Toastie Posted June 24 Posted June 24 53 minutes ago, Bliss said: So I added a first draft of the Lego ToyPad support in Lego Blockly. Oh - my - god. OK, right now, I don't have the time to seriously test it - but knowing this - makes another dream come true. The toy pad was - since I purchased it for really little money, constantly attached to my active 8 channel USB hub - without knowing how to "involve" it, how to invite it to participate in my vintage LEGO world. I am also aware, that @Mr Hobbles has all that ready to go, but I am simply too stupid. Now, I have LEGO Blockly blocks to talk to it. This is - just for me - a new world coming to life. Thank you so much @Bliss for even taking that into consideration. This EB forum and all these people actively being "on" it, is, as far as I am concerned, unprecedented. All the very best, Thorsten Quote
Bliss Posted July 1 Author Posted July 1 On 6/24/2026 at 2:30 PM, Toastie said: Thank you so much @Bliss for even taking that into consideration. Well, thanks to you to make the suggestion. I did not even know the existance of the Lego ToyPad before you mentionned it ! It really makes a great addition to this project as we can now mix a bunch of very different lego devices all in one Graphical Programming IDE... In the latest version of Lego Blockly, I added more ToyPad Led blocks. In addition to "Set Led color" block, I added Flash Led and Fade Led blocks. For each "Set Color", "Flash" and "Fade", you have a block that uses a Color Sliders Picker or R, G, B Values. (For the Set Led Color block, there are 2 color picker types but I really prefer the Sliders and will probably remove the other color picker) Have fun! Quote
Toastie Posted Thursday at 08:52 AM Posted Thursday at 08:52 AM (edited) @Bliss, I still did not play with the ToyPad blocks - that is on my agenda for the coming days. I see the pad as a very cool I/O device, as I am also having a couple of the tags (but never ever played Dimensions - I am a total nerd) because a) I liked the figures that came with them and b) these expansion packs were essentially "thrown out" of some stores - I even forgot when that was. What I did in the meantime was figuring out how the 4 pins (plus 5V and GND) of the I/O terminal of the Swedish Compis school computer could drive 6 IntA outputs (and read two inputs). The Compis was endorsed by TLG for operating IntA in the classroom; they made corresponding CP/M-86 LEGO Lines software. Hardware wise it must have been serial of course. Back in the 1980's, SIPO chips (e.g., 74LS164, 8 bit shift register, SR) were all over the place. So I managed to put together a simple SR+8bit latch circuit that does the trick with only two input lines: Clock and serial data. Which fits well with the two outputs of the Compis coming from a 8255 PIO driving 6 IntA outputs. And - I used your LEGO Blockly to demonstrate that it works! That was fun. I should maybe post that stuff soon here on EB. During my programming efforts, I came across some challenges (which are caused by my limited knowledge, of course): I was unable to find "bit-manipulation" operators, such as bit-wise AND/OR etc. Is that correct? I believe that the boolean operators you already provided (AND/OR) are for logical comparison? There is the "remainder of" block, but no "integer" block - for the latter I used the "round down" block, that should be equivalent, right? Is there a "2 to the power of x" block? I am asking solely because I am using these operators/functions quite often in BASIC or C when it comes to bit manipulation. I have the impression that all the "vintage" LEGO devices (IntA/B) are more easily operated using the dual system :D. The same holds true for the RCX and other vintage PBricks, as they hold, e.g., the motor status information frequently within (bit) registers. For the demonstration of my Compis experiment, I wanted to run a loop cycling through the (decimal) numbers 0 - 63 (000000 to 111111) and switch the outputs of IntA correspondingly. I need to do that bit-wise, as the access to IntA goes through serial-to-parallel conversion. This is what I did for the dec to bin conversion - is it remotely what I should do? It works well, but it is most probably - at best - clumsy. Forget about the two left functions and the leading/trailing ON/OFF commands in the conversion loop as they are entirely hardware related: First, out_0 = clock is set to 0, then a data bit is set via out_1 (0 or 1) and then the clock is set to 1 as the SR (74LS164) wants a pos. slope to clock-in the data bit present at its serial input): Thank you very much for looking into this! All the best Thorsten Edited Thursday at 03:26 PM by Toastie Quote
