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Lego Mindstorms Inputs

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4pyros

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Is there any Lego fanatics here? I just got a mindstorms kit and was woundering if anyone has tried to use the analog and digital inputs on the same port at the same time? The control brick has limited inputs and outputs and this way you could have more inputs.
Andy
 
I used to be, bought the Mindstorms kit when it first came out, played around with it for a few weeks found it FAR too limited, knowing what I know now I wouldn't have gotten one and would have spent the same amount of money on a electronics dev kits.

And there is no way to use a single port as both an input and an output at the same time, it's one function or another.
 
Sceadwian; What is a
electronics dev kits

Anyway I dont what to use a port for both input and output. I would like to use a cable spliter to use a input port for both analog and digital input at the same time.
Andy
 
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Anyone else played with mindstorms? I am looking into it as part of the BSA Robotics merit badge. Andy
 
What you want to do can't be done with a cable, additional electronics would be required and the standard programming interface would not be able to use it you'd have to be able to upload custom code to the actual controller brick, not particularly practical unless you're delving into more details of electronics.
 
It may need custom code but the hardware is there. The sensor ports bring out both the analog (pins 1&2) and digital (pins 3-6) interfaces to the conector. Just need a cable spliter. Both the analog and digital inputs go to separate I/O pins on the micro. I just dont know if the standerd software can read both at the same time. Andy
 
I think people have pretty well pushed the limits of what a mindstorms can do. The software doesn't let you get into the details of how it does anything. There is a little hope in that people have made lower level software for it, but your ports are still pretty limited. What mindstorms do you have?

I do agree with Sceadwian, even a very simple dev kit, like an arduino, could do far more with far less adaptation. They may be a little more advanced, but since you don't need complicated and iffy workarounds to get it to do stuff it probably works out to being easier. The mindstorms kits are only going to be easier if you want to make very simple bots, like ones that drive till they hit a wall, back up, turn around and drive some more.
 
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Triode;
Maybe you are thinking of the old mindstorms yellow bricks. The newer ones NXT 2.0 like I have are much more capable and Lego has made the software and hardware opensource.
I do not what to start from scatch. I am no good at software and am trying to keep the platform standardized for the BSA.
Thanks Andy
 
That's why I asked what mindstorms you were talking about. I figured you might mean the yellow brick because you didn't say NXT. What kind of analog and digital signals are you hoping to get it to accept?
 
Sorry I did not say I was working with a NXT
What kind of analog and digital signals are you hoping to get it to accept?
A touch sensor and an IR recever. The problum being adding remote control to existing designs.
If a existing design uses all 4 sensor inputs already I what to be able to add an IR recever for remote control with out adding a sensor mutiplexer and changing all the sensors around.
The biggest problum with the Mindstorms is the lack of out of the box remote control solutions. Unless you have a smart phone and use bluetooth, You have to get more hardware and use up ports.
Andy
 
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