evank
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Everything posted by evank
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I forgot about this! I never did buy one of those mini-PC things. I did buy a drone. :) -
Please copy me on that email. I'd like to see the cable in detail, part number, etc.
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I understand your concept about making it fit by running slower, but beyond that you're over my head with those electrical details. 1996? You mean 1986.
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I updated the table: https://brickhacks.com/table.htm. Someone explain to me where this "TC Controller" software fits in.
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Take a fresh look at the table; clear your cache/refresh if needed. www.brickhacks.com/table.htm ... @Toastie you have your own section, at least until someone else hacks another system!
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The difference is the MSX approach doesn't use Interface A at all, whereas @Toastie's projects do. But I agree that there should be two tables, one for official connections and one for hacks.
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Nineteen hours later, crickets :) ... Does anyone have comments on my chart? I'm sure there are errors and/or omissions.
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Everyone, Yes, even you @amine. Please help me finish this table for my somewhat outdated Interface A website: https://brickhacks.com/table.htm. Are there any mistakes? What software support should be listed that isn't? Where does "TC Controller" fit into this? On the MSX side (not yet a table entry), I'm only interested in including this if someone's documented it for Interface A, vs. that book which discusses an entirely different homemade method.
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What's the source of this? @alexGS what do you think?
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Thank you @amine. Google translated https://datamuseum.dk/wiki/RC_Piccoline into English for me. In the Architecture section, it says: "The operating system is Concurrent CP/M 86 (CCP/M). This was later updated to Concurrent DOS, which made it possible to run text-based DOS programs." The same page elaborates ("The Use of Piccoline" section), "In 1987 it became possible to run Concurrent DOS (C-DOS) on the Piccolines." Lego released Interface A starting in 1986-1987. So I have to wonder if Lego Lines for Piccoline is a translated version of Lego Lines for the PC, not an entirely different program. I'm not trying to minimize @Amine's research, I just want to understand exactly what has been found: should we consider this another brand/model of computer that Lego endorsed for Interface A, or just a Lego Lines for PC offshoot, since the company was in Lego's backyard of Denmark? It would help to see any copyright information in the Lego Lines for Piccoline software or manuals.
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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.)
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Apple made a //e card for the Mac. It's probably in use here. That's not quite accurate. I have the German COMAL manual for the C-64.
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I need this in English.
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All of the English 9700 manuals are already online. The rarest is this one: https://archive.org/details/technic-control-i-resource-guide ... I still have a box of those LogoWriter Robotics manuals, which I need to get off my behind and mail to Michael Mulhern for scanning.
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This thread is limited to Interface A topics. Feel free to start a new thread for your topic.
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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?