Monobrick - where to download SD-Card-Images

[c_moeller]

Hello everybody,

I'd like to program the EV3 using C# and Monobrick. Unfortunately, the site monobrick.dk is down. Some fragments are to be found, however the part where to download the SD-CArd-Images is gone. Any advice how and where to find?

Thanks
Christian

[Jim]

I don't have the image on my computer, but I hope someone else will answer.

You might want to reconsider using Monobrick as your solution. What's your current setup/project? Why do you need Monobrick? There is another C# solution posted in this forum. Maybe that will suit your needs.

[c_moeller]

I found the other solution, however I didn't understand how to install/use it. There is no understandable documentation. Monobrick is well documented and there are several tutorials how to begin.

Up to now I teach my pupils programming EV3 with LeJOS, however I hope C# will be much more performant on the EV3. LeJOS itself soes run much faster than programs "written" in the EV3-Software, but Java's Bytecode is still interpreted on the EV3. A C#-Programm should be compiled and run even faster. We are participating in several tournaments like "World Robot Olympiad" or "FIRST LEGO League" and therefore the more performance the better results... :)

[Jim]

And what about Pyhton or Micropython?

While I love C# (I am a C# programmer myself), I do think that (micro)python offers a great solution with great documentation.

[c_moeller]

I gave python a chance but the performance is not suitable.

[Jim]

The performance of Python is worse than C#? Really?

What kind of performance hickups and/or limitations did you encounter?

On topic: have you checked if there is a firmware image in the github repo? Probably not, but you never know.

[JaBaCaDaBra]

maybe http://www.waybackmachine.nl ?

Edited March 15, 2020 by JaBaCaDaBra

[c_moeller]

the maybackmachine.nl-link leads to web.archive.org - and I already crawled that. Many old sites of monobrick.dk, however no chance to downlaod the SD-Card-Images...

I haven't programmed the EV3 with C# yet so I don't know if C#-progs are being faster executed by the CPU than Python. However Python is a script-language which is done by an interpreter if I'm correctly informed. I tried Python a few years ago and found much more slower than Java using LeJOS. My testarea is a line follwing PID. The line is about 6 metres long and has curves of different radius. Using the EV3-Software the robot can do about 6.500 measruements and vorrections. Python-Code did about 24.000 of those measurements, LeJOS about 120.000 - the difference is clearly visible.

Tried c4ev3, but that showed nearly the same "performance" than the EV3-Software. Seems to me as the C-Code is "compiled" into Lego-Blocks ofr that LabView-Software...

And yes - I hop that a compiled C#-program will be much more performant than an interpreted Python-Script or a Javas-Byteocde executed by a JRE on the EV3.

I found that github-repo, unfortunately there is no sd-card-image to be found.

[Jim]

7 minutes ago, c_moeller said:

And yes - I hop that a compiled C#-program will be much more performant than an interpreted Python-Script or a Javas-Byteocde executed by a JRE on the EV3.

You have a point about Python being interpreted. Does Monobrick run entirely on the EV3 brick btw? 

I will boot up my old computer in a bit. I might have the firmware on that machine. I'll let you know.

[c_moeller]

Yes, Monobrick boots it's own firmware from SD-Card and the C#-program will be compiled before execution. That should be much faster than Java or Python.

[Jim]

I have used Monobrick in the past (a long time ago), but I didn't remember whether it runs stand-alone, without a desktop "master".

I would love to be able to program the EV3 brick with C#.

[c_moeller]

There are two versions: a stand-alone-version and a "Monobrick-Remote" which does all the compujtation on a PC and sends the commands to the Brick. The second one is not allowed at tournaments so I'm interested in the first one. Therefore you have to get thos mentioned SD-Card-Images and a "monobrick.dll" to be included in Visul Studio. I can't find any of those two files... :( :( :( :( :(

Correction: I've found a third-party-.dll-file with a correction included. Don't know if it's working - because in lack of those F***** SD-Card-Images I don't have... ;)

[Tcm0]

You may be able to build your own SD image. The repository for the SD image is: https://github.com/Larsjep/monoev3image

However I think that the tool to build it (xamarin studio) is discontinued. Sorry :/ I might have the image somewhere but I don't have access to the storage devices right now (or in the next days).

On the other side it might be as easy as running the make_image.sh... although it probably isn't.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Tcm0

[Tcm0]

I was able to look through my old hard drive and I actually have a backup of the monobrick firmware: http://technicmaster0.no-ip.biz/Technicmaster0/Mindstorms/EV3/Firmwares/imagefile_2GB (2).img.gz

The backup is from december 2014 so it should be the latest image file (as far as I know). However I suggest to use a newer .dll file. You can find one at http://technicmaster0.no-ip.biz/Technicmaster0/Mindstorms/EV3/Firmwares/Monobrickfirmware.rar (this one should also include support for audio playback and the mindsensors sensor multiplexer which never got pushed into the main branch, but I'm not sure about that).

Edited April 15, 2020 by Tcm0
fixed url