Yesterday I bought a LEGO mindstorms set (getting infantil in my old days...). After building the first robot, I want to substitue the RCX by an FPGA. Has anyone done this so far? Martin ---------------------------------------------- JOP - a Java Processor core for FPGAs: http://www.jopdesign.com/
LEGO mindstorms and FPGA
Started by ●August 7, 2004
Reply by ●August 7, 20042004-08-07
What are your goals in the substitution ?? Do you want to run the programs from the RCX on the JOP ? Do you want to create new program in a java environment ? The FPGA is almost insignifcant if you are only interested in software. Martin Schoeberl wrote:> Yesterday I bought a LEGO mindstorms set (getting infantil in my old > days...). After building the first robot, I want to substitue the RCX by > an FPGA. Has anyone done this so far? > > Martin > ---------------------------------------------- > JOP - a Java Processor core for FPGAs: > http://www.jopdesign.com/ > > >
Reply by ●August 8, 20042004-08-08
"Martin Schoeberl" <martin.schoeberl@chello.at> wrote in message news:CA4Rc.45883$M72.19963@news.chello.at...> Yesterday I bought a LEGO mindstorms set (getting infantil in my old > days...). After building the first robot, I want to substitue the RCX by > an FPGA. Has anyone done this so far? >Not that I've seen. www.charmedlabs.com have lego + gameboy + fpga uses ecos Some verilog code for servos etc here http://www.fpga4fun.com/ Alex
Reply by ●August 8, 20042004-08-08
> Not that I've seen. > > www.charmedlabs.com have lego + gameboy + fpga > uses ecos >That's a nice project. They did implement voltage sensing of the motor generated voltage during 'off' of the PWM to get some feedback. That's exactly what I have planned for the motor control. Martin -- ---------------------------------------------- JOP - a Java Processor core for FPGAs: http://www.jopdesign.com/
Reply by ●August 8, 20042004-08-08
> What are your goals in the substitution ??Fun :-)> Do you want to run the programs from the RCX on the JOP ?No, I want to program the robots in Java.> Do you want to create new program in a java environment ? > > The FPGA is almost insignifcant if you are only interested in software.The FPGA is used to interface with the motor and sensors. It's simple to implement the ADC for the sensors in the FPGA. I will put the schematics for the sensor and motor interface with some VHDL code on a webpage when I got it work. Martin -- ---------------------------------------------- JOP - a Java Processor core for FPGAs: http://www.jopdesign.com/
Reply by ●August 8, 20042004-08-08
Martin Schoeberl wrote:>... snip ...> > That's a nice project. They did implement voltage sensing of the > motor generated voltage during 'off' of the PWM to get some > feedback. That's exactly what I have planned for the motor control.I did something of the sort way back when for HO train engine control. It involved a few diodes, a quad op amp, SCR, and the odd component including a transformer. The idea was to use the raw rectified unfiltered AC, which shut off the SCR and allowed the diode etc to sense the speed, and then turn the SCR on again. I wish I had kept schematics. It worked quite well 25 years ago. I even cobbled in a braking mode somehow. -- Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net) Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems. <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net> USE worldnet address!
