick's Bibo ( http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/bibo.html ).
WIth the only real difference from BrickOS being in the task scheduler,
would future development be farther ahead by using Bibo as the starting
point rather then the current BrickOS?


Cheers,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: Development status
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:31:31 GMT
Viewed: 
32633 times
  
Hi all,

This is great to see there's still some interest.  I may not have
opportunity to post over the next couple days, but I have created some
patches against the latest Sourceforge CVS (as I believe there are a few
differences between the CVS and the last release).  I have an Open Document
Spreadsheet detailing the patch changes (source, reason, etc.).  When I get
back, I'll try to upload the files somewhere.

I had also been in the process of gathering and/or creating some patches
against other BrickOS versions--there was an lnp_printf, lnp_reliable, some
task-related (priority inheritance, scheduling, resources), realloc....
After Bibo was released, I didn't pursue these as aggressively.

I've been working with binutils 2.16.1 and gcc 3.4.6--I noticed the same
disappearance in 2.17.


I think we need to stick with 2.16.1, I don't know whether porting brickos to
elf is really worth the trouble.

Newer gcc versions would be nice, indeed, and brickos also builds fine with
(some of?) these, but I never actually got it to run on the bricks when building
with anything newer than what we currently ship in Debian. If you gather some
patches and Stephen could try them out and gets it to work, I'd happily package
newer gcc versions. I think the problem always was some issue about BSS size - I
had fixed the ld script, but it didn't work anyway. Still, I might just have
been missing the proper patches.

Best,
Michael


Subject: 
Re: Development status
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:31:01 GMT
Viewed: 
32356 times
  
Hi all,

This is great to see there's still some interest.  I may not have
opportunity to post over the next couple days, but I have created some
patches against the latest Sourceforge CVS (as I believe there are a few
differences between the CVS and the last release).  I have an Open Document
Spreadsheet detailing the patch changes (source, reason, etc.).  When I get
back, I'll try to upload the files somewhere.

I had also been in the process of gathering and/or creating some patches
against other BrickOS versions--there was an lnp_printf, lnp_reliable, some
task-related (priority inheritance, scheduling, resources), realloc....
After Bibo was released, I didn't pursue these as aggressively.

I've been working with binutils 2.16.1 and gcc 3.4.6--I noticed the same
disappearance in 2.17.


Cheers,
Matthew


Subject: 
Re: Development status
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:25:57 GMT
Viewed: 
32057 times
  
Stephen M Moraco wrote:

In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Michael Tautschnig wrote:
That's great news so far :-) Some time ago, however, I've tried to get brickOS
to run on those old h8300 bricks, but it only seemed to work when using an old
tool-chain (which is also the reason why the related packages never got upgraded
to newer versions in Debian).

Unfortunately, I also don't have any access to bricks at the moment, so if
someone still has access to those bricks, it would be great if you could try out
Carl's patched packages. If it works out, I'd happily upgrade the Debian
tool-chain to newer versions!

From what I can tell, support for h8300-hitachi-hms(/coff) was dropped
from binutils after 2.16.1. I have no real idea how much work it would
take to port brickOS (plus brickemu, preferably) over to elf, but I
suspect that it'd be a lot. Still, I'll have a look at it to try to
at least figure out how long it might take me if I were to try. It'll
have to wait a bit though, because I have a major grant application due
in a few days, followed by a week-long visit by my mother.

I'm encouraged by your efforts Carl and I don't have time to do the gcc work so
Michael, I'd like to take you up on your offer.  I do have two of the RCX bricks
and a number of USB/IR towers and Linux machines. Carl, I've limited time so
rather than applying the patches one by one to replicate the code base your
using (which we _will_ have to do eventually) can you offer a ready to build
code set?  I'm only asking this to get a first test so we can prove/disprove
that Michael does have something to work towards.  That is that it does run so
he can work on updating the toolset.  What do you think? Other ideas welcome,
too.  I'm trying to enable us to get working without a larger time commitment
for the time being...

Sound reasonable?

It does indeed. The code with the 9 patches applied is now a tarball at
http://carl.troein.com/res/brickos_patches/brickos-carl-p09.tar.gz

Again, I really appreciate the time both of you are (or will be ;-) spending!

And I appreciate the encouragement from both of you. :-)
Oh, and I had a look on eBay and found a complete RIS 2.0 that I'll place
a bid on. Mightn't be very expensive, and it can't hurt to have two sets
(especially when one of them resides in a box in a country far away)...

Cheers,
//Carl


Subject: 
Re: Development status
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:14:17 GMT
Viewed: 
24722 times
  
Michael, Carl,

In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Michael Tautschnig wrote:

That's great news so far :-) Some time ago, however, I've tried to get brickOS
to run on those old h8300 bricks, but it only seemed to work when using an old
tool-chain (which is also the reason why the related packages never got upgraded
to newer versions in Debian).

Unfortunately, I also don't have any access to bricks at the moment, so if
someone still has access to those bricks, it would be great if you could try out
Carl's patched packages. If it works out, I'd happily upgrade the Debian
tool-chain to newer versions!

I'm encouraged by your efforts Carl and I don't have time to do the gcc work so
Michael, I'd like to take you up on your offer.  I do have two of the RCX bricks
and a number of USB/IR towers and Linux machines. Carl, I've limited time so
rather than applying the patches one by one to replicate the code base your
using (which we _will_ have to do eventually) can you offer a ready to build
code set?  I'm only asking this to get a first test so we can prove/disprove
that Michael does have something to work towards.  That is that it does run so
he can work on updating the toolset.  What do you think? Other ideas welcome,
too.  I'm trying to enable us to get working without a larger time commitment
for the time being...

