LEGO Interface A (9750/9771) – LEGO Technic Control 1 (TC1) reference/ideas thread

[amine]

4 minutes ago, Toastie said:

I don't have a manual for LEGO Lines - any idea where I can find one?

What would be a good command for trying it out?

Best
Thorsten

https://www.mybbcmaster.nl/educ_lego.html

 

Here it is

[Toastie]

5 minutes ago, amine said:

Here it is

Thank you very much!

I just edited my post: It IS the Dutch version - the initial screen just shows the multi-language things like "RUN", "INSERT" etc, this is why I thought it was the English version.

Sorry for the confusion!

Best
Thorsten

[amine]

6 hours ago, Toastie said:

I don't have a manual for LEGO Lines - any idea where I can find one?

What would be a good command for trying it out?

Best
Thorsten

Now that we have the french and dutch same version, it should be easy to make the english version by conparing the two.

[COPERNICON]

hello, i have archived the educaboek's lego lines software some time ago, i have an almost complete educaboek book set (see this: http://www.miniland.nl/Dacta/). i have been talking with @amine about it on discord, i have archived most books of the set, i only need to do the student manual (i dont have an appropriate scanner for it...yet). the only thing i am missing from the educaboek set is this odd piece:

you can find the scans here: https://archive.org/details/educaboek-robotica-nl everything is in dutch though....

[amine]

2 hours ago, COPERNICON said:

hello, i have archived the educaboek's lego lines software some time ago, i have an almost complete educaboek book set (see this: http://www.miniland.nl/Dacta/). i have been talking with @amine about it on discord, i have archived most books of the set, i only need to do the student manual (i dont have an appropriate scanner for it...yet). the only thing i am missing from the educaboek set is this odd piece:

you can find the scans here: https://archive.org/details/educaboek-robotica-nl everything is in dutch though....

We have also a sample of the book that explain how to set up the msx and philips p2000 to your interface A !!!

Besturen van robotmodellen met de microcomputer, Nederlands

https://archive.org/details/adobe-scan-17-jun-2026-260617-232237

Edited June 17 by amine

[Phoenix_Saika]

13 hours ago, amine said:

We have also a sample of the book that explain how to set up the msx and philips p2000 to your interface A !!!

Besturen van robotmodellen met de microcomputer, Nederlands

https://archive.org/details/adobe-scan-17-jun-2026-260617-232237

Thanks to Amine for finding me, I own the dutch version of the book and scanned it fully. Hopefully this'll help:

https://archive.org/details/besturen-van-robotmodellen-met-de-microcomputer-w.-clark.

Also if you need help translating a little, feel free to ask.

[evank]

1 hour ago, Phoenix_Saika said:

Thanks to Amine for finding me, I own the dutch version of the book and scanned it fully. Hopefully this'll help:

https://archive.org/details/besturen-van-robotmodellen-met-de-microcomputer-w.-clark.

Also if you need help translating a little, feel free to ask.

I need this in English.

[amine]

Hello guys here are some usefull links

 

https://www.dubbekarl.dk/blog/2026/06/12/lego-9760-aktivitetspakke-til-lego-technic-control-ii/

https://www.dubbekarl.dk/lego-pdf/lego-9760-disk.d64

" It requires a Comal 80 version 2.01 cartridge installed, and you can start it with

load"linker" "

https://archive.org/details/comal-80-c64-1985

 

 

https://www.dubbekarl.dk/blog/2026/06/18/950037-grundlaeggende-styring-og-kontrol-ibm-pc-og-kompatible/

 

https://www.dubbekarl.dk/blog/2026/06/18/950036-grundlaeggende-styring-og-kontrol-c64-c128-version/

 

 

Thanks to: Dubbekarls Blog for sharing those amazing ressources.

enjoy

 

 

 

Edited June 19 by amine

[amine]

 

And for the last but not least this is the book that show  how lego robotics projects were done on the MSX.

 

Toepassingen voor MSX-Computers (NL) : Kluwer

https://share.google/powXYOl6vh1LRpkLR

Edited June 21 by amine

[amine]

Lego lines for piccoline computer

 

https://datamuseum.dk/aa/rc759/cf/cfc11a26e.html

Link Page to the emulator

https://rc700.dk/

 

Edited June 23 by amine

[Toastie]

Wow! What a nice find @amine!

So the Danes developed their own computer system - that is what the Swedes did as well with their Compis system.

And there is even an emulator on the rc700 site - however further development of that software apparently stopped 2017, but I believe the website dedicated to the RC system is actively expanded. 

Have you been in contact with the people?

Thank you very much for sharing and all the best!!!
Thorsten 

 

[amine]

31 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Wow! What a nice find @amine!

So the Danes developed their own computer system - that is what the Swedes did as well with their Compis system.

And there is even an emulator on the rc700 site - however further development of that software apparently stopped 2017, but I believe the website dedicated to the RC system is actively expanded. 

Have you been in contact with the people?