BrickTronic Posted Thursday at 02:59 PM Posted Thursday at 02:59 PM (edited) 6 hours ago, Toastie said: ... First, out_0 = clock is set to 0, then a data bit is set via out_1 (0 or 1) and then the clock is set to 1 as the SR (74LS168) wants a pos. slope to clock-in the data bit present at its serial input): ... Hello, 74LS168 is an Up/Down Couter with Parallel Load. How does you shift in serial "random" Data using this Chip ? I would expect something like CD4094. By separate Strobe-Pin you can avoid "flikering" of Outputs during Shift activity. The CD4094 should also be usable for an Shart PC401 Interface Jo Edited Thursday at 03:01 PM by BrickTronic Quote
Toastie Posted Thursday at 03:29 PM Posted Thursday at 03:29 PM 27 minutes ago, BrickTronic said: 74LS168 is an Up/Down Couter with Parallel Load. Hi Jo, thanks again for checking!!! I already corrected my post above, it is of course a 74LS164 I am using. Sorry for the confusion!!! Will post details tonight in the 9750 thread. I shall also take a close look into CD4049, which I don't have though (as of now). All the best, Thorsten Quote
BrickTronic Posted Thursday at 03:54 PM Posted Thursday at 03:54 PM 15 minutes ago, Toastie said: Hi Jo, thanks again for checking!!! I already corrected my post above, it is of course a 74LS164 I am using. Sorry for the confusion!!! Will post details tonight in the 9750 thread. I shall also take a close look into CD4049, which I don't have though (as of now). All the best, Thorsten Hello, 74LS164 sounds much better But during shifting the Outputs does "flicker" but for Motors (or bulp-lamps) this might not be visible can also be avoided when adding an Latch like 74LS273 between Shifter-Output Bits and Output Connector to strobe the Data-bits I doubt you will answer to wire Ser-In to D_0-Parallel-Load of 74LS168 and wire all other D_n (n=1 to 7) parallel Load to Out_n-1 ... and use parallel Load feature of Counter for shifting :-) There are many roads to Rome or should I say ROM ;-) Jo Quote
Toastie Posted Thursday at 06:06 PM Posted Thursday at 06:06 PM 2 hours ago, BrickTronic said: But during shifting the Outputs does "flicker" but for Motors (or bulp-lamps) this might not be visible can also be avoided when adding an Latch like 74LS273 between Shifter-Output Bits and Output Connector to strobe the Data-bits Hi Jo, exactly as I have done - and it works. I am just composing the corresponding post in the 9750/9771 thread and will tag you, if you find the time, you may want to check whether I screwed up things again Thanks a lot + all the best Thorsten P.S.: I looked into CD4094 - that is indeed a >nice< chip! Reminds me of 74LS595 ... I am sure they will work as well in some way with only two lines for clock and serial in using one of the outputs maybe for strobe ... Quote
Toastie Posted Thursday at 07:00 PM Posted Thursday at 07:00 PM 3 hours ago, BrickTronic said: There are many roads to Rome or should I say ROM ;-) Or out of ROM? Best Thorsten Quote
Bliss Posted Thursday at 10:19 PM Author Posted Thursday at 10:19 PM 12 hours ago, Toastie said: During my programming efforts, I came across some challenges (which are caused by my limited knowledge, of course): I was unable to find "bit-manipulation" operators, such as bit-wise AND/OR etc. Is that correct? I believe that the boolean operators you already provided (AND/OR) are for logical comparison? There is the "remainder of" block, but no "integer" block - for the latter I used the "round down" block, that should be equivalent, right? Is there a "2 to the power of x" block? 1. Indeed, there are no bitwise operators built-in in blockly but you did a great job to work around this flaw :-) . I will try to add a block to achieve basic bitwise operation AND, OR, XOR, NOT, >>, <<. 2. Round down is the correct block to use to achieve what the "INT" function does in other languages... (Take the decimal off a floating point number to get the integer part only). 