Brikpup
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egrebenstein
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed 30 Apr 2008, 15:41
Brikpup
I am trying to build a Puppy-based distro centered around Lego Mindstorms (both RCX and NXT). Would anyone be interested in this? Is anyone else working along these lines?
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jonathanbe
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Wed 18 Jun 2008, 11:55
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Pizzasgood
- Posts: 6183
- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
- Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
That would be awesome. I don't currently have those, only normal legos. I've been meaning to get Mindstorms for years now, but more important things kept comming up. I'm fairly confident I'll get it this Winter though, if not through a gift than through my thinning wallet. I'll have to take out a several-grand loan to continue college at this point anyways, so throwing a couple hundred more down the hole isn't going to matter much. Less than a week's pay, if I were working instead of learning. Besides, it's Educational! 
That's the only exception I'm going to make though. I've wanted Mindstorms since I first heard of it when I was twelve or so, and by jingle I'm going to have it! But no other big spending 'till I've done gradumakated. Eighteen months to go. Then once I'm debt free again, I'm gettin' me a toaster oven, which is something else I've wanted since I was twelve, albeit not as much.
That's the only exception I'm going to make though. I've wanted Mindstorms since I first heard of it when I was twelve or so, and by jingle I'm going to have it! But no other big spending 'till I've done gradumakated. Eighteen months to go. Then once I'm debt free again, I'm gettin' me a toaster oven, which is something else I've wanted since I was twelve, albeit not as much.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
Lego
If you do work on a Le_oPuppy, would you consider adding LeoCAD, the library's it needs and the latest parts file?
http://www.leocad.org/index.htm is the LeoCAD, and there is a link from there to and updated parts file.
NathanO
http://www.leocad.org/index.htm is the LeoCAD, and there is a link from there to and updated parts file.
NathanO
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Pizzasgood
- Posts: 6183
- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
- Location: Knoxville, TN, USA
I just tried out Leocad, and it was cool, but it got an occasional segfault for no reason I could see. Particularly if I messed with display settings. This was in Puppy 4.1.
(I already had OpenGL installed, so all I had to do was follow the directions on their site for installing it, which basically consists of unzipping the parts file and putting them in /usr/local/share/leocad, and then using unrpm to extract the .rpm package and then putting the binary in /usr/local/bin. Puppy doesn't come with unrpm, but it's on the forum somewhere).
Possibly the bugs were related to my hardware. I know that a portion of the bugs were, because those ones gave error messages relating to my video driver. I tried it on my other screen, which uses another card and another driver, and those bugs went away. The ones that didn't output error messages still remained though.
The interface would be much better if it used controls similar to Blender (being able to select blocks and pan/rotate/zoom the view without changing tools). Maybe there are tricks I'm not aware of to make it less cumbersome though. I didn't look very hard, since the crashing caused me to give up.
What I would like is a program that actually simulates the legos, so you could build something using technic pieces and then test it virtually. It's more fun to do it by hand, of course, but if you want to make something especially large using far more gears and axles than you own, it could be nice. Especially if there are a lot of repeated parts, so you could use copy-paste. I already have ideas about a program I plan to write some-year that is similar, so maybe I can incorporate lego-support into that. But I probably won't mess with that concept for two more years. I have so many things on my todo list I don't even remember them all (it's a mental list, not a real one - the things I forget aren't worth doing before the other things, or I'd remember them, so it works pretty well).
(I already had OpenGL installed, so all I had to do was follow the directions on their site for installing it, which basically consists of unzipping the parts file and putting them in /usr/local/share/leocad, and then using unrpm to extract the .rpm package and then putting the binary in /usr/local/bin. Puppy doesn't come with unrpm, but it's on the forum somewhere).
Possibly the bugs were related to my hardware. I know that a portion of the bugs were, because those ones gave error messages relating to my video driver. I tried it on my other screen, which uses another card and another driver, and those bugs went away. The ones that didn't output error messages still remained though.
The interface would be much better if it used controls similar to Blender (being able to select blocks and pan/rotate/zoom the view without changing tools). Maybe there are tricks I'm not aware of to make it less cumbersome though. I didn't look very hard, since the crashing caused me to give up.
What I would like is a program that actually simulates the legos, so you could build something using technic pieces and then test it virtually. It's more fun to do it by hand, of course, but if you want to make something especially large using far more gears and axles than you own, it could be nice. Especially if there are a lot of repeated parts, so you could use copy-paste. I already have ideas about a program I plan to write some-year that is similar, so maybe I can incorporate lego-support into that. But I probably won't mess with that concept for two more years. I have so many things on my todo list I don't even remember them all (it's a mental list, not a real one - the things I forget aren't worth doing before the other things, or I'd remember them, so it works pretty well).
