evank
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About evank
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This thread is limited to Interface A topics. Feel free to start a new thread for your topic. -
Nixdorf is definitely on my list, if I ever get to Germany. I've been to the museum in Silicon Valley several times.
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LOL no, I meant the actual Mindstorms products -- RCX, etc. -- these are computers. I think you're referring to the concept Lego introduced in the 1980 "Idea Book", #8888, which I (and I'm sure others) borrowed to make programmable machines. However, lots of machines are programmable -- that doesn't make them computers. My greater point in my response to Amine was that we must be careful in the word "first". :) The course that I teach at New Jersey Institute of Technology is CS-210, Technical History of Computing. I tell students in the first lecture of the semester that the "F-word" is banned from my classroom. They can say the other one, IDGF :) but we don't say "first" because that word is subjective. Instead, I teach them about generations of computing. Granted this forum is not my classroom. So I was just saying that, as I see it, the Mindstorms boxes would be the (ahem) initial Lego computers.
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Ummm .... Mindstorms. :) A case doesn't make a computer. I could take a full tower, remove the case, and easily build one from Lego instead. The computer is silicon and transistors.
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That's my favorite part of his invention.
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@Mr Hobbles that is nice work. When it's finished and bug-free, would you be willing to send me one for a review on my Youtube channel "TechnicallyEvan" ... it's entirely devoted to Interface A and the surrounding ecosystem. For example I reviewed the Blocko card there.
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HELP! I've run out of the 1980s touch sensors: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=x1167cx1&idColor=11#T=C&C=11 ... I need as many as I can get. They're very expensive on Bricklink. Can any fellow Dacta fans sell me several of these for a reasonable price? I have tons of the optical sensors, if anyone wants those. :)
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Dacta Control Lab Software
evank replied to Dazmundo's topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
My educated guess, which I've said before, is that "TC-Controller" is just a language mistranslation of TC LOGO or Lego Lines. I have no reason to believe that it's some other program entirely. -
Correct, that's pretty much the same as in Lego TC LOGO. You'd still have to type TTO A ON.
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Oh that's cool. You should talk to @BatteryPoweredBricks.
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I don't understand electronics or programming at the level of you, Bliss, Toastie, etc., but I get by. :) I also don't use Lego Lines. I program almost exclusively in BASIC and sometimes in Lego LOGO. In Lego LOGO there is a SETPOWER command, 0-7, to let a motor or light gradually increase/decrease. There is no way to do that in BASIC. You can probably accomplish this in assembly code. But I never got beyond HELLO WORLD in that language. Ethan hangs out more on Facebook. If anyone wants to reach him, a good place to do so is my "Lego Interface A" group there. I need to update the schematic on my website. Still working on Blocky Kong and I never did solve that problem! I have the opto sensors working decently enough for collision detection between Mario and the barrels, using a little software trick. What book?
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Me too. I would like to test it but I don't really have time. It seems like some people here would rather just build cool electronics and software, than actually build Lego models from that technology! :) @Bliss I will have to update my website to reflect the existence of Blockly as another control alternative for Interface A. I'm also glad you called it "-ly" because the game I'm building is "Blocky" Kong. Two-plus years into that model and it's still not done, but overall I am making progress. It uses six or seven Interface A connected to a single Apple //e. Programming? As everyone here knows, I use Applesoft BASIC.
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I know the image because it was created by a friend at my request: https://brickhacks.com/9750.php.
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Hey I recognize that image. :)
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I have plenty of them and will happily share with anyone who is pushing the boundaries + doesn't necessarily have the cash to buy one retail.