3. In the math toolbox, the second block is a math operation block where the operator is a dropdown where you can choose between +, -, *, / and... "^" the latter being "exponent". So you can do 2 ^ 6 (= 64) for example. For a modern computer, the arduino way is great as it allows to add more functions like PWM the outputs, add internal fast input counters, etc... And with the Nano, it can be pretty small footprint. If we don't mind to let go the input counting and pwm, I guess we could make some circuit using the 74HC595 (Serial-in to Parallel-out for 6 output lines) and 74HC165 (Parallel-in to serial-out for 2 input lines) along with a USB-to-Serial chip (FTDI). "AI" also proposes using the Direct Bit-Bang method (No shift register) available in some FTDI (FT232RL, FT245R, ...). There would then be NO Microcontroller at all and would be a true Parallel conrol. I have no idea how simple this could be though compared to the arduino solution. I may look after this by curiosity. (I have a FT232RL red board I've never used...) Quote
Toastie Posted Thursday at 10:47 PM Posted Thursday at 10:47 PM Firstly, thank you so much for taking a look at my rookie code! 14 minutes ago, Bliss said: In the math toolbox, the second block is a math operation block where the operator is a dropdown where you can choose between +, -, *, / and... "^" the latter being "exponent". So you can do 2 ^ 6 (= 64) for example. And once more, I missed that. I need to improve! 15 minutes ago, Bliss said: For a modern computer, the arduino way is great as it allows to add more functions like PWM the outputs, add internal fast input counters, etc... And with the Nano, it can be pretty small footprint. Absolutely agreed on. One of the challenges I like so much though, is using (as @evank makes the rules here ) "era correct" technology. You know, it is so easy to "chicken out" with e.g., Arduinos providing nearly "unlimited" I/O ports; but the real deal is using the stuff available back then. If possible at all! 21 minutes ago, Bliss said: "AI" also proposes using the Direct Bit-Bang method (No shift register) available in some FTDI (FT232RL, FT245R, ...). There would then be NO Microcontroller at all and would be a true Parallel conrol. And that is the banger. I was looking for/at that, but I simply can't envision how to make such a device. That indeed would be the true "era correct" connection between now and then! All the best, and let us rock and roll these efforts! Thorsten Quote
Bliss Posted Friday at 05:09 AM Author Posted Friday at 05:09 AM (edited) @Toastie and all, I added a Bitwise category under Math category where you will find a bunch of bitwise operation blocks. your ( @Toastie ) code could now look like the following I think: Bitwise operations work on 32 bit numbers. That might be of some concerns sometime like the shift left etc... But there is also a MASK block if needed. For the "Test Bit", set bit, clear bit, Toggle bit and Extract bit blocks, keep in mind that bit number starts at 0. In a math constant, you can type hex or binary literals directly but when you press enter, blockly converts immediately to numbers: Example: Once "ENTER" is pressed, it shows: I will probably add a format block to be able to display / print values in hex or binary and will also add a literal block to be able to specify binary and hex that will stay in these formats, not converted to decimal on screen. EDIT: I added a format block to convert numbers to hex or binary to display as a text (You cannot use the output of this block in a math or bitwise operand...) This format block is located in the Control, Interactive Control toolbox: Edited Friday at 05:45 AM by Bliss Quote
Toastie Posted Friday at 08:48 AM Posted Friday at 08:48 AM @Bliss WOW!!! The bit operators make Blockly my first choice for controlling Interface A!!! I already clearly saw its potential when tinkering with this pulsing, shifting, and latching stuff. Mainly because I could a) literally "see" the (critical) code like a flow chart and b) swiftly shuffle around blocks representing otherwise a good number of code lines - sometimes arbitrarily trying out things without losing it Thank you so much! I really like your proposal regarding a plain USB2TTL adapter + two SRs/latches very much. Using discrete TTLs or CMOS chips, this would indeed represent a new and era-correct addition to the line of IntA interfaces we have for the vintage machines: The connection to a modern computer is just done by the USB2TTL conversion of two classical serial lines! Furthermore, if we go full USB serial baud rate, even PWM provided by TC Logo running in a DOSBox-X instance could flawlessly work. @alexGS did patch TC Logo into a serial variant. This version worked "almost" flawlessly with an Arduino as serial-to-parallel converter using DOSBox-X, as documented in the 9750/9771 thread. But it did not find @evank's approval because of the Arduino in-between. With just a USB converter, we can try to convince him, that this is indeed an era-correct approach I did actually play with that idea - but was running out of SRs - I have only one All the best and thank you again!!! Thorsten Quote