Sound reasonable?

Again, I really appreciate the time both of you are (or will be ;-) spending!

Best Regards,
Stephen
--


Subject: 
Re: Development status
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:39:39 GMT
Viewed: 
24692 times
  
[...]
Hi Stephen, 2*Michael and others,
I've (finally) started playing around with brickOS again. My RCX and
almost all of my Lego is in storage a long long way from here, but
that may actually be a good thing in this context.

I've applied Jochen's patches and Rodolphe Pineau's OS X patch, fixed
a few warnings with gcc 4.4, updated the doxygen stuff and added some
code to count edges in the signals detected by sensors (useful for
counting the number of times a touch sensor was pressed, even at tens
of hertz or more - I used it to accurately measure the position along
a long gear rack). I've gathered the patches at http://carl.troein.com/

The documentation is in need of some loving care, but there's some
other stuff I'd also like to play around with. We'll see how it goes.


That's great news so far :-) Some time ago, however, I've tried to get brickOS
to run on those old h8300 bricks, but it only seemed to work when using an old
tool-chain (which is also the reason why the related packages never got upgraded
to newer versions in Debian).

Unfortunately, I also don't have any access to bricks at the moment, so if
someone still has access to those bricks, it would be great if you could try out
Carl's patched packages. If it works out, I'd happily upgrade the Debian
tool-chain to newer versions!

Thanks for your efforts,
Michael


Subject: 
Re: Development status
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:55:56 GMT
Viewed: 
24650 times
  
Stephen M Moraco wrote:
Carl,

    Welcome!  If you have the time and the interest we welcome your
    spending time on this.

    As you can tell there has not been much activity here in a while... ;-(

Hi Stephen, 2*Michael and others,
I've (finally) started playing around with brickOS again. My RCX and
almost all of my Lego is in storage a long long way from here, but
that may actually be a good thing in this context.

I've applied Jochen's patches and Rodolphe Pineau's OS X patch, fixed
a few warnings with gcc 4.4, updated the doxygen stuff and added some
code to count edges in the signals detected by sensors (useful for
counting the number of times a touch sensor was pressed, even at tens
of hertz or more - I used it to accurately measure the position along
a long gear rack). I've gathered the patches at http://carl.troein.com/

The documentation is in need of some loving care, but there's some
other stuff I'd also like to play around with. We'll see how it goes.

Cheers,
//Carl


Subject: 
Trains, Car and Level Crossing Automatic Control System
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.announce.moc, lugnet.trains, lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Followup-To: 
lugnet.trains
Date: 
Sat, 6 Sep 2008 03:50:52 GMT
Highlighted: 
! (details)
Viewed: 
67108 times
  
This system is used 4 RCXs to control 2 trains, 1 car and 1 level crossing.
RCX1 is used to control 3 switch points and response 3 light sensors.
RCX2 is used to control 3 segments track and response 2 light sensors.
RCX3 is used to control level crossing and response 2 light sensors.
RCX4 is used to control car.
The programming language is brickOS. Here is the whole layout. You can find
others image at http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=331237 .
The video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOOenaIdJ0 .

<<http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mikezang/pics/LevelCrossingControl/4thlegocreationcontest-01.jpg
Trains, Car and Level Crossing Automatic Control System>>


Subject: 
Re: Problem to send long messages from RCX to PC via com Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:41:37 GMT
Viewed: 
23973 times
  
In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Matthew Sheets wrote:
I don't know if this is would be of any help, as it uses a different
approach, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway....

Bi-directional Bluetooth to IR translator -
http://www.robotics.sk/maine.php?page=/projects/rcxbt/
  (PDF format: http://www.robotics.sk/projects/rcxbt/rcxbt.pdf )

While this solution doesn't allow both the serial and IR to be active like
the method that has been discussed, the Bluetooth adapter communication can
be throttled back to "2400-odd-1" (see PDF page 7).  Might this
communication configuration capability alleviate any of the present issues,
or has the communication speed limitation related to the other Bluetooth
adapter been overcome?


Thanks,
Matthew

Dear Matthew
I have found the problem. It was in kernel\lnp-locical.c
-> cheking the echo was the problem
solution: echo OFF
it is a rough solution, but it works

changes
1) rx_handler(void)
...
    // echos of own bytes -> collision detection
    //
    // S_RDR //! serial receive data register
    // !< tx_verify: ptr to next byte to verify
    if(S_RDR!=*tx_verify) {

    // //powo change we have no collision OK rs232 BT bf_flag=1;
    if (bt_flag == 0) {  // pow 0 infrared return with collision 1=comport bt
      txend_handler(); // shutdown transmit and irqs, clear status flags
      //tx_state=TX_COLL; //(-1) /!< not transmitting, last xmit was collision
      tx_state=TX_COLL;
      // if (bt_flag == 1) tx_state = TX_MIST;  // pow  error TX_COLL   (-1)
      }

and
-> echo OFF in function

2)
void reset_powo(void){
txend_handler();
tx_state=TX_RESET;  //TX_RESET  (-5)
}


static void rxerror_handler(void) {
..
  time_t new_tx;
  if(tx_state<TX_ACTIVE) {
    //lnp_integrity_reset();  // pow geändert kein txend_handler();
    reset_powo(); // //powo change we have no collision OK

