Monday, August 07, 2006

NXT Bluetooth and control

One of the most advanced features on the new Mindstorms NXT system is its ability to control and communicate via Bluetooth technology. Inside of the NXT Brick, controlling all Bluetooth communications, is a CSR Blue Core™ 4 chip. This one chip allows the NXT to be connected wirelessly to 3 different sources at the same time. This Bluetooth wireless technology opens the door for thousands of new possibilities. One of these is a PC based Bluetooth controller for the NXT. Check it out...

The Bluetooth system on the NXT is designed to run in a master/slave configuration. Each NXT brick can connect with up to three other NXT devices. However, the NXT can only communicate with one slave source at a time. For example if the Master NXT is communicating with NXT Slave 1 it must finish sending/receiving data before it can communicate with NXT Slave 3.

One drawback to this master/slave setup is that the LEGO programmers have designed the firmware in such a way that the NXT cannot serve as a master and a slave at the same time.

The communications between NXT's and other Bluetooth devices is done through one of four channels.

• Channel 0 - This channel is reserved for slave communication to the master. By default all slaves will send data to the master on channel 0.

• Channels 1, 2, 3 - The other three channels are used by the NXT master to send data or instructions to the slave on that channel.


Another aspect to the Bluetooth connectivity is the ability to control the NXT remotely from a PC, cell phone, laptop, and more. One of the newest programs for remote NXT control is called OnBrick.

OnBrick takes advantage of the NXT Bluetooth technology to create a 20 button programmable NXT remote controller. In all there are 36 different actions that the remote can perform including: motor control, sounds, sensor input, power settings, and many more!

Be sure to check the OnBrick Website for pictures, information, and more. Also you may want to download the official Lego Mindstorms NXT Bluetooth Developer Kit.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your blog. We read everything we can about NXT.

We would like to share this link with your readers:

http://www.rifagent.com

We'll release more information to you shortly.

Agent #92
Robotics Investigation Force

ktsadowski said...

Can I Control My robot from my computer instead of my phone?

ugo said...

Hi, i will like to know if the nxt can be used as a slave on the i2c bus. This time, i want it to receive data from wireless sensor connected to one of its input ports via i2c communication.

ugo said...

Hi, I will like to know if the nxt can be used as a slave on i2c bus. This time I want it receive data from wireless sensor, micaz motes and then execute its program based on the data received.