Thank you very much for sharing and all the best!!!
Thorsten 

 

Not yet I was actively looking for any Philips P2000T and MSX2 versions and found this instead.

Edited June 23 by amine

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, amine said:

and found this instead

Which really IS a great find! First, you found another system actively supported by LEGO. Second, it is a beautiful, "Scandinavian design" - type machine - slick, slim, and no unnecessary decorative slots and whatnot. Third, it also uses a 80186 CPU! And the floppy disks are organized in CP/M format, which pretty much resembles the design of the Swedish Telenova Compis computer! 

In fact, Gemini says they are essentially brothers/sisters, but so far, I have a few doubts. But who knows. Would be cool to take a look into a Compis - for the RS Piccoline, we have now three YT videos (which are very nice as well! Almost 2 1/2 hours of inspection and repair).

Should they share, e.g., the CP/M floppy format, then we can use DOS/22DISK with the available configuration to read/copy Piccoline floppies. On the other hand, as documented on the rd700 website you found, the floppy format is precisely documented, so on a DOS PC, 22DISK will work anyway.

And fourth: We now have a enjoyable glimpse on the custom Scandinavian 1980's school computers for all four countries! And LEGO hooked them all ... 

Best wishes,
Thorsten

 

[amine]

Intetface A Macintosh adaptor.....

https://www.moissey.com/AplExp92.htm

[alexGS]

On 6/19/2026 at 6:25 PM, amine said:

Hello guys here are some usefull links

 

https://www.dubbekarl.dk/blog/2026/06/12/lego-9760-aktivitetspakke-til-lego-technic-control-ii/

Amine - this is tremendous, you have uncovered the official LEGO support (software and literature) for COMAL80 which @evank and I were aware of and had been looking for - for years - we even obtained the German book directly from the author which mentioned it but still left us needing the software.

This is significant for several reasons;

- It is the only official material to reference 1092 (Control II), while all the other printed materials feature 1090 and 9700.

- As such, it includes programming examples for the plotter and other instructed models of 1092, which makes it of specific interest to me.

- This is the first LEGO software for the C64 we have seen other than Lines, and as such, provides structured programming extended with interface-specific capability (TC-Logo was unlikely to have been ‘ported’ to the C64, as C64 Logo was an entirely different product from a company other than LCSI).

 

So a very exciting find, I presume this has not been available until recently - if it has been published on dubbekarl.dk for many years, then we will feel rather silly for not finding it earlier 🙂

Thank you for posting it here for us

[Toastie]

5 hours ago, alexGS said:

official LEGO support (software and literature) for COMAL80

Hi Alex,

yes this is so true. I wasn't even aware of COMAL being designed by two Danes (Børge R. Christensen, Benedict Løfstedt), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMAL). 

So Kristiansen and the Christensen seemed to having teamed up early . Even more so, the first COMAL 75 edition ran on the RC7000 of the above referenced Danish RegneCentralen (RC) company, who also made the 80186 based RC Picoline ... 

Interestingly, when you look-up the English Wikipedia COMAL page, it does not list these machines. But when you switch to the Danish language version, you'll find the RS 7000 and the RS Piccoline @amine referenced, in addition to many more, for example the Telenova Compis!

Best wishes
Thorsten 

Edited June 23 by Toastie

[alexGS]

52 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Interestingly, when you look-up the English Wikipedia COMAL site, it does not list these machines. But when you switch to the Danish language version, you'll find the RS 7000 and the RS Piccoline @amine referenced, in addition to many more, for example the Telenove Compis!

And thank you Thorsten for already noting all the unusual hardware (for us) - that’s obviously a whole avenue of exploration also! ☺️ I didn’t have anything to add to what you’d said in that regard, but of course I agree with you, those are interesting machines and fascinating to see how LEGO supported them all.

I’m excited about the C64 software as I’ll be able to run it - with the COMAL cartridge provided by my new C64 Ultimate’s capabilities (it can load any cartridge image as though the cartridge is attached), while still having a user port for my Interface A to plug into.

The documentation will obviously provide linguistic challenges, but that’s all part of the fun!

The Macintosh adapter, I think that seems to be a clever homebrew project late in the life of Interface A. HyperCard was mentioned, which was an early hypertext/graphical system with object-oriented, event-driven procedures behind it (I used it back in 1993!)

I know that a Classic has a serial port rather than parallel, and no other relevant expansion slots, so the hardware may have latched data bytes sent using a generic serial device driver rather than anything specific. Or, it could have been fully implemented with objects and a polling routine. Hard to know at a glance, with my limited French reading ability 😁

Edited June 23 by alexGS

[alexGS]

On 6/18/2026 at 9:35 AM, amine said:

Besturen van robotmodellen met de microcomputer, Nederlands

https://archive.org/details/adobe-scan-17-jun-2026-260617-232237

Intriguingly, this is the same model featured in ‘Make and Program Your Own Robots’ by the same author - Sinclair ZX Spectrum and C64 editions exist https://archive.org/details/make-and-program-your-own-robots-for-c64-and-vic-20

I’ve built it, got it working with the paperclip-and-foil switches…

…although I never realised the colour scheme, since the book’s drawings and photos were monochrome 😁

Evan will be along to slap my wrist for going off-topic, since this is not related to the Interface A. But it was intriguing for me to see the same model crop up, from 1985 before LEGO offered sensors or switches.