    new_tx = get_system_up_time()+lnp_byte_safe;
    if (new_tx > allow_tx) allow_tx = new_tx;
  } else {
    txend_handler();  //
    //tx_state=TX_COLL; //(-1)
    tx_state=TX_ERROR; // (-2)  // 1) TX_COLL_LNP_RESET  (-4)  //!<
lnp_integrity_reset
  }

and in  include\lnp\sys\lnp-logical.h

////#define POWO B2400
extern unsigned char test_bt_flag (void);
extern unsigned char bt_flag;  // pow if 0 then infrared  1 bt oder com
extern unsigned char empfangs_byte ;


extern unsigned short lnp_logical_baud_rate;
extern unsigned short lnp_logical_parity;
extern unsigned short lnp_byte_safe;
extern unsigned short lnp_wait_txok;
extern unsigned short lnp_wait_coll;


the brick  program

... snip
void baud4800() {

   unsigned short lnp_byte_time = MSECS_TO_TICKS(3);          //!< 4800 baud

   unsigned short lnp_byte_timeout   =   (3*lnp_byte_time/2);      //!< timeout waiting for a byte    4,5 ms
   unsigned short lnp_byte_safe_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_time);    //!< delay before transmitting a byte  12
   unsigned short lnp_wait_txok_temp =   (2*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after good transmit         9
   unsigned short lnp_wait_coll_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after collision             18

   lnp_logical_baud_rate = B4800;
   lnp_logical_parity =    SMR_P_NONE;

   lnp_byte_safe = lnp_byte_safe_temp;
   lnp_wait_txok = lnp_wait_txok_temp;
   lnp_wait_coll = lnp_wait_coll_temp;
}

...

void infrared_on()    {
     //! enable IR carrier frequency.
     //extern inline void carrier_init(void) {  }
     T1_CR  =0x9;
     T1_CSR =0x13;
     T1_CORA=0x1a;
}


void infrared_off()      {
//! disable IR carrier frequency.    // carrier_shutdown();
//extern inline void carrier_shutdown(void)
  T1_CR  =0;
  T1_CSR =0;
}

int main ( int argc, char **argv ) {
....
   lnp_logical_shutdown();      sleep(1);
   baud4800();
   lnp_logical_init();
   infrared_off();
   bt_flag=1;   //NO  echo  tx ok
   ..

  best regards Bernhard


Subject: 
Re: Problem to send long messages from RCX to PC via com Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:29:18 GMT
Viewed: 
23120 times
  
I don't know if this is would be of any help, as it uses a different
approach, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway....

Bi-directional Bluetooth to IR translator -
http://www.robotics.sk/maine.php?page=/projects/rcxbt/
  (PDF format: http://www.robotics.sk/projects/rcxbt/rcxbt.pdf )

While this solution doesn't allow both the serial and IR to be active like
the method that has been discussed, the Bluetooth adapter communication can
be throttled back to "2400-odd-1" (see PDF page 7).  Might this
communication configuration capability alleviate any of the present issues,
or has the communication speed limitation related to the other Bluetooth
adapter been overcome?


Thanks,
Matthew


Subject: 
Problem to send long messages from RCX to PC via com Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:13:24 GMT
Viewed: 
23430 times
  
Hi,

Once again i am back about RCX and BT-Connection.

Receiving messages from the PC via BT to the RCX is OK.

But if I send messages from the RCX to the PC with 4800 Baud i get only 4 Bytes.

So I go back to 2400 Baud, forget BT and make a serial Connection via RS232 to
the PC.

Now i got only to bytes via rs232 in the pc.

1) I checked the result of the send procedure :
Oh i get -1:  means tx/rx Collission

void SendInt()
{
int result;
unsigned char buf_integrity[8];

   buf_integrity[0]  = 'A';
   buf_integrity[1]  = 'B';   // no more will be send
   buf_integrity[2]  = 'C';
   buf_integrity[3]  = 'D';
   buf_integrity[4]  = 'E';
   buf_integrity[5]  = 'F';
   buf_integrity[6]  = 'G';
   buf_integrity[7]  = 'H';

   result = lnp_integrity_write(   buf_integrity, sizeof(buf_integrity));

   lcd_digit(RxNr);
   lcd_int(result);
   RxNr++;
   if   (RxNr > 9)     RxNr=0;
}

I remember about the thread 4018 from Claude Baumann

I take a camera (you can see if the IF-leds on the rcx are flickering if TX) and
I see: the rcx is tx via the IF-leds.

I don't know why i get the tx signal back to rx pin, because i have cut the
receiverline in the rcx (IR-Receiver rx pin)
as shown  http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm

in the main program i do now:

cputs("if--") ;    sleep(1);
//! disable IR carrier frequency.    // carrier_shutdown();
//extern inline void carrier_shutdown(void)
  T1_CR  =0;
  T1_CSR =0;

  // ---------------   does not work ----------------------------
  // and set the port6<7> pin LOW. Now the upper PNP
  //transistor isn't conducting anymore.
  // Port Bit Description Notes
  // 6 7 Infrared carrier (TMO1) 26µs square wave

  cputs("pt67") ;      sleep(1);
  cputw(PORT6);        sleep(2);
  cputs("cler") ;      sleep(1);
  bit_clear(&PORT6,7);   sleep(1);
  cputw(PORT6);        sleep(1);

any suggest?

Bernhard


Subject: 
Re: RCX Serial Hardware Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Thu, 29 May 2008 12:15:50 GMT
Viewed: 
24055 times
  
Dear Claude

In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Claude Baumann wrote:
In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Bernhard Powolny wrote:
http://www-date.uni-paderborn.de/pub/people/dasas/Beh03.pdf

I can't find it anymore neither.


