News

Version 1.2 beta is released, 5 June 2007

It has been far too long since my last release! Though I finished most of it during the easter vacation, work has kept me too busy to put the finishing touches on it. Well, now I'm going ahead and releasing a beta with what I have for now.

So, whats new? Support for the HiTechnic NXT Acceleration / Tilt Sensor obviously. Also the code is now able to run under the Compact Framework (i.e. on a PDA).

But beside that I have tried to address various stability problems. As a result the code should have hardened considerably. It is not quite there now, but I hope it is getting there eventually.

One design decision I had made early on was to move to using nullable types whenever logically consistent. However this will make the endusers (that's you!) code a bit more complicated as you now has to check for HasValue == true and get the value from the Value property. I'm not certain that I will not regret my decision and revert to the syntax of 1.1. Please let me know what you feel about the new syntax.

HiTechnic NXT Acceleration Sensor code, 6 April 2007

HiTechnic has released it, but I haven't gotten around to supporting it in the API yet:
The NXT Acceleration / Tilt Sensor.

Fortunately Ronny H. has sent me his solution for a HiTechnicAccelerationSensor-class:

namespace NKH.MindSqualls
{
    public class HiTechnicAccelerationSensor : NxtDigitalSensor
    {
        public HiTechnicAccelerationSensor() : base() { }

        #region I2C protocol

        // X
        public byte Roll
        {
            get { return ReadByteFromAddress(0x42); }
        }

        // Y
        public byte Pitch
        {
            get { return ReadByteFromAddress(0x43); }
        }

        // Z
        public byte Yaw
        {
            get { return ReadByteFromAddress(0x44); }
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

Thanks Ronny!

Version 1.1 is released, 28 January 2007

Besides support for the new HiTechnic NXT Color Sensor, it is now possible to read the tacho count of a motor. Throw in a few minor bugfixes, and a lot of work on the documentation, and I give you v1.1. :^)

Special thanks goes to Giorgio T and Rui G for independently trying it out on the compact framework. It requires that the System.Timers.Timer, in the NxtPollable class, is replaced with either System.Threading.Timer or Windows.Forms.Timer. I can not help wondering why Microsoft has included at least 3 different timers in the .Net framework?! Unfortunately I have not been able to implement it myself without getting all sorts of nasty multi-threading errors. It will have to wait for v1.2.

Thanks to all that has mailed me with your comments and questions so far. I wish I had the time to answer you all in a more timely manner.

It is in the Mail!, 15 January 2007

Ah, finally... My HiTechnic NXT Color Sensor is in the mail, and should arrive within the week. Stay tuned for v. 1.1 of the MindSqualls API. :^)

TriBot Compass, 31 December 2006

While I am waiting impatiently for the release of the new and shiny HiTechnic NXT Color Sensor:

"... orders will be accepted in about a week and shipments will start around Jan 15th."

I decided to play around with their compass sensor instead: Your NXT compass?

The inspiration came from these two cool videos on YouTube: here and here.

Happy New Year!

Remote Control Application, Take 2, 23 December 2006

Inspired by a mail from David J, I have made another example on a TriBot remote control application. You can find it here.

Seasons greetings to everybody, and may there be something special beneath the tree for you! :^)

Documentation Updated, 14 December 2006

The documentation is now available as a compiled HTML help file.

Remote Control Application, 12 December 2006

Added a simple remote control application for the TriBot.

MindSqualls v. 1.0, 7 December 2006

Introducing MindSqualls v 1.0, a .Net library for remote controlling your LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT via bluetooth. Downloads.

MindSqualls is a .Net 2.0 library written in C#. It can be used with any of the .Net programming languages. I haven't tried it yet, but it should be possible to use with the Compact .Net framework as well.

I've been working on this project since I discovered release 0.2 of Bram Fokkes excellent NXT# project. It's been very inspiring. :^)

Niels K. Handest