Toastie Posted Friday at 10:23 AM Posted Friday at 10:23 AM 5 hours ago, Bliss said: code could now look like the following I think: Yes, works. This one does it as well and saves some variables Best Thorsten Quote
Bliss Posted Friday at 12:57 PM Author Posted Friday at 12:57 PM ^^^^^^ @Toastie, Indeed you're last code is even better and cleaner according to me. Thanks for bringing the idea of bitwise operations... This is a must in automation programming. @evank'rules are quite binding rules. However, I thtink the USB2TTL adapter + two SRs/latches could be an interesting project to try... I would be surprised if I have those IC's in my collection but I may order some ... Quote
Bliss Posted Saturday at 12:42 AM Author Posted Saturday at 12:42 AM (edited) So I was curious and tested the FT232RL USB to UART board and also the FT245TL USB to FIFO (Parallel) board. AI Gemini suggested this as an alternative to control Interface A with modern computer without using Shift Register (74HC595, 165), MicroControllers (Arduino) etc... Ultimately, you can wire the FT board directly to Interface A connector... Since I have no Int.A, I used LEDs which would still be a great addition to a final setup anyway... Please be aware that to use these boards as parallel adapters, you need to bypass their original mode which is being recognize by the OS as a USB-Serial adapter. To do so, you need to use ZADIG utility which is free to download and easy to use. https://zadig.akeo.ie/ Plug your board, go to Zadig Option menu, select List all device. Then in the dropdown, select your FT245 ou FT232 device. On the right of the green arrow, make sure it says WinUSB... Then press Replace Driver. NOTE that you cannot have both FT245 and FT232 bypassed at the same time. Choose one or the other board. (This is because both are from same manuf and use same IDs...). It may ask you to reboot the computer but I did not reboot. It takes sometime to replace the USB Driver so be patient. The FT232RL red board is cheap and easy to find but the pins have been identified for a different purpose than parallel control... A refence table is provided below. FT232RL will require some header pins to be soldered as not every signals have headers... https://www.amazon.ca/CANADUINO-FT232RL-USB-Communication-Programming/dp/B07B28LV33 FT245 is a bigger board and more expensive. But All pins are there and have the right label (D0 to D7 which fits great with Int.A). I easily found a FT245 stock at my local electronic store. https://www.waveshare.com/ft245-usb-fifo-board-type-a.htm For both boards, do not forget to place the jumper to 5V, not 3.3V. Here is the Reference pinout table: FT245 Labeled Pin FT232RL Labeled Pin Lego Interface A Connector pin (And Function) D0 TXD Pin 6 (Output 0) D1 RXD Pin 8 (Output 1) D2 RTS# Pin 10 (Output 2) D3 CTS# Pin 12 (Output 3) D4 DTR# Pin 14 (Output 4) D5 DSR# Pin 16 (Output 5) D6 DCD# Pin 18 (Input 6) D7 RI# Pin 20 (Input 7) GND GND Pin 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 VCC VCC Pin 1, 3 ? HOW TO TEST: I did not yet implement a driver in lego blockly. I'm goint to wait some feedback from people to convince me that this has some real values. But I did, with the help of gemini, developped a simple HTML TEST page that has a javascript code. (Has some ON/OFF buttons to activate outputs, and green / red input status leds alike). Copy the following file on your computer and drag it in Chrome. It works for both FT245 and FT232... https://github.com/BlissCA/lego-blockly/blob/dev/universal_lego_test.html I noticed that when unplugging and plugging the USB cable, the output (LEDS in my case) are blinking fast sometimes. And after plugging the USB cable but before connecting using the test page, the outputs are like dimmed a bit. Connecting to the board