A: Thank you for finding the PDF.

Then i have done as it is discriped in
http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
but i dont understand realy why we should do that?

1) To correctly use the H8 TX line with the CMUCam2 module, the driving RCX
software MUST shut down the 38kHz carrier

like :

   void infrared_off()      {
//! disable IR carrier frequency.    // carrier_shutdown();
//extern inline void carrier_shutdown(void)
  T1_CR  =0;
  T1_CSR =0;
  }

The carrier should be quiet in any case, because it disturbs the TX signal.

and
2)set the port6<7> pin LOW. Now the upper PNP transistor isn't conducting
anymore.

FOR WHAT reason...

We tried this,but it didn't work. Why, because the transistor will drain some
current, if the emitter has positive voltage and the base goes low. If the
carrier is off, and by accident you set long range, then you have the chance to
repeat what I did: kill a couple of infrared LEDs. Don't forget that they are
driven at high current, but under the condition of a 50% duty cycle that is
guaranteed by the carrier. If you shut down the timer, then the pin is high or
low - the timer stops and you don't know the actual port6<7> state -

If you have short range, the LEDs will rapidly heat also and only burn after a
while. So, if your IR-TX doesn't work anymore... check you LEDs.


A: I will check ( measure the Voltage on the IF LEDS) should be approx. 9V
betweem LED and Transistor if everything is off.

But how managed  the people from to   http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
do it ????

With the CMUCam2 everything works fine, even at 19600 as I said.
.

A: Now i had success . It works.


more snap from the  http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
It is important to add a 100k pull-up resistor to the TX line !!! Otherwise the
TX voltage will drop down to 0.45V it

Pulling up the TX line IS necessary-at least with the CMUCam2, because the RX of
this device is not pulled up.

I have allready done it.

No idea, why it should not work. We have run our the CMUCam2 for hours at many
occasions. We rebuilt the whole thing with another RCX, that we sent to Tufts
Univ. They successfully played with the stuff.

A:Ok Now it works

best regards
Bernhard


Subject: 
Re: RCX Serial Hardware Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Thu, 29 May 2008 11:55:53 GMT
Viewed: 
25361 times
  
Dear Matthew

* So if I understand these posts correctly, 4800 baud now works with the IR
connection and not just with the hardware hack?

A: Now it works with 4800 baud via bluetoothconnection .

There was a couple of Problems.

1) At first i tried with the USB Tower but i coult only swith to 4800 bauds but
there  is no possibilty to change parity.

2) With the serial Tower i could change  ti 4800 baud an no parity but i used on
the laptop a USB to Serial converter. Maybe this is the problem. I'm not sure.

3) a)Now a load the "normal 2400 baud + paritiy" brickos 0.9.0 Software with the
USB Tower  down to the RCX.

b) Download the SW witch switch the baudrate 4800 doen to the RCX.

c) Start the SW on the RCX and witch send and receive messages and i had succes
with the Serial Bluetooth.
YES it works now.


*A couple posts from Dick Swan in the earlier thread noted the differences
in "IR transceiver" chips between RCX 1.0 and 2.0--will the software updates
work @ 4800 baud with a 1.0 RCX, or does this need to be tested?
A: The only difference bwtween 1.0 and 1.5 to 2.0 RCX is the IR receiver chip on
the RCX
RXC1.0 use 38hkz carrier and the RCX 1.5 2.0 use 76.khz carrier witch gives a
better solution for 4800 khz but you can't change parity on the Infrared TOWER
SW on the PC..



* In your final implementation, does the Bluetooth module communicate with
the RCX via IR ( as seems to be described in • A: Yes

http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~beutel/projects/sada/2002ss_erni_reichmuth_presentation.pdf
)
, or did you connect the Bluetooth module via the hacked serial port?


A: I connect the Bluetooth module via hacked serial port ( oh my dear you need
good eyes, a tiny solerding iron and a quiet room to do the hardware hack, dont
allow that your wife or kids comes in). But now i have done the hardware change
to my two RCX's 1.5 and 2.0.


* Are the changes to lnphost available as a patch?
A: Yes it's till now more experimental, but it works.

writen in visual C 2005

best regards
Bernhard


Subject: 
Re: RCX Serial Hardware Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Wed, 28 May 2008 00:19:26 GMT
Viewed: 
24050 times
  
"Claude Baumann" <cbaumann@ci.educ.lu> wrote in message
news:K1E031.y4@lugnet.com...
In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Bernhard Powolny wrote:
http://www-date.uni-paderborn.de/pub/people/dasas/Beh03.pdf

I can't find it anymore neither.

I was able to retrieve it from archive.org -
http://web.archive.org/web/20051207031919/http://www-date.uni-paderborn.de/pub/people/dasas/Beh03.pdf .


Subject: 
Re: RCX Serial Hardware Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 24 May 2008 19:13:49 GMT
Viewed: 
23828 times
  
In lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos, Bernhard Powolny wrote:
http://www-date.uni-paderborn.de/pub/people/dasas/Beh03.pdf

I can't find it anymore neither.

Then i have done as it is discriped in
http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
but i dont understand realy why we should do that?

1) To correctly use the H8 TX line with the CMUCam2 module, the driving RCX
software MUST shut down the 38kHz carrier

like :

   void infrared_off()      {
//! disable IR carrier frequency.    // carrier_shutdown();
//extern inline void carrier_shutdown(void)
  T1_CR  =0;
  T1_CSR =0;
  }

The carrier should be quiet in any case, because it disturbs the TX signal.

and
2)set the port6<7> pin LOW. Now the upper PNP transistor isn't conducting
anymore.

