Copyright © 2002 Till Harbaum [email protected]
Original Website – http://www.harbaum.org/till/palm/pbrick/
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
The PBrick Library is a shared library that provides access to the Lego Mindstorms RCX controller brick (pbrick). It uses the palms IrDA interface to provide an interface to send and receive data to and from the RCX allowing for applications from simple remote controls (like e.g. PBRemote.prc in this package) to complex applications using the Palm as a robots main processor and using the RCX as an intelligent IO controller that drives and controls the motors and sensors of the robot.
The library consists of two parts, the library itself and a programming interface description (c header file). The end user only needs the library and of course at least one application using the library. The advantage of putting the whole interface code into a separate library is:
- The application developer doesn't need to care about the low level RCX communication at all
- Updates of the interface routines can be performed by replacing the library only. There's no need to re-compile or re-install the applications themselves.
- The interface can be adopted to new palm hardware by providing a new library. The user land applications will very likely work on future palms, while the interface code is very palm hardware dependant and may require updates to work on future palm models.
The PBrick Library comes with two example programs:
- The PBrick Remote (PBRemote.prc)
- The PBrick Demo (PBDemo.prc)
In order to use one or both of these programs install them on your palm the usual way together with the PBrick Library (PBrickLib.prc).
The PBrick Remote program demonstrates simple one-way communication from the palm to the rcx. It provides all the functions and keys of the original mindstorms remote control. This software does not analyse any reply messages sent by the RCX, it will e.g. therefore not recognize the fact, that the RCX is out of range or switched off.
The PBrick Remote program does not offer additional functionality over various other existing palm/RCX related software like e.g. Omniremote and RMover besides the fact, that PBrick Remote ist open source and, hence, can be used as a basis of your own palm/RCX programming experiments.
The PBrick Demo makes use of the PBrick Libraries capability to read data from the RCX back into the palm. This demo displays various library internal settings regarding communication speed and accuracy. It uses the bi-directional communication to verify the execution of several operations like starting sounds. Other functions of this demo rely on the second channel to read RCX internal settings back into the palm like e.g. the firmware and ROM versions or der battery state. These functions are based on easy-to-use high level interface routines provided by the Library as well as powerful low level routines that allow for unlimited communication between palm and RCX.
Have fun, Till
Ellams Software released a proprietary RCX remote control app for PalmOS called Robotic Mover. The website used to be primary software with a link to the developer’s hydroponics website (c.f. link); now, however, the website is primarily devoted to hydroponics.
Based on archive.org, the original Ellams Software website appears to have gone offline between September 13 and October 14, 2008. At that time, software on the website was available for free download.
The Robotic Mover program is available for download at the link below.
The PBrickLib project is not associated in any way with Ellams Software or Robotic Mover.