1. LEGO Mindstorms Hitachi H8-based RCX brick B.A. Juliano, R.S. Renner, F. Jauregui January 2004 California State University, Chico Intelligent Systems Laboratory Chico, CA 95929-0410 http://isl.ecst.csuchico.edu

2. LEGO Mindstorms http://mindstorms.lego.com

3. Robotics Invention System 2.0 RIS Kit

4. Contents of Kit RCX™ Microcomputer CD-ROM Software Contructopedia™ 3 Guided Challenges 6 Pro Challenges USB Infrared Transmitter 718 pieces, including: 2 Motors 2 Touch Sensors 1 Light Sensor

5. Compatibility Minimum Requirements for your PC: Operating System Windows® 98* CPUPentium II 233 MHz RAM32 MB Available Hard Disk Space 115 MB MouseWindows® Compatible Sound Sound Blaster 16™ Windows® Compatible Sound Device CD-ROM SpeedCD 8X Video Display800 X 600 SVGA with 4 MB RAM ColorsColors 16 bit Modem (optional)28.8 KBPS Internet Browser (optional) Netscape® Navigator or Microsoft™ Internet Explorer Not compatible with Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating systems.

6. RIS 2.0 RCX Brick An autonomous LEGO microcomputer that can be programmed using a PC. The RCX serves as the brain of LEGO MINDSTORMS inventions.

7. About the Brick LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) Four buttons One internal speaker Three sensor inputs Three actuator outputs IR (Infrared) interface

8. About the Brick Hitachi H8 series microcontroller 8 bit CPU at 16 MHz 32 KByte RAM 16 KByte ROM for the BIOS serial I/O (input/output) ADC (analog digital converter) built-in timers

9. Features Instruction set with 57 basic instructions, including: –Multiply and divide instructions –Powerful bit-manipulation instructions High-speed operation –All frequently-used instructions are executed in two to four states

10. Software Architecture System ROM Layer Low level control software Interface to hardware Second piece of software –Firmware –Located in RCX ROM

11. Firmware Can bypass system ROM software –Allows complete control of RCX Erased when power removed In RCX RAM Can use standard Firmware OR –Can be replaced with others –birickOS

12. Caution When changing batteries you may loose Firmware and all programs –Replace one at a time –Do within one minute

13. Multi-Tasking Threading –Multiple things at one time Can create new threads to accomplish Multi-Tasking

15. Put it All Together

16. Hitachi H8/3292 Microcontroller

17. Hitachi H8/3292 diagram

18. Hitachi H8/3292 package

19. H8/300 CPU 8-bit data 16-bit address space 8 X 16 bit registers (r0-r7) –R0 – function return –R7 – stack pointer 16 MHz clock

20. H8/3292 Block Diagram

21. RCX Memory Layout

22. Input Devices 3 Sensors 4 Buttons Battery level monitor Timers

23. Light Sensor Two components Light detector Small light source Light turned on to find something close. Amplifies difference between light and dark. Great for line following

24. Light Sensor cont. Highly sensitive to ambient light –Sunlight is the worst How to solve problem –Take two light sensor readings and subtract the background light Sensitive to objects reflective surface. –Thus, difficult to measure distance.

25. Light Sensor cont. Light measured as – 0% (total darkness) to –100% (very bright).

26. Light Sensor cont. photo-transistor

27. Uses for Light Sensor Navigation Black on white White on black Find light Avoid light Sort colors black Lego bricks yellow Lego bricks. Input Device colors or gray levels on paper.

28. Touch Sensor

29. Uses for Touch Sensor Detect contact Wall detection Internal contact Arm contact with internal parts Constant contact Make sure bot does not fall off of a table Input Device Use as a push button

30. Others You can buy or make you own sensors –Example: Temperature sensor –Search online –Lots of resources http://www.plazaearth.com/usr/gasperi/lego.htm

31. Temperature Sensor

32. Temperature Sensor cont.

35. Output Devices 3 Actuator Ports 5-segment LCD Speaker

36. Bidirectional Device Infrared port

37. LegoOS Network Protocol (LNP) Communication between brickOS and host computers If packets arrive –Free of corruption Collision problems