FOR WHAT reason...

We tried this,but it didn't work. Why, because the transistor will drain some
current, if the emitter has positive voltage and the base goes low. If the
carrier is off, and by accident you set long range, then you have the chance to
repeat what I did: kill a couple of infrared LEDs. Don't forget that they are
driven at high current, but under the condition of a 50% duty cycle that is
guaranteed by the carrier. If you shut down the timer, then the pin is high or
low - the timer stops and you don't know the actual port6<7> state -

If you have short range, the LEDs will rapidly heat also and only burn after a
while. So, if your IR-TX doesn't work anymore... check you LEDs.

But how managed  the people from to   http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
do it ????

With the CMUCam2 everything works fine, even at 19600 as I said.
.

more snap from the  http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
It is important to add a 100k pull-up resistor to the TX line !!! Otherwise the
TX voltage will drop down to 0.45V it

Pulling up the TX line IS necessary-at least with the CMUCam2, because the RX of
this device is not pulled up.

No idea, why it should not work. We have run our the CMUCam2 for hours at many
occasions. We rebuilt the whole thing with another RCX, that we sent to Tufts
Univ. They successfully played with the stuff.


Subject: 
Re: RCX Serial Hardware Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 24 May 2008 01:50:49 GMT
Viewed: 
24094 times
  
Glad to hear it is working--thank you for the update.  If I may ask, I have
a few questions--
* So if I understand these posts correctly, 4800 baud now works with the IR
connection and not just with the hardware hack?
*A couple posts from Dick Swan in the earlier thread noted the differences
in "IR transceiver" chips between RCX 1.0 and 2.0--will the software updates
work @ 4800 baud with a 1.0 RCX, or does this need to be tested?
* In your final implementation, does the Bluetooth module communicate with
the RCX via IR ( as seems to be described in
http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~beutel/projects/sada/2002ss_erni_reichmuth_presentation.pdf )
, or did you connect the Bluetooth module via the hacked serial port?
* Are the changes to lnphost available as a patch?


Thank you,
Matthew

P.S. I was able to find one of the "dead link" documents at archive.org -
http://web.archive.org/web/20051207031919/http://www-date.uni-paderborn.de/pub/people/dasas/Beh03.pdf .
Like a couple of the other documents listed in these threads, it is in
German.


Subject: 
Re: Success
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 20 May 2008 12:10:51 GMT
Viewed: 
23895 times
  
Hi

I have implemented the stuff
// and set the port6<7> pin LOW. Now the upper PNP transistor isn't conducting
anymore.

Now TX and RX works

Here are the program


#include <lnp.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <lnp-logical.h>
#include <dkey.h>
#include <dsound.h>

#include <sys/lnp-logical.h>
#include <sys/lnp.h>
#include <sys/h8.h>

#include <dkey.h>

#define MY_PORT 2
#define DEST_HOST 0x8
#define DEST_PORT 0x7
#define DEST_ADDR ( DEST_HOST << 4 | DEST_PORT )      // rcx0

#define SENDBUFF 25
unsigned char buf[SENDBUFF];
unsigned char len = 3;
unsigned char receive_buffer[5];

static const note_t rx[] = {
  { PITCH_C5,  1 } , { PITCH_D5,  1 } ,{ PITCH_E5,  1 } ,{ PITCH_END, 0 }
};

wakeup_t prgmKeyCheck(wakeup_t data)
{
    return dkey == KEY_PRGM;
}

/*
void packet_handler_add(const unsigned char* data,unsigned char length, unsigned
char src)
{
// ++rx_count;
}
*/

void baud2400() {

   unsigned short lnp_byte_time      =  MSECS_TO_TICKS(5);          //!< 2400
baud

   unsigned short lnp_byte_timeout   =   (3*lnp_byte_time/2);      //!< timeout waiting for a byte
   unsigned short lnp_byte_safe_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_time);    //!< delay before transmitting a b yte
   unsigned short lnp_wait_txok_temp =   (2*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after good transmit
   unsigned short lnp_wait_coll_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after collision

   lnp_logical_baud_rate = B2400;
   lnp_logical_parity =    SMR_P_ODD;

   lnp_byte_safe = lnp_byte_safe_temp;
   lnp_wait_txok = lnp_wait_txok_temp;
   lnp_wait_coll = lnp_wait_coll_temp;
}

void baud4800() {

   unsigned short lnp_byte_time = MSECS_TO_TICKS(3);          //!< 4800 baud

   unsigned short lnp_byte_timeout   =   (3*lnp_byte_time/2);      //!< timeout waiting for a byte
   unsigned short lnp_byte_safe_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_time);    //!< delay before transmitting a b yte
   unsigned short lnp_wait_txok_temp =   (2*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after good transmit
   unsigned short lnp_wait_coll_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after collision

   lnp_logical_baud_rate = B4800;
   lnp_logical_parity =    SMR_P_NONE;

   lnp_byte_safe = lnp_byte_safe_temp;
   lnp_wait_txok = lnp_wait_txok_temp;
   lnp_wait_coll = lnp_wait_coll_temp;
}

    void infrared_on()    {
     //! enable IR carrier frequency.
     //extern inline void carrier_init(void) {  }
     T1_CR  =0x9;
     T1_CSR =0x13;
     T1_CORA=0x1a;
  }

