6) Computer connections and DACTA See address of DACTA in the address section. (Lego)
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This article is from the Lego FAQ, by Tom Pfeifer pfeifer@fokus.gmd.de with numerous contributions by others.
6) Computer connections and DACTA See address of DACTA in the address section. (Lego)
Fred Martin from the MIT provides:
LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company (which has
its U.S. headquarters in Enfield, CT). Dacta sells the LEGO Technic
product line -- the geared and motorized version of the LEGO system.
Call Dacta and get their catalog, which has many LEGO Technic kits.
Recommended kits are the 1038 Technic Universal Buggy (a specialized
kit for building a small LEGO vehicle with a dual motor drive; about
US$60), the 1032 Technic II with Motorized Transmission (a small
general-purpose kit including one motor and one battery pack; about
US$76), and the 9605 Technic Resource Set (a large general-purpose kit
including two motors and two battery packs; about US$200).
Catalog names:
* "Making Connections" (new 1994)
* "Small Hands: Big Imaginations"
* "Gear Up for Learning" (probably obsolete)
Dacta charges 5% shipping cost (while Shop at Home shippes free).
Orders can be placed with a credit card over the phone or through the
mail with a check. Schools can order with a purchase order. This is
only for the US. For other countries you should contact your local
Dacta representatives. Most countries should have one. If not, Denmark
should be able to let you know where you can order from.
vaughn@pluto.cis.udel.edu (Chris Vaughn) found in the Dacta catalog:
MS-DOS or Apple II Slot Card Pack - US$161.50 includes slot card,
cable, LEGO TC logo software and reference guides. (card is for most
MS-DOS machines, except IBM PS/2 Models 50 and above or any other
microchannel computer)
Interface Box and Transformer - US$188.00 This box is what you connect
all your motors, lights, and sensors to. It has 2 inputs, and 6
outputs (3 if you want to use three motors and have them all be
reversible).
carol@edfua0.ctis.af.mil (Andy Carol):
The Lego Control Lab for Macintosh and/or PC is available for about
US$600. It connects to any computer via serial cable (RS-232), has 8
different output ports which can control motors, lights, and sounds.
It has 8 different inputs for buttons, angles, thermal, etc. This is
_NOT_ a plug in card, but rather an external device hooked up via
serial cable. It is programmed with LOGO, and has a really nice
graphical system under Mac and Windows. It's also possible to use a C
and C++ API for all control functions.
jkoch@ee.ryerson.ca (jim koch) provides:
The price for Apple or IBM starter pack US$798.00 (Jan 92).
vaughn@pluto.cis.udel.edu (Chris Vaughn) writes:
The Mini Board is a "miniature microprocessor-based controller board
designed for control of small robotic devices". It was designed at the
MIT Media Laboratory. This board is perfect for controlling LEGO
devices (and in fact looks to be much better than the interface
designed by LEGO).
All of the information about the Mini Board is available at an FTP
site (the address is "cherupakha.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47)")). This
includes diagrams and a parts list. The tech reference is a 47-page
Postscript document.
There is a mailing list at listserv@oberon.com. Send the body
"SUBSCRIBE ROBOT-BOARD your_name" to this email address, the body HELP
for help.
The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss robot controller
boards, and robot control in general. In particular, this list will be
used to support the Miniboard 2.0 and 6.270 board design by Fred
Martin and Randy Sargent of MIT. However, any and all traffic related
to robot controllers is welcome.
Documentation about the MIT 6.270 is also available by FTP:
aeneas.mit.edu [18.71.0.38] in the ~ftp/pub/ACS/6.270 directory.
slh@digitool.com (Stephen L. Hain) contributes:
May I suggest adding Paradigm Software's Pearl Controller and Object
Logo to this section. The Pearl Controller connects between a
Macintosh serial port and a LEGO Robotics controller, and it is daisy
chainable. Object Logo has an extension consisting of a set of
object-oriented robotics programming features, allowing event-driven
robot control. Contact Paradigm at 617 576-7675. (Stephen works for
them.)
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