alexGS

Hello Thorsten, Perfectly understandable, I myself often fail to keep up and seem to be very busy at this end of the year. I haven’t bought the Pocket386 yet, as the ‘special’ pricing offers haven’t been too special, plus I foolishly spent exactly that money on a speeding ticket driving on an old road (formerly the main road) on the way back from a worksite, didn’t realise the speed limit had been reduced from 100km/h to 60km/h, and I was blissfully doing 87km/h. As noted to Evan on Facebook, there is an easy way to plug three 9771 cards into the Pocket386 - https://a.aliexpress.com/_mroi0Yl But my desire is to design a board that connects directly to the Pocket386 (or Book 8088) and incorporates the 9771 logic for four Interface A (20-pin) outputs. Of course only one Interface A could be used for TC-Logo, so it goes hand-in-hand with Evan’s preferred method of programming in BASIC. Such a setup has the advantage that it would be compact for taking to shows and would have a bright modern (readable) display. Generally I like to see period-correct hardware, but I think I’d make the exception for this, for the sake of compactness. i will try to work on the board design soon - I need current skills as part of my work (been a few years since I designed a PCB), I anticipate using surface-mount ICs and getting them assembled onto the board by JLCPCB, then adding connectors by hand. Cheers -Alex

Hello Amine, Thank you for sharing this with us and I saw you mentioned the data file somewhere - that sounds a similar arrangement to the C64 version with the commands listed in a file. It is some time ago and I cannot remember how I did it. The display was a simple bitmap that I was able to edit using a program on a PC that converted it back into a C64 file. I will have a look when I get some free time. I imagine for other prompts in the program, it will require using a hex editor and it is difficult to change the length of the text. Maybe we should just use it in French instead! :)

Hello Thorsten, This is fabulous news, thank you for summarising various discussions (which I’d hardly kept up with) and giving us a concrete example. I gasped/choked when I saw the wires/perfboard added to the original, pristine 9771 🥹 I burst out laughing when I saw the ‘power meter’, like a VU meter on an 80s stereo… needs translucent green/red bricks for effect 😁 I like to use TC-Logo for original LEGO activities (from the workbooks) but I think ‘Technic Multicontrol’ justifies the use of BASIC (as @evank prefers). You inspire me to create a new interface board, same idea as your 9771 addressing enhancement (perhaps six outputs) - I would like to make this connect to the header on the Pocket386 that is available on AliExpress. I don’t have one yet (waiting for Black Friday or 11.11 or whatever sales they have, as it’s a somewhat pricey toy) but it exposes the ISA bus at the back of the unit, and is compact, with a modern display. I realise some old laptops might expose the ISA bus through a docking connector, but they tend to be all different and difficult connectors to find, and then of course there are the usual problems with using 35-year-old hardware - so I’m going to start with this new PC, as then other people could buy the same and use the same interface board. Link below to the product (do not buy at this price as that fluctuates wildly, there are lots of listings for the same item with lower prices, higher shipping, etc.) and it also exists in 8086 form, clear casing, etc. Anyway, that will be my next Interface-A project, and will be useful for controlling my 12V train layout, which really needs more than three motors. Thanks again for your post! 🥰 -Alex https://a.aliexpress.com/_mseT8DJ

Hello Thorsten/Toastie, I know I’ve dredged this up from the distant past, but I just wondered - do we know how the sizes of these magnet rings compare between the various LEGO motors of the era - Cybermaster, Mini-motor (heavier/lighter weight), and even the Micro-scout. It’s possible to buy ring magnets on AliExpress. I have no idea how their polarity is arranged - I imagine the motors require several poles in the magnet to function, or perhaps they function with a single magnetic field N-S (like an old motor with one magnet each side of the housing) Anyway, I probably also need to get around to opening motors, but I just thought I’d ask about the Micro-scout in particular as it seems like it would have a similar motor to the Cybermaster. And yes, I have a Cybermaster with a seized motor :) Cheers -Alex

I think the C64 LEGO Lines works similarly - it has a ‘loader’ written in BASIC that displays the title screen, but the main part is written in assembly language for speed. I’d never gone further with working out how the code worked but there are similar registers in the C64 for user port data direction and bit values. Well done for figuring it out, Thorsten :)

That’s Alex Lukazi - a different Alex. I’m Alex Shepherd :)