Edited June 23 by alexGS

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, alexGS said:

I’m excited about the C64 software as I’ll be able to run it - with the COMAL cartridge provided by my new C64 Ultimate’s capabilities (it can load any cartridge image as though the cartridge is attached), while still having a user port for my Interface A to plug into.

Me too 

I have fixed my C64 - it was the well known culprit PLA ... replaced it with these readily available new ones. And added heat sinks to the VIC-II, SID, CPU, and U4 as they won the "Highest Surface Temperature" contest. Also, I got myself one of these SD2IEC (mini) boards, which go into the C64, just the SD card sticks out. Really cool design. It has the serial "address" 8. On my 1541 floppy drive, I did the simple address change to 9 by removing both internal PCB bridges (intact = 8, upon removal, you get 8, 9, 10, 11 to select from) and installing two switches. All well known and described, I know, but I am excited! Found a nicely and smoothly yellowed EIZO 4:3 VGA monitor in the storage rooms of my (university) group, which blends with the yellowed C64 as if they belong together. Needed two tries to find (never heard of scan doubling before ^^) an appropriate composite-VGA adapter, but: Crisp video! OK, 1984 crisp, of course; it's a 251470-01 REV A and says (c)1984.

Oh, and made that C64 <-> Interface A adapter cable as well, as described on @evank's website. However, I just used only one GND line of the C64 user port and not multiple, as shown: Pin 1=GND (C64) to pins 5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19 of Interface A. And pin 2 = +5V (C64) to pins 1 and 3 (Interface A).  

And now the imagery may begin!

Best
Thorsten

Edited June 23 by Toastie

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, alexGS said:

since this is not related to the Interface A.

It is Intface Aish, I'd say ... no 4.5V LEGO opto sensor input but ...

  

[alexGS]

On 6/19/2026 at 1:07 AM, evank said:

I need this in English.

I only just realised - reading it - that the content is the same as Make and Program Your Own Robots that I linked to in my post above - already on the archive - and that’s in English

[evank]

14 hours ago, amine said:

Intetface A Macintosh adaptor.....

https://www.moissey.com/AplExp92.htm

Apple made a //e card for the Mac. It's probably in use here.

14 hours ago, alexGS said:

Amine - this is tremendous, you have uncovered the official LEGO support (software and literature) for COMAL80 which @evank and I were aware of and had been looking for - for years - we even obtained the German book directly from the author which mentioned it but still left us needing the software.

This is significant for several reasons;

- It is the only official material to reference 1092 (Control II), while all the other printed materials feature 1090 and 9700.

- As such, it includes programming examples for the plotter and other instructed models of 1092, which makes it of specific interest to me.

- This is the first LEGO software for the C64 we have seen other than Lines, and as such, provides structured programming extended with interface-specific capability (TC-Logo was unlikely to have been ‘ported’ to the C64, as C64 Logo was an entirely different product from a company other than LCSI).

 

So a very exciting find, I presume this has not been available until recently - if it has been published on dubbekarl.dk for many years, then we will feel rather silly for not finding it earlier 🙂

Thank you for posting it here for us

That's not quite accurate. I have the German COMAL manual for the C-64.

[alexGS]

2 hours ago, evank said:

Apple made a //e card for the Mac. It's probably in use here.

The Apple IIe card only works with the LC and Colour Classic, as it uses the processor-direct slot (PDS) which a Classic doesn’t have. The card has only a disk drive interface and a joystick or paddle interface - no expansion slots. I sourced one a year ago for a collector; the Y-cable is especially highly prized for connecting both a 5.25” drive and a joystick.

2 hours ago, evank said:

That's not quite accurate. I have the German COMAL manual for the C-64.

Ah, ok - sorry - does it cover TC Controller? I was meaning Steuern und Regeln, which wasn’t original LEGO material, but was close as it describes the TC Controller extensions to COMAL. 

I’m very excited for this discovery in Denmark, in particular the example programs for the plotter that show how it was intended to work 🙂 at last!

[evank]

Guys, I'm confused about something. Is this link (https://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Bits:30003061) the actual Lego Lines for Piccoline software? If so, then could someone run it in an emulator (or whatever) and show us a screenshot?

If it's not the software, then is all of the excitement over a one-line mention in a book? Just because something was mentioned doesn't mean it ever actually shipped (there is a Lego catalog mentioning MSX but no reason to believe they ever delivered this.)

[amine]

I just bought this french book on amazon, it explain how to control the lego with an MSX thomson and amstrad computer. 

Edited June 24 by amine