Who are you and where are you from?

[ScottYelich]

I have like 2x all the mindstorms... it would be awesome to get the perl or python IR drivers ... or whatever... for z -- to control the bots :-]

What perl do you use?

I have been converting to ipk and using the Debian stable arm packages and the perl 5.6.1 is very complete (including perl/tk for Xqt).  There is a module libdevice-serialport-perl from Debian that should provide the interface you need to IR.  I have mindstorms too and if I recall the communication is standard serial at 4800 or 9600 bps.

If you want python http://www.vanille.de/projects/python.spy has pyserial.  I find the python for the Z here to be very complete and use it for python and pyqt apps.  You could probably make a very nice Qt Mindstorm GUI.

When I last worked with them I was using LegOS (Now brickOS).  BrickOS is a replacement embedded OS for the Mindstorm that can run 8 concurrent threads.  It is very stable IMHO and works well.  Programming is done using a gnu H8 cross compiler (any doing Z C development should feel right at home).  BrickOS/LegOS supports using the IR directly and has an API to write for code for the host end.  You could probably also port that API to use the perl serial module.

LegOS (brickOS) IMHO is the best way to go if you are hitting the limits and performance of the base OS and/or NQC.

I forget which perl I was using... I was grabbing all the stuff for the mindstorms about 2 years ago... and I found some perl code that would speak to the IR tower via a serial... I figured
on the Z, we could just go straight IR.

Scott

[ScottYelich]

Botgeek: what kind of robotics do you do?  I love the field, and I\'m kinda messing around with it..  I can\'t wait till I get better at it.

I have like 2x all the mindstorms... it would be awesome to get the perl or python IR drivers ... or whatever... for z -- to control the bots :-]

Scott

Have you checked out the oopic?

www.oopic.com


John

I hadn\'t... but just took a quick look.  I\'ll take a longer look later.

Actually, I was hoping to use the mindstorms as a simple
real world interface for an AI project... nothing too complicated on the mindstorm side.

Scott

[waalkman]

I hadn\'t... but just took a quick look.  I\'ll take a longer look later.

Actually, I was hoping to use the mindstorms as a simple
real world interface for an AI project... nothing too complicated on the mindstorm side.

Scott

Ok, I suppose that that would work. And there are all sorts of linux tools for the Mindstorm.

Not a lot of IO, but maybe you don\'t need that much (our old PLC\' s handle up to 32k. Which is one hell of a lot of wires).

The switches and lights for the MS do look pretty cool


John

[metal9966]

Daniel Renfroe - 24 - Dallas, TX (Carrollton Actually) Married w/ no kids, 2 cats and a bad ass 94 Impala SS (9C1 clone) (my other passion)
Work for Delta Construction Services Company for 6 years now. Do CAD, Steel detailing, project management, IT and whatever else needs to be done. In the middle of getting a degree in Construction Management. I think I am the only guy in construction?

Dont have a Z yet (paying for me and my wife\'s school), have 1 Handspring Prism that I abuse every day, and a broken one for parts. Have lots of computers to play with mostly 486 and pentium. All started with my mother (who to this day knows nothing about computers) got me a Commodore 64 & a little programming book when I was like 6?7? Learned some minimal programming in ? (not sure what?) on it, then someone gave me a old IBM PC JR a few years later (8 MHZ I think?). I\'m talking some serious power, basica + floppies and a lot of line numbers (most of my programs will still work in Qbasic on my AMD XP2200, although really, really fast. Continued to Visual Basic 6 and vbs/vba. Then about a year ago?, I bit the bullet and got a copy of Suse 8.2, now can\'t get enough of Linux, trying to figure out what to do next? (I am saving for a 6000, dont know how much longer the Prism will last)

www.deltabuildings.com (designed by me)

btw: the users of the ZUG are a very intresting group...

[borisbob]

I\'m in chip (IC) design, also 33 originally from Moscow/Russia like the original poster (179 then FUPM Fiztech).
Now living in Israel.

C760, running Cacko of course !

;-)

[murphytalk]

Tokyo,Japan. But I am from China.

Own a C860, but was a 4-year Palm OS user, just switched to Linux PDA recently,\'cause I am a big Linux fan and a long time PC Linux user

BTW. anybody else lives in Japan or from China here?

[waalkman]

...degree in Construction Management. I think I am the only guy in construction?

Well, maybe currently, in a past life I was an Electrician

...(most of my programs will still work in Qbasic on my AMD XP2200, although really, really fast.