// doesnt work well with usb tower
void infrared_on76khz()    {
     //! enable IR carrier frequency.
     //extern inline void carrier_init(void) {  }
     T1_CR  =0x9;
     T1_CSR =0x13;
     // change it to76 KHz   setting T1_CORA to 0x0D instead of 0x1A.
     T1_CORA=0x0D;
  }

  void infrared_off()      {
//! disable IR carrier frequency.    // carrier_shutdown();
//extern inline void carrier_shutdown(void)
  T1_CR  =0;
  T1_CSR =0;
  }

void packet_handler_integrity(const unsigned char* data,unsigned char length)
{
dsound_system(DSOUND_BEEP);//DSOUND_SYS_MAX
// cputs(data);
}

void SendInt(int i)
{
int result,i;
   for (i=0; i<SENDBUFF; i++ ){
      buf[i]  = 'U';
  }

   buf[0]  = 'A';
   buf[1]  = 'B';
   buf[2]  = 'C';

   // result = lnp_addressing_write( buf, sizeof(buf), DEST_ADDR, MY_PORT);
        result =      lnp_logical_write(   buf, sizeof(buf));

   // result = lnp_integrity_write(data,len);
    // msleep(500);
   // result = lnp_integrity_write( buf, sizeof(buf));

}


int main ( int argc, char **argv )
{
int result,i;
int c=48;

  cputs("down") ;      sleep(1);
  //! Shutdown the logical layer (IR port)
  lnp_logical_shutdown();      sleep(1);

  // change Baudrate to 4800
  cputs("4800") ;      sleep(1);
baud4800();                      sleep(1);

  cputs("init") ;    sleep(1);
  lnp_init();        sleep(1);
  //! Initialize the logical layer (IR port)
  lnp_logical_init();         sleep(1);

// infrared carrier off
//  To correctly use the H8 TX line with the CMUCam2 module,
  // the driving RCX software MUST shut down the 38kHz carrier
cputs("if--") ;      sleep(1);
infrared_off();    sleep(1);

  // and set the port6<7> pin LOW. Now the upper PNP transistor isn't
conducting anymore.
  cputs("pt67") ;      sleep(1);
  cputw(PORT6);        sleep(2);
  cputs("cler") ;      sleep(1);
bit_clear(&PORT6,7);   sleep(1);
cputw(PORT6);        sleep(1);

  cputs("baud") ;                  sleep(2);
  lcd_int(lnp_logical_baud_rate);  sleep(2);


  // lnp_addressing_set_handler_add(MY_PORT, packet_handler_add);
  lnp_integrity_set_handler( packet_handler_integrity);
  //lnp_logical_range (0 );

  cputs("baud") ;        sleep(1);
  lcd_int(lnp_logical_baud_rate);         sleep(1);

  cputs("run") ;      sleep(2);

    while( 1 ) {
          if( prgmKeyCheck( 0 ) ){
             dsound_system(DSOUND_BEEP);//DSOUND_SYS_MAX
             baud2400();  sleep(1);
             bit_set(&PORT6,7); sleep(1);
             infrared_on(); sleep(1);
             break;
        }
        SendInt( c );
        lcd_int(c-48);   msleep(500);
        c++;
        if (c >= 48+10 ) c =48;

      cputs("baud") ;        sleep(1);
       lcd_int(lnp_logical_baud_rate);         sleep(1);
    }
    // infrared_off(); cputs("if--") ;        sleep(3);
    // infrared_on(); cputs("if38") ;        sleep(3);
    cputs ( "done" );
  sleep(2); // show done for 2 sec then clear display...
    lcd_clear();
    return 0;
}


by the way. I have written a DLL for the Infrared Tower based on the C program
called. lnphost

by
Bernhard


Subject: 
RCX Serial Hardware Hack
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Tue, 20 May 2008 05:48:00 GMT
Viewed: 
25031 times
  
Hi

As allready described in a other thread i have build a bluetoothconnection
between pc and the RCX.
There is one thing that the serial bluetooth is only available to tx/rx with a
minimum from 4800 baud.
At first i compiled brickos 0.9.0 with
#define CONF_LNP_FAST  //!< enable 4800 bps LNP in boot/config.h and
util/dll-src

Downlad of brickos.srec was successfull but i had allmost no success to download
the programs with 4800 baud.
Maybe it is the usb to serial coverter for the serial Tower.
The usb tower has no option for that in standart dll. ( Only with c++ pn Windows
but there is no feature to define the

parity bit)

So i changed the kernel and write a program to switch from the rcx from 2400 to
4800 baud.
This was sucessfull.

brickos:
include\lnp\sys\lnp-locigal.h

extern unsigned short lnp_logical_baud_rate;
extern unsigned short lnp_logical_parity;
extern unsigned short lnp_byte_safe;
extern unsigned short lnp_wait_txok;
extern unsigned short lnp_wait_coll;

kernel\lnp-locigal.c
unsigned short lnp_logical_baud_rate=LNP_LOGICAL_BAUD_RATE; // ok
unsigned short lnp_logical_parity =LNP_LOGICAL_PARITY;
unsigned short lnp_byte_safe = LNP_BYTE_SAFE;
unsigned short lnp_wait_txok = LNP_WAIT_TXOK;
unsigned short lnp_wait_coll = LNP_WAIT_COLL;

change:
  S_MR =lnp_logical_parity;
  S_BRR=lnp_logical_baud_rate;
and so on for safe txok and coll




rcx program:

#include <lnp.h>
#include <lnp-logical.h>
#include <sys/lnp-logical.h>
#include <sys/lnp.h>
#include <sys/h8.h>

void baud2400() {
   unsigned short lnp_byte_time      =  MSECS_TO_TICKS(5);          //!< 2400
baud
   unsigned short lnp_byte_timeout   =   (3*lnp_byte_time/2);      //!< timeout waiting for a byte
   unsigned short lnp_byte_safe_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_time);    //!< delay before transmitting a b yte
   unsigned short lnp_wait_txok_temp =   (2*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after good transmit
   unsigned short lnp_wait_coll_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after collision

   lnp_logical_baud_rate = B2400;
   lnp_logical_parity =    SMR_P_ODD;
   lnp_byte_safe = lnp_byte_safe_temp;
   lnp_wait_txok = lnp_wait_txok_temp;
   lnp_wait_coll = lnp_wait_coll_temp;
}

void baud4800() {
   unsigned short lnp_byte_time = MSECS_TO_TICKS(3);          //!< 4800 baud
   unsigned short lnp_byte_timeout   =   (3*lnp_byte_time/2);      //!< timeout waiting for a byte
   unsigned short lnp_byte_safe_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_time);    //!< delay before transmitting a b yte
   unsigned short lnp_wait_txok_temp =   (2*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after good transmit
   unsigned short lnp_wait_coll_temp =   (4*lnp_byte_timeout); //!< delay after collision

   lnp_logical_baud_rate = B4800;
   lnp_logical_parity =    SMR_P_NONE;
   lnp_byte_safe = lnp_byte_safe_temp;
   lnp_wait_txok = lnp_wait_txok_temp;
   lnp_wait_coll = lnp_wait_coll_temp;
}



I have done also the Hardware hack from
http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm

I search for the orignal hack but the link is dead
http://www-date.uni-paderborn.de/pub/people/dasas/Beh03.pdf

Then i have done as it is discriped in
http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
but i dont understand realy why we should do that?

1) To correctly use the H8 TX line with the CMUCam2 module, the driving RCX
software MUST shut down the 38kHz carrier

like :

   void infrared_off()      {
//! disable IR carrier frequency.    // carrier_shutdown();
//extern inline void carrier_shutdown(void)
  T1_CR  =0;
  T1_CSR =0;
  }

and
2)set the port6<7> pin LOW. Now the upper PNP transistor isn't conducting
anymore.

FOR WHAT reason i should do that. Maybe because the TX pin of the hitachi can
only drive only 1 TTL Load and a 30pf

load?? it is descriped in the HW Manual for the Hitachi CPU on page 104.

I try to do that without clear the bit 7 on port 6. and with infrared on.


I can receive data in the RCX from the pc via usb bluetooth serial connection
(4800 Baud) as described above
but
transmit data from RCX to Bluetooth module and further to the pc i got only
carbage.
I checked the TX Pin on the RCX with an osziloscope and it looks like the port
is a very sensible to an additional

LOAD. Also on the TX pin there is a carrier of 38Khz (level between 1 Volt means
the voltage is switching something

between 3 till 4 Volt ) .. Interesting..

Example:
If i want to load a program on the RCX and i don not disconnect the TX port to
the RX Port of the Bluetoothmodule, its

allmost impossible do do an download from the Infrared Tower to the RCX.
(I think TX signal breaks down for the resistance or capacative Load). I use the
same curcuit as desribed on the
page http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm

But how managed  the people from to   http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
do it ????

.

more snap from the  http://www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RCXCam/RCXCam_Journal.htm
It is important to add a 100k pull-up resistor to the TX line !!! Otherwise the
TX voltage will drop down to 0.45V it

won't be possible to set up a correct connection. (We do this on the CMUCam2
connector, since a 5V pin exists.)

I have done this hardware .

Maybe I missed something . Has somebody allready has expirience in general about
the RCX hack for RX/TX ?

best regards
Bernhard


Subject: 
Re: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 3 May 2008 17:19:02 GMT
Viewed: 
28222 times
  
by Bernhard

I have found the  thread,

its in http://news.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx/?n=1825&t=i&v=a

There is a also a 2 thread in
http://www.line.to/mac/MindStorms/JoyBricx/index-e.html

concernig the usb tower dll.
and a c program called
joybricxsrc.zip

I looked short in the header files
LEGOUSBTowerioctl.h

and there is a posibility to set the
speed

#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_300 LT_SPEED_BPS_300
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_600 LT_SPEED_BPS_600
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_1200 LT_SPEED_BPS_1200
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_2400 LT_SPEED_BPS_2400
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_4800 LT_SPEED_BPS_4800
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_9600 LT_SPEED_BPS_9600
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_19200 LT_SPEED_BPS_19200
#define LT_CAPS_SPEED_BPS_38400 LT_SPEED_BPS_38400

I will see what i can do.


Subject: 
Re: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Sat, 3 May 2008 08:01:33 GMT
Viewed: 
28573 times
  
.Sorry for the delay

Now i am in italy , triest. so i just do a short look in the messages.

Thanks for the answers.

In meantime i recogmised too that there is no serial baud rate change in the dll
for the usb.

I think i have something at home what i have downloaded in the past from a
japanese webside called like joybrick. I dont remember now exactlly the name and
the features, but. there are a lot of sw adjustments for the usbtower dll like
carrier frequency and so on..

However i can use the old serial tower, but usally i use the notebook and that
new one has only usb devices . Ok however there is a possibility to use the usb
to serial adapter ( if it is 100% compatible)

Ok in short i am back next week on monday so i will take a look at usb tower dll
driver.

by Bernhard


Subject: 
RE: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:36:52 GMT
Reply-To: 
<dickswan@sbcglobal.net{stopspam}>
Viewed: 
28730 times
  
Somewhere in the bowels of the header files within the RCX SDK is a list of
"IODEVICE control commands" which does include description of messages
required to change baud rate on the USB tower. I am assuming you're not
using the LEGO Windows DLL which has an easier interface to use.

