Phillip Brooks Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 Has anyone ever used the Lego products with LabVIEW? The new NXT controller makes this look like I would try this out. New LEGO MINDSTORMS Software to Be Powered by National Instruments LabVIEW Lego Mindstorm NXT robots are smarter and stronger than ever! Quote Link to comment
JasonKing Posted January 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Has anyone ever used the Lego products with LabVIEW? The new NXT controller makes this look like I would try this out. At the moment, no LEGO products work with LabVIEW proper. The educational version of Mindstorms, Robolab, is essentially LabVIEW (the same wiring, etc), but you must work from a pre-defined set of palette items that are essentially macros for the assembly on the brick/embedded device. LabVIEW cannot target the current Mindstorms products that are out there. As far as NXT, as NI's press release says, the software is based on LabVIEW. I'm not sure how forthcoming I can be about the details, but the software that ships with Mindstorms NXT will not be LabVIEW exactly, but it will be a data-flow language with similar rules that is built on top of the LabVIEW engine. This should hopefully mean that LabVIEW proper can be used to target the LEGO hardware, but that is not what will be on shelves in August of this year. I do think a lot of the people on this board will get a kick out of the product as the language essentially will be LabVIEW, but with enough training wheels that it can be used by 10-14 year olds. J Quote Link to comment
Michael Aivaliotis Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 At the moment, no LEGO products work with LabVIEW proper. Jason, I can understand the marketing behind it but c'mon! Doesn't that just suck with a capital S? I mean I can use my developer suite which costs thousands of dollars to control hardware which is also worth thousands of dollars but I can't control a stupid RCX brick worth not even $100? Can't you guys throw us a bone like a driver or something? It would be so cool if my son could use the same software to program his mindstorms robot that daddy uses at work... If you look at this guide, it just looks like a bunch of VI's. Can't you get those VI's for standard LV? http://www.legoeducation.com/sharedimages/..._Quickstart.pdf Quote Link to comment
didierj Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 It would be so cool if my son could use the same software to program his mindstorms robot that daddy uses at work... Wouldn't this mean that your son is using your home-LV at the same time as your office-LV... t...t...t... I would name this expanding the "gray-zone" of your licence areement (if both installations have the same serial-no). :laugh: Didier Quote Link to comment
Rolf Kalbermatter Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Jason, I can understand the marketing behind it but c'mon! Doesn't that just suck with a capital S? I mean I can use my developer suite which costs thousands of dollars to control hardware which is also worth thousands of dollars but I can't control a stupid RCX brick worth not even $100? Can't you guys throw us a bone like a driver or something? It would be so cool if my son could use the same software to program his mindstorms robot that daddy uses at work...If you look at this guide, it just looks like a bunch of VI's. Can't you get those VI's for standard LV? http://www.legoeducation.com/sharedimages/..._Quickstart.pdf Hmm, I never had my hands on the Lego Robolab development system but I believe that it is a special version of LabVIEW in such a way that the VIs are somehow signed to only work in the Robolab software. On the other hand normal VIs will also not run in the Robolab software, much like the limitations of VIs with earlier evaluation versions of LabVIEW. Probably not something you couldn't overcome with some digging, but well.. Rolf Kalbermatter Quote Link to comment
i2dx Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Jason, I can understand the marketing behind it but c'mon! Doesn't that just suck with a capital S? I mean I can use my developer suite which costs thousands of dollars to control hardware which is also worth thousands of dollars but I can't control a stupid RCX brick worth not even $100? Can't you guys throw us a bone like a driver or something? It would be so cool if my son could use the same software to program his mindstorms robot that daddy uses at work... 100% ACK :-) Quote Link to comment
AnalogKid2DigitalMan Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Heck, my son could write the LV code for my work projects while I program his Legos Quote Link to comment