I guess so

Continued to Visual Basic 6 and vbs/vba. Then about a year ago?, I bit the bullet and got a copy of Suse 8.2, now can\'t get enough of Linux, trying to figure out what to do next? (I am saving for a 6000, dont know how much longer the Prism will last)

Have you seen some of the basic offerings for linux? Getting pretty good...

www.deltabuildings.com (designed by me)

I need a barn, I\'ll have to check y\'all out.


John

[Jenn]

Jennifer Schneider, 21, from Germany, am just a student (and a geekette )

sony desktop pc (FreeBSD) and Zaurus C860 (pdaXrom)

and i love music


--Jenn

[darkpadden]

Wesley Stevens
Atlanta, GA, USA

20 years old
about 3 years playing with linux with one of them years windows free and still going and own 7+ computers and a 5600/abicom wl1100c-cf/512mb and 64mb sd cards/

 i love my Z

[dsavard]

Daniel Savard, 41, living in Beloeil (about 35 km east of Montreal, Quebec Canada).

M.Sc. in physics, worked for IBM as scientific computing specialist and AIX expert for 5 years. I then started my own company providing consulting services as Unix and Tivoli (www.tivoli.com) expert.

I am using Linux since 1993 and my 1993 486 pc is still running Linux doing very useful work almost non-stop 24/7. I own many other Intel based computers.

My last hobby was fiddling with MythTV (www.mythtv.org) which is a very promising Linux-based project.

I got my Zaurus from my sister living in USA, they are not sold in Canada. It's a SL-6000L and I just received it a month ago. I am waiting for my GPS CF and plan to buy few other goodies and must have.

I have three children, two are still living with me and the oldest (18) is living in Jamaica most of the time. I also have two cats and no more mice in my old country house.

I am interested in embedded devices and I plan to take advantage on my Z to learn more about it.

[diesel1]

Simon Whiteley, 33, Married expecting first child March 2005.
Leeds, United Kingdom.
Print Finisher for 15 years, now a Learning Support Assistant in a High School.


First computer Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k (1982).
Various DIY PC's.
Microsoft free for 3 years, now trying to convert everyone I know to Linux. Several friends and family already bitten by the penguin!

I am looking forward to getting a PovRay modeler on my C860......when someone compiles one or by a miracle I do it myself!

Simon.

[henrysviper]

Grigorios Prasinos
I am 29, from Athens, Greece.

Currently I am doing my PhD in Distributed Algorithm Engineering.
I use my beloved C750 mainly as a mini laptop, but also for some warwalking (with kismet).

Next step is to decide between a handheld or a CF based gps and start geocaching.

[sigmaX]

Enrique, from Uruguay, Latin America. 33 years old.... Started in computers around year 1985 with a Sinclair zx81...  A year later I built my own rs232 and comunications suite for my spectrum 48K, to use with a modem. No one was avail to chat with  so I figured out I had to try with banks ... that is how I ended up hacking my way INTO a world class bank, and thus being the first "hacker" over here heh ... after that I dedicated mainly into gaming and graphics industry... refining myself with AMIGA computers into 3D bussiness and video production.  Did some blueboxing also ... Now I am mainly a .net framework programmer, and I work at home, sustaining myself by means of an e-commerce website I did for myself, and programming projects with third parties.

Zaurus is not something known around here.... much less yet the C860... When I tell people that I had to buy it in Japan, make it go into USA, and make it be brought down here, the usual reaction is "this guy is nuts" but when I extract it from my pocket and show them some tricks, the usual geek starts screaming and going nuts for one too... so I think I am responsible for some more zaurus sales up there in Japan any time from now  !

[jesizmi]

43yo, married, 1 daughter(6), living in Hamburg, Germany
Im a SAP consultant, doing mostly ABAP (yes that's a Programming Language) programming.
I had several Palm-PDAs and was more or less content until i first stumbled over a bargain Z-5500. (I didn't keep it though)
When i dove into the matter i learned that something like the C7xx was around so i saved my money to get one. First, i just had to have it, because it's so cool, but thanks to the Ko/pi team i was able to sent my palmV into retirement and do everything i ever used a PDA for with it and a lot more. (PIM, mp3, movies, e-books, timetracking, war-walking etc)
I just love it and yet i'm a newbee     ...

[totaln00b]

Jo, 28, living in Lancaster, UK. Studied maths at Uni, then underwater archaeology, now I'm a land archaeologist, just discovering my hithertoo unknown prediliction for all things geek.

Graduated to a zaurus 750 after a few years as a psion devotee, love the flexibility of it all (particularly apache/php/mysql/phpwiki). Now waiting for a gps cf so I can show off to my fellow archaeologists.

'Fraid, that other than my zaurus, I'm still a windows girl for the moment!