Dacta Control Lab Software

[evank]

12 hours ago, chabala said:

How about four at a time? https://chabala.github.io/brick-control-lab/features.html#Working_with_multiple_control_labs

I know this thread is about Interface B, but I once ran seven Interface A devices -- 42 outputs, 14 inputs -- using all of the slots in a single Apple //e. Just to prove it's possible. :)

Edited March 13, 2025 by evank

[amine]

On 2/3/2025 at 12:11 PM, legoROBOLAB said:

Good morning friends

Sorry to "change" the topic of this forum's conversation, but I was asking for your help.
Interface B was launched by LEGO with software produced by LCSI - ControlLab. But in Europe it was also marketed by LEGO with TechnoLogica software and with Coach Junior - the first launched by Phantom II from Israel and the second by CMA from the Netherlands. In the USA, LEGO Engineer was created by Tufts, but without LEGO sponsorship (yet).
I wonder if they know of any other software released at the time (1993 and beyond until 2000 +-) that had LEGO's declared support?
I'm placing here two images of the LEGO manuals for Interface B. TechnoLogica and Junior Coach.
Thank you very much for your attention and support.
Leonardo

 

I have the soft coming with that bundle a set of Two disks.

Edited January 8 by amine

[alexGS]

1 hour ago, amine said:

I have the soft coming with that bundle a set of Two disks.

That is great news!

I had also received two disks for the Macintosh Control Lab software - one was colour and one was monochrome - so both the same really (I uploaded them to the Internet Archive; https://archive.org/details/macintosh-control-lab-1.0)

I’ll be interested to see what is on the two disks that you’ve found :)

-Alex

[amine]

7 minutes ago, alexGS said:

That is great news!

I had also received two disks for the Macintosh Control Lab software - one was colour and one was monochrome - so both the same really (I uploaded them to the Internet Archive; https://archive.org/details/macintosh-control-lab-1.0)

I’ll be interested to see what is on the two disks that you’ve found :)

-Alex

It is an alternative software to lego control lab but from a third party company.

I will have some time this weekend to upload the programs

Edited January 8 by amine

[Toastie]

10 minutes ago, amine said:

It is an alternative software to lego control lab but from a third party company.

Holy cow!!!

Is this the successor of the LEGO Lines software for the Swedish Compis computer? And it runs on a Windows machine, right? I know this is about Control Lab, but the "LEGO + Swedish schools" story is really interesting.  

As you certainly know, Paul (from Sweden) has two 640kByte 5.25" floppies with LEGO Lines for the Compis computer, which was running CP/M-86 as OS. Paul has already extracted some files from this rather weird format (however, known to 22Disk!), which he sent me, but you can do nothing with any executable of course, as they needs a Compis computer. This software was specifically made for Swedish schools, as the Compis was. The latter failed rather miserably; not because of its design (it is a beautiful machine!!! See here: http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/others/telenova-compis), but because of some rather unfortunate decisions, the Swedish government made back then. It is a highly fascinating story.

Cool!
Best wishes,
Thorsten

[amine]

19 hours ago, Toastie said:

Holy cow!!!

Is this the successor of the LEGO Lines software for the Swedish Compis computer? And it runs on a Windows machine, right? I know this is about Control Lab, but the "LEGO + Swedish schools" story is really interesting.  

As you certainly know, Paul (from Sweden) has two 640kByte 5.25" floppies with LEGO Lines for the Compis computer, which was running CP/M-86 as OS. Paul has already extracted some files from this rather weird format (however, known to 22Disk!), which he sent me, but you can do nothing with any executable of course, as they needs a Compis computer. This software was specifically made for Swedish schools, as the Compis was. The latter failed rather miserably; not because of its design (it is a beautiful machine!!! See here: http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/others/telenova-compis), but because of some rather unfortunate decisions, the Swedish government made back then. It is a highly fascinating story.

Cool!
Best wishes,
Thorsten

Here they are,

Three floppy Disks in total.

Scanning the manual very soon

 

Enjoy

 

https://archive.org/details/dacta-elevdata

20 hours ago, alexGS said:

That is great news!

I had also received two disks for the Macintosh Control Lab software - one was colour and one was monochrome - so both the same really (I uploaded them to the Internet Archive; https://archive.org/details/macintosh-control-lab-1.0)

I’ll be interested to see what is on the two disks that you’ve found :)

-Alex

https://archive.org/details/dacta-elevdata

Manual coming soon

Edited Friday at 04:23 PM by amine

[Gunners TekZone]

10 hours ago, amine said:

Here they are,

Three floppy Disks in total.

Interesting.  I had to use Google Lens Translate, but I got it installed on my WIN7 VM that I use to run Control Lab... So I know that the COM port connection is good.