It's quite a while since I "played" with this code. But I did have 4800
working fine with USB tower as long as you had the complimentary version of
the RCX. Once I started using AC adaptor RCX version almost exclusively, I
pretty much stopped using it.

The other thing you'll find if you using "fast" download mode and avoiding
the "double byte" transmission is that messages with a significant inbalance
of ones or zeroes won't work so well. There's not enough transitions bit
transitions for the serial port hardware to recover / sync to a proper
clock. I "solved" that particular problem by dynamically adjusting the size
of the download packet if it looked like the bits were "unbalanced". The
header bytes (0x55, 0xFF and 0x00) were enough to periodically allow the
clock syncing.

-----Original Message-----
From: news-gateway@lugnet.com [mailto:news-gateway@lugnet.com] On Behalf Of
Jochen Hoenicke
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 7:51 AM
To: lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos@lugnet.com
Subject: Re: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST

<<snip>>

I just checked the source code.  There is no speed setting for usb
tower in the code.  If you look into firmdl3 you also find that fast
mode is disabled for USB, because it doesn't work. I think the USB
tower sends at 2400 baud and there is no known way to change it.
Remember that 4800 baud mode was never used by the official LEGO
firmware or download programs.

I have no idea how you can change baud rate (is this even possible?)
or carrier frequency on the USB tower.  AFAIK the transmit carrier
frequency on the RCX is set by carrier_init in lnp-logical.c to 38
KHz. If I understand Dick Swan's post  right, one should change it to
76 KHz for RCX 2.0.  I think it should be possible by setting T1_CORA
to 0x0D instead of 0x1A.

Best regards,

  Jochen

--
Jochen Hoenicke, http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/


Subject: 
Re: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:50:48 GMT
Viewed: 
26905 times
  
Hello Bernhard,


4) using now the serial tower

download a program with dll 2400 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 2400
sucess
download a program with dll 4800 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 2400
no sucess

download a program with dll 2400 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 4800
no sucess
download a program with dll 4800 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 4800
no sucess

interesting because i thing there must be a option to change the usb tower to
4800 baud but how ?

I just checked the source code.  There is no speed setting for usb
tower in the code.  If you look into firmdl3 you also find that fast
mode is disabled for USB, because it doesn't work. I think the USB
tower sends at 2400 baud and there is no known way to change it.
Remember that 4800 baud mode was never used by the official LEGO
firmware or download programs.

I have no idea how you can change baud rate (is this even possible?)
or carrier frequency on the USB tower.  AFAIK the transmit carrier
frequency on the RCX is set by carrier_init in lnp-logical.c to 38
KHz. If I understand Dick Swan's post  right, one should change it to
76 KHz for RCX 2.0.  I think it should be possible by setting T1_CORA
to 0x0D instead of 0x1A.

Best regards,

  Jochen

--
Jochen Hoenicke, http://hoenicke.ath.cx/rcx/


Subject: 
RE: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:57:02 GMT
Reply-To: 
<dickswan@sbcglobal.SAYNOTOSPAMnet>
Viewed: 
26160 times
  
You should scan for some old posts by either John Barnes or Philo concerning
the different "IR transceiver" chips used between RCX 1.0 and 2.0 and
between serial vs USB towers. As I recall:

Serial tower can only transmit 38 KHz carrier. It's IR receiver is optimized
for 38 KHz.

USB tower can be set to either use 38 or 76 KHz transmission. Depending on
the application you use, the setting for this may not be exposed in an
interface. The IR receiver chip is optimized for 76 KHz carrier.

RCX 1.0 (i.e. the one with AC adaptor jack) uses same 38 KHz receiver as
serial tower. RCX 2.0 uses the same one as in the USB tower.

Due to harmonics, a IR receiver for one of the two carriers will generally
receive the other carrier frequency.

For best operation, you want to use a matched set where the transmitted
carrier frequency is the same as the IR receiver chip.

For completeness, I've tried to also use 9600 baud transmission. It simply
didn't work. The USB tower does not allow specification of this baud rate so
you have to use the serial tower. Unfortunately, it's fixed at a 38 KHz
carrier frequency which is not high enough for reliable transmission at 9600
as receiver chips need to get at least six carrier "cycles" per bit
transmitted.


Subject: 
Re: brickos 090 problem no program download with CONF_LNP_FAST
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
Date: 
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:13:53 GMT
Viewed: 
27231 times
  
Hello Jochen

Solutions:

1)Try the old serial tower.


Now i have success !

!) i made to directorys


brickos-0.9.0_orig
with    //#ifdef  CONF_LNP_FAST

in /boot/config.h
and
util/dll-src/config.h

and
brickos-0.9.0_pat48
with      #ifdef  CONF_LNP_FAST
in /boot/config.h
and
util/dll-src/config.h


2) compile all

3) download the 2 brickOS.srec  file to 2 rcx's

4) using now the serial tower

download a program with dll 2400 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 2400
sucess
download a program with dll 4800 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 2400
no sucess

download a program with dll 2400 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 4800
no sucess
download a program with dll 4800 to rcx using the brickOS.srec 4800
no sucess

interesting because i thing there must be a option to change the usb tower to
4800 baud but how ?


best regard
Bernhard



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