using the test page removes the dimming. Also, the led dimming disappears if you use 10K pull down resistors... But the glitching of outputs during USB cable disconects/connects remains. So I suggest to plug your Int.A only after the USB cable is fully connected and if no pull down resistors are used, wait until the Test Page is connected to the board. (I don't know if the dimming may affect the Int.A outputs though...) In short, the steps to test this: Place jumper to 5v on your board. Plug your Board to your PC USB port, use Zadig utility to replace the OS driver that is installed automatically by the OS... Wire your board (Better to unplug USB for doing this). FT245 is quite direct, use D0 to D7 connected to Out 0 to 6 and Inp 6 and 7, and GND to GND... The board also have a 5V out pin. I don't know if you need it at the Int.A Connector... For the FT232 board, use the reference table above. I recommend using LEDs with 1K resistors... for the outputs. Download the universal_lego_test.html file, Drag the file in Chrome, press connect and choose your board in the list. The ON/OFF buttons for outputs and Intpu status indicators will show. Have fun Hoping that some people will be able to try this out and comment... Edited Saturday at 02:28 AM by Bliss Quote
Bliss Posted Saturday at 03:18 AM Author Posted Saturday at 03:18 AM (edited) Pictures of the tests with my FT245 board and LEDs only, no Interface A. The HTML test page (using Javascript and the WebUSB API): (It says Connected FT232RL but this is a bug in the JS code ...) Edited Saturday at 03:21 AM by Bliss Quote
Toastie Posted Saturday at 09:39 AM Posted Saturday at 09:39 AM @Bliss oh man, this is soooooo nice!!! 8 hours ago, Bliss said: Hoping that some people will be able to try this out and comment... FOR SURE! I need to order the stuff though! Will be done tomorrow ... Quick question: In which way do you connect to the USB2Parallel adapter? Via a COM port in Windows? If so, then DOSBox-X can be used - absolutely cool. I still love the idea of going full barebone USB2TTL adapter and then use shift registers/latches of the good ol'days. I can't figure out though how to get the serial connection right for the two input lines, as I need to compose the serial packet, right? I mean start, data, stop bit? I'd set parity to none - and even the bit number could be reduced ... So many things to try out - this is pure fun! All the best Thorsten Quote
Bliss Posted Saturday at 01:07 PM Author Posted Saturday at 01:07 PM (edited) 10 hours ago, Toastie said: Quick question: In which way do you connect to the USB2Parallel adapter? Via a COM port in Windows? If so, then DOSBox-X can be used - absolutely cool. Good question as it might infringe @evank's binding rules... At first, Gemini said it should work using WebSerial API with the OS driver installed automatically (a COM port)... But it did not work and Gemini changed its mind and said we have to go Bit Bang mode... So by using Zadig, it replaced the OS driver by a bare USB driver. So we have to use WebUSB API which deals directly with USB (No more com port). According to Gemini, it can still be used in DOSBox-X by modifying the dosbox-x.conf file: (But Gemini has been proven to be wrong quite often) [usb] usbcore = true # This command forcefully captures the raw WinUSB device # and presents it to the DOS environment usbdevice = passthrough vid=0403 pid=6001 and I guess there is more to do if you plan to use original TC Logo software which expect the use of a ISA board and Direct IO read/writes... I do not think it would be easily feasable to have original TC Logo running in dosbox-x to use the USB directly... 10 hours ago, Toastie said: I still love the idea of going full barebone USB2TTL adapter and then use shift registers/latches of the good ol'days. I can't figure out though how to get the serial connection right for the two input lines, as I need to compose the serial packet, right? I mean start, data, stop bit? I'd set parity to none - and even the bit number could be reduced The Baud rate, parity, stop bit becomes a decoy I believe with the use of Shift registers... You need to rather use the RTS/DTR pins to write data (SR clock/data/load) and CTS/DSR to read... So this cannot, I believe but might be wrong, be used with TC Logo in DOSBox-X (Maybe by making some kind of dos driver and put it in DOS config.sys?)... But I think RTS DTR CTS DSR pins of a com port can be programmed using Q-BASIC... Edited Saturday at 08:08 PM by Bliss Quote