JasonKing Posted January 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 Hmm, I never had my hands on the Lego Robolab development system but I believe that it is a special version of LabVIEW in such a way that the VIs are somehow signed to only work in the Robolab software. On the other hand normal VIs will also not run in the Robolab software, much like the limitations of VIs with earlier evaluation versions of LabVIEW. Probably not something you couldn't overcome with some digging, but well.. I don't know all the details, but I don't believe any of the Robolab VIs are signed in any special way. Truly, the SubVIs/primitives that are used simply build up a string of ASM for the brick, which the "end program" primitive just outputs. These would do nothing special in "real" labview except spit out this string for you. There is no LabVIEW runtime engine running on the brick, so there is no way to get LabVIEW code to compile to the brick - even a driver to communicate with it wouldn't help your programs run down there. Quite a bit of effort goes into targeting LabVIEW to new platforms such as PDAs, DSPs, RT, etc. I doubt anyone in NI Marketing would find it cost-effective to work on a project simply to target a toy with a $200 USD price tag. Now, regarding this new product - we've been a lot more involved in the product development of this version of Mindstorms. Of course we love the idea of being able to target this toy with full-blown LabVIEW (it'd be a great tool for teaching robotics and data acquisition in high school and college). The product itself is proof-of-concept of this, but obviously it's not LEGO's goal. It's up to marketing to decide if it's cost-effective for NI to make that happen, and I really don't know all the contractual details involved. I can't wait to be able to show off the software and its implementation at NI Week. It will be very interesting to see what regular LabVIEW users think, and what you crazy power users think about how we built it. I'm going to stay away from the license issues J Quote Link to comment
Michael Aivaliotis Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 Hmm, I never had my hands on the Lego Robolab development system but I believe that it is a special version of LabVIEW in such a way that the VIs are somehow signed to only work in the Robolab software. On the other hand normal VIs will also not run in the Robolab software, much like the limitations of VIs with earlier evaluation versions of LabVIEW. Probably not something you couldn't overcome with some digging, but well.. Well, you know what can happen if our advanced LV developers here on the forums get an idea stuck in their heads: http://forums.lavausergroup.org/index.php?showforum=29 Let's not go down that path... My son was a little too young or the mindstorms kit this past Christmas, so I held off. I think i will definitly look into NXT this year. Quote Link to comment
i2dx Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 Well, you know what can happen if our advanced LV developers here on the forums get an idea stuck in their heads:http://forums.lavausergroup.org/index.php?showforum=29 Let's not go down that path... My son was a little too young or the mindstorms kit this past Christmas, so I held off. I think i will definitly look into NXT this year. lol ... and you are sure the gift is for your son? ;-) maybe you should better buy 2 to avoid tears Quote Link to comment
Michael Aivaliotis Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 lol ... and you are sure the gift is for your son? ;-) maybe you should better buy 2 to avoid tears Hey, let's not reveal my true interest in this matter... . Quote Link to comment
i2dx Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 Hey, let's not reveal my true interest in this matter... . oops, sorry but i have to admit, i am strongly interested in that toy, too. I am playing around with uCs since one year (ATMEL AVR...) and the chance to get a ready-to-run kit, which can be progammed with a labview-like IDE makes me really curious. if i have the time to use it, i will surely buy one. the husband of a friend of my wife has one and he is having lots of fun with chasing his cats with his robot and his self-developed "cat-chasing"-algorithm... lol Quote Link to comment
didierj Posted January 13, 2006 Report Share Posted January 13, 2006 the husband of a friend of my wife has one and he is having lots of fun with chasing his cats with his robot and his self-developed "cat-chasing"-algorithm... lol What a coincidence, I just read such an article in the c't magazine (german computer magazine) ... as child we did such "cat-chasing" with remote-controlled cars, also quite funny (for us, not the cat). Quote Link to comment
