Android + Lego Mindstorm NXT via App Inventor.

Finally had a chance to go back and try out the MIT version.

Working well.

The unclear part was hooking up the bluetooth connection;  had to use google and find a sample showing how to connect it up.

Bluetooth keyboard working on the olpc XO running XOpup-2.2

mysteriously worked like magic; the small lump on the left is the bluetooth adaptor;

the keyboard is a Verbatim Ultra-Slim Bluetooth keyboard.


How?


The system found the keyboard itself;  I did not type any passwords to pair it;
which I found rather odd.  I had several web pages up, and my son was watching me.  I took out the bluetooth dongle to show him, and plugged it back in;  he was playing with the keyboard, and it started to work.

hmmm....

Instagram:

working on:
LG-P500h
Android 2.3.3

VM on Fedora 16 for Lego Mindstorms

Tried various things, and searched the web.

Did not find any success on running the GUI software that came with the Lego NXT under Wine, and having it connect to the NXT to download programs.

the python works great, as does my Android phone;  but the LEGO gui software

So:

Installed the default Virtualization on Fedora 16.
Then installed an old version of Windows XP

found I could install and run the lego GUI, and it could see the USB device !

On Fedora's Virtual Machine Manager GUI, I just added the usb device corresponding to the NXT brick,
and the XP vm found it.

Notes:

initial hard disk for XP is a bit small; need to investigate: can I make it larger or do I need to re-install?
my first install/setup was with all defaults, and the GUI seems to lag a bit, not as snappy as I'd like;

New year, New Toy: LEGO Mindstorms + Android

there was a sale, and I couldn't resist;  plus I had a gift card...

So now we have yet another type of computer in the house.

Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0
kit 8547

initial kit has one colour sensor and two touch sensors + ultrasonic
(older version had a monochrome light sensor, sound sensor and one touch sensor + ultrasonic)

In addition to the default windows setup that came in the box (which needed a updated Fantom Driver)
Have hooked it up the the Android phone via the MINDdroid app, as well as the Linux box via
NXT Python

note:  Buy Rechargeable Batteries!

Android phone updated to 2.3.3 via XP machine

was not too bad; only had to remove the battery from the phone once to reset.

Had to install my phone vendor's software to run the update;  there was no linux version I could easily find; so used an old XP laptop.  Is very old, does not even have usb 2.0, so any data transfer is slow.

took about half an hour.

it did fail the first time, leaving my phone in a sad "emergency mode" state.  Instructions on screen were simple enough:

unplug, remove the battery, and try again.

worked the second time.

notes:

• icons are now more colourful!
• my apps, bookmarks and contacts survived
• home screens did get shuffled, needed to reset them

Installed the new XOpup on a "bone" usb drive

Installed the new XOpup running on the OLPC XO 1.0.

This doggy bone USB key was on sale for 75% off:

 and here it is installed :

there were only pink ones left;  I suppose a white one would match better...