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]
@Pizza
I hear you. I have a similiar situation. I am working on Concordia right now. Next I will be resurrecting RoboPup (I am thinking of making this a 2.16 puplet so that I can remaster from coolcnc). I am also starting to find myself slowly and hesitantly turning into a Luthier specializing in dulcimers (I don't know how to play it yet, but I can build them). My project there is to fine tune and tweak my current dulcimer then I am going to start (at the encouragement of my wife :shock: no less) building another one. I also have two robot projects that will benefit from RoboPup (K-9 and Vaq-M). Not to mention my continued study towards my bachelor of theology degree. Yep, even without work I've got a full plate.
Those are my current projects. I just hope I can find some time to try and compile bpbible for use with puppy as a replacement for BibleDesktop on Concordia.
If there is way to create a lego construction test program, I know you can do it. Just try not to overwhelm yourself. I need to do the same.
I hear you. I have a similiar situation. I am working on Concordia right now. Next I will be resurrecting RoboPup (I am thinking of making this a 2.16 puplet so that I can remaster from coolcnc). I am also starting to find myself slowly and hesitantly turning into a Luthier specializing in dulcimers (I don't know how to play it yet, but I can build them). My project there is to fine tune and tweak my current dulcimer then I am going to start (at the encouragement of my wife :shock: no less) building another one. I also have two robot projects that will benefit from RoboPup (K-9 and Vaq-M). Not to mention my continued study towards my bachelor of theology degree. Yep, even without work I've got a full plate.
Those are my current projects. I just hope I can find some time to try and compile bpbible for use with puppy as a replacement for BibleDesktop on Concordia.
If there is way to create a lego construction test program, I know you can do it. Just try not to overwhelm yourself. I need to do the same.
The only windows I have are those on my home.
Hello,
Considering I am a newbie with Linux and Puppy (actually Toutou 4.12 retro) I had (almost) no trouble to get my RCX2.0 mindstorm to work with NQC (Not Quite C) on Puppy.
The driver for the lego USB tower is already included with Puppy under /dev/legousbtower0
1) Download the NQC sources 3.1r6 code here: http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/
2) Apply this patch:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph ... tid=521778
3) Compile typing 'make'.
4) Type 'export RCX_PORT=usb' and 'echo export RCX_PORT=usb >> ~/.bashrc'. But I am not even sure this is necessary.
For some reason, the patch did not run very well in my case (probably my fault though, first time ever I use a patch), so I had to edit the RCX_USBTOWERPipe_linux.cpp file to change the line:
#define DEFAULT_TOWER_NAME "/dev/usb/lego0"
to
#define DEFAULT_TOWER_NAME "/dev/legousbtower0" so that NQC find the USB tower driver at the right place. But normally, the patch should do this for you.
After that, just use NQC in command line as described in the NQC documentation, and you don't need Windows any more for Mindstorms.
Considering I am a newbie with Linux and Puppy (actually Toutou 4.12 retro) I had (almost) no trouble to get my RCX2.0 mindstorm to work with NQC (Not Quite C) on Puppy.
The driver for the lego USB tower is already included with Puppy under /dev/legousbtower0
1) Download the NQC sources 3.1r6 code here: http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/
2) Apply this patch:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph ... tid=521778
3) Compile typing 'make'.
4) Type 'export RCX_PORT=usb' and 'echo export RCX_PORT=usb >> ~/.bashrc'. But I am not even sure this is necessary.
For some reason, the patch did not run very well in my case (probably my fault though, first time ever I use a patch), so I had to edit the RCX_USBTOWERPipe_linux.cpp file to change the line:
#define DEFAULT_TOWER_NAME "/dev/usb/lego0"
to
#define DEFAULT_TOWER_NAME "/dev/legousbtower0" so that NQC find the USB tower driver at the right place. But normally, the patch should do this for you.
After that, just use NQC in command line as described in the NQC documentation, and you don't need Windows any more for Mindstorms.
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Lobster
- Official Crustacean
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- Location: Paradox Realm
- Contact:
good newsKF6SNJ wrote:Next I will be resurrecting RoboPup (I am thinking of making this a 2.16 puplet so that I can remaster from coolcnc).
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21131