LINES material was designed around set 1090 (never 9700) but the parts and concepts are similar (for example, there is an instructed washing machine build in both). 9700 has two switches and an optosensor, while 1090 has two optosensors. The instructions for set 1090 may be particularly hard to find online (if you want to make the exact models) but I eventually bought a physical copy. We can refer to Evan’s collection for programming examples. This teacher’s guide was the typical reference for LINES (versions exist for BBC, Apple II): https://archive.org/details/lego-lines-teacher-materials/page/n15/mode/1up The C64 LINES software that I translated (mostly) to English included four samples, WASH, BELT, and so on, which were provided in Dutch and I converted across. You could open this in a C64 emulator to see the programs https://archive.org/details/en-legolines_202112 There is TCLogo material in the collection, for both 1090 and 9700. This workbook has fairly complex TCLogo examples: https://archive.org/details/technic-control-i-resource-guide

A razor blade (of the type used in a scraper) is the best tool for spreading the cross-cut pins. They should be a nice tight fit - particularly the 4.5V Technic motors tend to suffer from a loose fit, but by expanding the pins you will greatly improve reliability. This is essential in 12V train layouts too :)

Lol… And winter holidays? That’s a long time to wait - summer has just started on the 1st of December 😛 Seriously, good idea Evan, thank you for including me. From about 2pm onwards (your time) would be good here

Good point! 😁 Evan has diligently collected all of the LEGO software and accompanying materials - in his Internet Archive collection - making them available for all to use, and yet - he seems not to use them himself, stating (on Facebook) that he works in AppleSoft BASIC. Evan knows my disappointment about that 😉 and how I am interested to hear why he would not use Lines or TCLogo. He is a University professor of computing, teaching hardware and software; highly analytical and I doubt I could ever change his mind. So I couldn’t resist the chance to point out here that the LEGO software is the ‘correct’ way, if we’re going to be pedantic about the hardware 😁 You are of course correct that BASIC routines were provided in the 9771 instructions (complete with the famous typo in the bitwise mask), but I still see that as a ‘hack’ because it doesn’t provide the framework for solving an actual problem - much is left to the reader, and four programmers would come up with four different solutions - there is no ‘right’ way. The use of LEGO Lines creates a quick, consistent, and easily-understood solution. It actually highlights the actions on the display as the program runs. TCLogo is necessarily more complex but still with a high degree of imposed structure, allowing for code re-use, and it is backed up by many examples in the LEGO materials. Logo went on to form the basis of Control Lab as well, where it was beautifully woven into objects such as buttons and text boxes. Personally I always find it odd working with Logo variables (using Make, and then remembering the reference colon seems to elude me) but I’ve managed to explain the operation of my functions at this year’s NZ shows quite easily; people can see how a complex task is broken into small steps (functions), and how variables are passed from one function to another. I think I would have a harder time explaining an equivalent BASIC program. Anyway - the important thing is to have fun, as you said! 😁

And then, the only correct way to program it (ie. not just testing but actually programming a model) is to use either LEGO Lines or TCLogo, not any of the hacks with BASIC etc. :) Still, BRICK Lines does sound clever, sounds like it implements the programmability of LEGO Lines with the same conditional capabilities - I’ll try it out! If it is ‘code compatible’ with Lines but runs on modern hardware, that is surely a good thing

I think the Windows 95 Control Lab software from LEGO is still the best choice, in terms of usability :) The Mac version doesn’t make full use of the display, being limited to a fixed window size. The DOS version is clever (looks like it’s emulating a Mac) but same applies, you run out of space on the screen fairly quickly when writing actual code and designing a button interface.

Thanks Lars, sorry I didn’t respond sooner (I’m on the other side of the world) but I see Thorsten and BPB have got here first with the right answers 🙂 I found a null-modem cable for sale locally but it’s also possible to make your own with a pinout like https://www.delock.com/infothek/Nullmodemkabel_RS-232/nullmodemkabel_e.html

Hello, welcome - you’re in the right place :) With the Interface B disconnected from a computer, the green power light should come on and not be flashing, the red Stop light should also be on (I just checked mine now). The Stop light goes out once the software has started and the Interface B is connected to the computer. To get the green and red lights on, I suggest first trying another plugpack power supply in case the one you have is failing under load. Older modems/routers often have AC power supplies (9V AC). The underside of my Interface B says 9-12V AC. I think the original LEGO power supply is the same as the 9V train regulator power supply of the period. You’re possibly right about the electrolytic capacitor that you mentioned. I’ve never seen a schematic for Interface B. I did have to replace a similar capacitor in one of my Interface As.

Thanks for the video link! I hadn’t seen it - the video is produced to a very high standard, well-edited, nice and concise, very clear (accent is pleasant to those of us overseas), no egregious errors in the technicalities that we know so well. This would be an ideal sales video for @evank ; he has some of these hardware/software packages available 😁