Embedded Motion Control/Lego Mindstorms Installation

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This document describes how to the installation of the necessary and sufficient software (approximately 400 MB) on Windows XP to start programming your own RCX from LEGO Mindstorms to control your Marslander. After reading this small manual, you should be able to run your own program on the RCX.

Installing Cygwin and the IR Tower

The RCX will be running on Linux and hence you need to compile all your code under Linux. Therefore, you can use a Linux emulator under Windows, called Cygwin. To install this emulator, carefully follow the following steps:

  1. Insert the marslander installation CD and wait for the installation window.
  2. Choose Install Cygwin, and the installation program will start.
  3. In the following window, choose install from local directory.
  4. Then choose the directory where Cygwin should be installed, the other options should be left at the recommended ones.
  5. Now the setup prompts for the local package directory, which is cygwin_install_files on the cd-drive.
  6. It is time to select the packages. It is preferred to install them all, so activate them all by clicking on All-default (the default-part) until it says All-install, and start the installation by clicking next.

When this is finished, Cygwin is installed but you still need a special compiler and operating system for the RCX. Therefore do the following:

  1. Click the button Directories to copy in the installation window of the CD. An explorer window will

be opened with four directories, build, brickos-0.9.0, etc, and usr. Copy these to thedirectory you just installed Cygwin in (e.g., c:\Cygwin\). Choose yes when asked to replace.

  1. You are finished, so choose Exit in the installation window of the CD.

Now you need to install the driver for the infrared communication tower. To do this, plug the IR USB Tower in a free USB slot in your computer. Windows will automatically detect it, and prompts for a driver. Don’t let Windows update but choose to install your own driver which can be found in the directory IR_Tower_USB on the CD. Now everything is ready to set-up the RCX.

Putting a kernel into the RCX

Downloading your program to the RCX

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