Bliss Posted Sunday at 02:25 PM Author Posted Sunday at 02:25 PM (edited) @Toastie, I read a bit more about the FT245 USB-Serial / Fifo board. In is std USB-Serial driver mode (No Zadig driver bypass) it handle some kind of parallel FIFO using the D0 to D7 pins and some Handshakes pins (WR and RD, TXE, RXF pins)... The D0-D7 are used for both Inputs and Outputs in a half duplex manner... So I think with external TTL chips, there would be a way to latch Outputs and isolate inputs while Writing outputs to Interface A for example, and Latch these outputs while reading inputs on D6, D7... This would mean would could Write through serial a byte 0x3F to activate all 6 outputs for example, and proceed to read bytes where bit 6, and 7 would represent the status of Lego Int.A Inputs... I have some ttl chips in hands like 74HC174N (Would prefer a 575N but that should do the latching work) and a 74HC244N (Input isolation)... I'll try to figure out the handshake and might do some tests for fun... Edited Sunday at 03:58 PM by Bliss Quote
Toastie Posted Sunday at 02:44 PM Posted Sunday at 02:44 PM (edited) @Bliss This is going to be so cool, as I said already over and over again - I am really thrilled. Couple of things: In your table showing the Interface A pins: Pins 1 and 3 need to get +5V (one is actually enough, as they are connected on the pcb. The 5V enable the 6+2 opto-couplers inside IntA. Without, nothing works. On 7/11/2026 at 3:07 PM, Bliss said: The Baud rate, parity, stop bit becomes a decoy I believe with the use of Shift registers... You need to rather use the RTS/DTR pins to write data (SR clock/data/load) and CTS/DSR to read... Ah, I see! On 7/11/2026 at 3:07 PM, Bliss said: So by using Zadig, it replaced the OS driver by a bare USB driver. OK. But if you don't replace the driver, does it still work as (virtual) COM port? All my USB2TTL/Serial adapter show up as COM port in Windows' device manager. In DOSBox-X, you use the serial section in the config file to make the COM port known to any program running within DOSBox-X: [serial] serial1 = directserial realport:COM4 #Any bluetooth adapter goes here - as of 2025-2-20: #COM11 (HC-05-ZERO); COM12 (HC-05-ONE); COM13 (BOLUTEK) #HC-05-ZERO + Arduino Pro Mini BTH2PAR interface on 8485 serial2 = directserial realport:COM11 serial3 = disabled serial4 = disabled serial5 = disabled serial6 = disabled serial7 = disabled serial8 = disabled serial9 = disabled So whatever is on a COM port as shown in Windows' device manager is known as serial serial port #n in DOSBox-X. In my QBASIC programs I use OPEN ComPort$ + ":9600,N,8,1,CD0,CS0,DS0,OP0,RS,TB2048,RB2048" FOR RANDOM AS #1 where ComPort$ is for example "COM1" or "COM2". COM1 would be then pass data to/from the device sitting on COM4 in device manager and COM2 does the same with device COM11. So writing data to one of the address of the ISA bus serial port I/O adresses: CONST ADDRESSSERIALPORT1 = &H3F8 'dec 1016 (output and input) CONST ADDRESSSERIALPORT2 = &H2F8 'dec 760 -"- CONST ADDRESSSERIALPORT3 = &H3E8 'dec 1000 -"- CONST ADDRESSSERIALPORT4 = &H2E8 'dec 744 -"- actually is passed on the USB port as declared in the config file of DOSBox-X: In QBASIC I use for example OUT ADDRESSSERIALPORT1, IOStatus 'IOStatus = byte holding the 6 output bits to address an Arduino Nano on COM4 on my Dell laptop (or whatever sits there). Of course the usual BASIC stuff works as well : PRINT #1, CHR$(IOStatus); Now the thing is: @alexGS has patched the original LEGO Lines TCLOGO software for DOS: He replaced the address for the 9771 interface card (ISA bus I/O port dec 925 (hex 39D)) with that of the serial port. In other words, LEGO Lines TCLOGO runs within DOSBox-X and sends out its I/O data to the serial port address, which is mapped to the COM port on Windows, then to the Arduino doing the serial/parallel conversion ... That would be also really interesting and this is why I am asking ... Best Thorsten Edited Sunday at 07:03 PM by Toastie Quote
Toastie Posted Sunday at 03:13 PM Posted Sunday at 03:13 PM 43 minutes ago, Bliss said: I read a bit more about the FT245 USB-Serial / Fifo board This sounds good I noticed that FT245 adapters are not available from any German distributors for such boards and stuff (robotics, prototyping etc.) I usually order from. Even the Waveshare website says that these boards are on backorder, and one can only bulk-buy them. Online shops here in Germany claim that the product is not produced anymore? That is crazy! The FT232 board is - and that would work as well, right? Best Thorsten Quote