I am unsure if this is the reason... The program knows I am not using original disks!!   But while the program seems to run, it cannot find the controller (and NO option to set the COM port??  Although I have only the one on the VM)

Edited Saturday at 03:09 AM by Gunners TekZone

[amine]

7 hours ago, Gunners TekZone said:

Interesting.  I had to use Google Lens Translate, but I got it installed on my WIN7 VM that I use to run Control Lab... So I know that the COM port connection is good.

I am unsure if this is the reason... The program knows I am not using original disks!!   But while the program seems to run, it cannot find the controller (and NO option to set the COM port??  Although I have only the one on the VM)

  I added the .img image files of the floppy disks to the same archive.

https://archive.org/details/dacta-elevdata

Thank you for trying

Edited Saturday at 10:16 AM by amine

[amine]

On 2/3/2025 at 12:11 PM, legoROBOLAB said:

Good morning friends

Sorry to "change" the topic of this forum's conversation, but I was asking for your help.
Interface B was launched by LEGO with software produced by LCSI - ControlLab. But in Europe it was also marketed by LEGO with TechnoLogica software and with Coach Junior - the first launched by Phantom II from Israel and the second by CMA from the Netherlands. In the USA, LEGO Engineer was created by Tufts, but without LEGO sponsorship (yet).
I wonder if they know of any other software released at the time (1993 and beyond until 2000 +-) that had LEGO's declared support?
I'm placing here two images of the LEGO manuals for Interface B. TechnoLogica and Junior Coach.
Thank you very much for your attention and support.
Leonardo

 

Here are the disks and manuals.

https://archive.org/details/dacta-elevdata

 

I found another source I am going to merge the content to my archive

https://legoeducacional-umcontributo.blogspot.com/2021/05/control-lab-programacao-lego-5-anos.html?m=1

Edited Saturday at 09:55 PM by amine

[legoROBOLAB]

LEGOeducational-umcontributo it´s my blog.

I have the help from a friend from Sweden that give to me what I put there.

If I can help someone. tell me.

Leonardo 

 

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, legoROBOLAB said:

LEGOeducational-umcontributo it´s my blog.

Hi @legoROBOLAB! 

That is a very nice blog, just had a look. Also, very interesting to hearing about your friend in Sweden! 

Is there a chance, that your friend has some more information about LEGO Interface A coupled to a Compis school computer back in the days? Must be around 1986-1988. The Compis machines were beautiful machines, but unfortunately a) a bit late to the game and b) used the 80186 CPU - which was a rather special chip, which did not make t much into other machines. It ran CPM-86, could also boot into DOS (that is what I understood so far). There is a dedicated LEGO Lines version for CPM-86/the Compis machine, which is in the hands of another person in Sweden, I am in contact with. 

Does your friend by any chance have access to a Swedish Compis computer? Or knows somebody who has?

Very interesting!

All the best
Thorsten  

 

[amine]

4 hours ago, legoROBOLAB said:

LEGOeducational-umcontributo it´s my blog.

I have the help from a friend from Sweden that give to me what I put there.

If I can help someone. tell me.

Leonardo 

 

World is small lol,

I am trying currently to contact someone who had the french win95 version of control lab.

But by that time I figured out I already have the French version of Robotlab on original CD rom with the french big manual.....hundreds of pages !!

[evank]

I rescued a large amount of Control Lab sets last weekend. It included the Intelligent House disk (for Mac) so I'll see about archiving that one.

[amine]

I am looking activily for the french version

http://dcharletoux.free.fr/content/Pilotage_01_apercu.htm

[amine]

Ladies and gentlemen Lego dacta control lab in internet browser.

 

https://archive.org/details/ctrlab_202601

We might be abble to program lego from anycomputer and any OS using this method.

Can you check that archive can use the serial port ?

It is  revolutionary !!! A Blast from the past !!!

Edited 14 hours ago by amine

[Toastie]

WOW! Nice ...

23 minutes ago, amine said:

Can you check that archive can use the serial port ?

Hmm - I would need to configure DOSBOX first, i.e., which COM port on my laptop (=USB port) is declared as "serial1" in DOSBOX. Is there a way of configuring DOSBOX on the archive?

Best
Thorsten

[legoROBOLAB]

That's awesome!!!!!! I'm going to test it with my interface B.... Congratulations, the idea is very original.... and it comes at a good time, since LEGO is discontinuing Spike this year and for now only the LEGO Science kits remain.... This way we continue to have at our fingertips all the good things that LEGO Education has done over the years. Congratulations again!!!!

P.S: I'll be sharing this achievement on my blog... even those without an interface will be able to see the program.

Edited 1 hour ago by legoROBOLAB