i2dx Posted January 13, 2006 Report Share Posted January 13, 2006 What a coincidence, I just read such an article in the c't magazine (german computer magazine) ... as child we did such "cat-chasing" with remote-controlled cars, also quite funny (for us, not the cat). i followed the editorial: do not read the artice starting at page 136 ... otherwise you will have no time left for other things lego mindstorms is my favourite, because you are able to build many different robots and you can develop your own ideas Quote Link to comment
Michael Aivaliotis Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Here are some pictures from the Mindstorms NXT preview at the Las Vegas CES show: Pictures of Mindstorms NXT Quote Link to comment
JasonKing Posted February 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Damn that's some good-looking software Here are some pictures from the Mindstorms NXT preview at the Las Vegas CES show: Quote Link to comment
Phillip Brooks Posted April 20, 2006 Report Share Posted April 20, 2006 Lego NXT Software to be released as Open Source?! Quote Link to comment
JasonKing Posted April 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Lego NXT Software to be released as Open Source?! I wouldn't take that at face value. I'm sure there will be an official response to this, but what's being reported today isn't exactly accurate. J Quote Link to comment
Phillip Brooks Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 Hackers, Get Ready! LEGO Group Announces Open Source Firmware, Developer Kits for LEGO Quote Link to comment
Mike Ashe Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 the husband of a friend of my wife has one and he is having lots of fun with chasing his cats with his robot and his self-developed "cat-chasing"-algorithm... lol The Katinator 2006 ... My wife, as a major cat hater, heard me talk about reading this and she approved buying the kit in August for my 9 year old son. Easiest toy (dual meaning intended) acquisition approval in a long time and I didn't even have to negotiate jewelry or spa days. Son and I are excited. Thanks guys :worship: Quote Link to comment
didierj Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 The Katinator 2006 ...My wife, as a major cat hater, heard me talk about reading this and she approved buying the kit in August for my 9 year old son. Easiest toy (dual meaning intended) acquisition approval in a long time and I didn't even have to negotiate jewelry or spa days. Son and I are excited. Thanks guys :worship: If you can manage a good algorithm I'm also interested in it. It just happened that last night I had to stand up several times and chase away my neighbor cats. My neighbor has 4 or 5 female cats and so often all the males (of the village) are lurking around meowing the whole night. :thumbdown: Quote Link to comment
AnalogKid2DigitalMan Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 The Katinator 2006 ...My wife, as a major cat hater, heard me talk about reading this and she approved buying the kit in August for my 9 year old son. Easiest toy (dual meaning intended) acquisition approval in a long time and I didn't even have to negotiate jewelry or spa days. Son and I are excited. Thanks guys :worship: Put some laser diodes in his eyes and he's ready to roll. An article in Electronics Products: http://www.electronicproducts.com/ShowPage...thYear=May+2006 Quote Link to comment
Albert Geven Posted May 9, 2006 Report Share Posted May 9, 2006 Hi Michael As one of the beta testers I'm now free to talk about the next (since may 1) The NXT in fact it is more like labview embedded. This one really compiles to the ARM processor. I've seen nice things with blue tooth phones and next last weekend. The phone controls the programs in the nxt and the nxt orders the phone to take a picture ! I really like it, even want to built robots with it. ps. what age is your son, my youngest is 19 so I'm glad I could betattest....... Quote Link to comment
JasonKing Posted May 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2006 An article in Electronics Products:http://www.electronicproducts.com/ShowPage...thYear=May+2006 Wow, that article is painfully inaccurate when it comes to details. However, it is nice to see NI and LabVIEW get press coverage due to the new Mindstorms release, especially since the product carries LEGO's name, not ours. However, LEGO doesn't make processors - it's an ARM7 inside the NXT. Plus, none of the work that went into this software product has been integrated into standard LabVIEW as of yet. LV8 released while we were only about halfway through development on Mindstorms. Albert, I'm actually curious if you think the sensors (particularly sound and light) live up to the marketing behind them. It seems to me that LEGO makes some bold claims about their capabilities. J Quote Link to comment
AnalogKid2DigitalMan Posted August 2, 2006 Report Share Posted August 2, 2006 NXT Now shipping http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8527&am...mp;d=11&t=5 I wonder what SSP costs for it? Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.