Bliss Posted Sunday at 04:12 PM Author Posted Sunday at 04:12 PM 52 minutes ago, Toastie said: Even the Waveshare website says that these boards are on backorder, and one can only bulk-buy them Oh, I've been lucky then to find them in my local store... It might not be a good idea to pursue around this board then... To bad as it was doing parallel lines directly... For the FT232, I have to read more... In VCP std mode (Virtual Com port in windows) it is just a regular USB to Serial adapter like the ones you probably already have ... But with the Zadig bare USB driver, it is not seen as a COM port anymore in windows and my HTML test page is using USB Read Write command, not Serial Read Write commands... Still, I need to read more about the FT232 capability... Quote
Bliss Posted Sunday at 04:39 PM Author Posted Sunday at 04:39 PM (edited) 2 hours ago, Toastie said: Now the thing is: @alexGS has patched the original LEGO Lines software for DOS: He replaced the address for the 9771 interface card (ISA bus I/O port dec 925 (hex 39D)) with that of the serial port. In other words, LEGO Lines runs within DOSBox-X and sends out its I/O data to the serial port address, which is mapped to the COM port on Windows, then to the Arduino doing the serial/parallel conversion ... That would be also really interesting and this is why I am asking ... Using the Zadig driver removes completely the COM port in windows so the test I did with the FT245 and FT232 will not work for this particular purpose. The only thing about using an FT245 or 232 like I did is to be able to talk to interface A without microcontrollers... But softwarewise, you still need to be able to deal with Direct USB communication not using Serial at all. Which we can do with modern software like Javascript, python etc... Might also be possible if we can use USB in DOS... somehow or redirect DOS serial to USB I don't know. However, As I said earlier, we could have been able to use the FT245 with its native driver (Serial COM Port) using some external TTL component and then I believe it would have been fully compatible with TCLOGO_S.COM... I read that there are some replacement chip for the FT245RL available but I did not see any breakout board yet... That is why I love the Arduino idea so much as it will be available for many years and even after they die, there will be other uController to do the job... EDIT: I read that FT232H could be a good replacement for FT245 and widely available. I ordered one... we'll see... there is an FT245 mode that can be set in the FT232H eeprom... Edited Sunday at 05:42 PM by Bliss Quote
Toastie Posted Sunday at 07:15 PM Posted Sunday at 07:15 PM (edited) 2 hours ago, Bliss said: That is why I love the Arduino idea so much as it will be available for many years and even after they die, there will be other uController to do the job... Yes, this is so true. And it works! We have two Arduino translation programs: One for LEGO Blockly you made and one for generic DOSBox-X programs I made and @maehw optimized. The latter just uses the classic serial card's addresses on the ISA bus, the former connects beautifully with LEGO Blockly. I'd say: Perfect! The entire tinkering with TTL chips and the USB2Whatver adapters using shifting and latching is just for fun. If we don't get to work, we just mass produce Arduino Uno or Nano based lill' boxes with 20 pin connectors and optionally 8x 5mm LED's (they look so ... vintage ) - and to say it with Pete Venkman words: "The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams". Best Thorsten Edited Sunday at 07:16 PM by Toastie Quote
Toastie Posted Sunday at 07:47 PM Posted Sunday at 07:47 PM @Bliss I was googling a bit - could this maybe an alternative to the FT245? https://numato.com/docs/8-channel-usb-gpio-module-with-analog-inputs/. It says that once installed it creates a serial COM port in Windows device manager. WAIT: NO it won't. You can talk to it but would need to issue commands like "set gpio" etc. - that's is even worse than using Arduinos! No, I guess, Arduinos it is Best Thorsten Quote
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