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NXTDuino, or damaged NXT brick?


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#1 Stanislav Husár

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Posted 30 January 2013 - 04:05 PM

Hi everyone,

 

I thought if I could flash Lego Mindstorms® NXT Brick with Netduino´s firmware, as it uses a very similar MCU (Atmel AT91SAM7S256 ). But I don´t know, if it is safe. I would love to program NXT Brick in C# like Netduino, but I really do not want to damage NXT Brick. I am not going to experiment with NXT Brick in any way, that could prevent me from flashing NXT Firmware back again and to use it as Mindstorms® NXT Brick.

 

So, what could happen, if I try to flash NXT Brick with Netduino firmware? If it is safe, which firmware is best suited for AT91SAM7S256 ?



#2 NooM

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Posted 30 January 2013 - 05:36 PM

i dont think it will run, it has only half of the flash/ram than netduino has.

 

even if it will run, you dont have much flash/ram left todo anything with it.



#3 CW2

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Posted 30 January 2013 - 06:05 PM

So, what could happen, if I try to flash NXT Brick with Netduino firmware? If it is safe, which firmware is best suited for AT91SAM7S256 ?

 

As NooM has already pointed out, AT91SAM7S256 has less memory than Netduino's AT91SAM7X512, so the Netduino firmware will not fit. I don't know all the differences between SAM7S and SAM7X to tell you what changes will be necessary, but you'd probably need to remove most of the firmware features. The .NET MF Porting Kit includes solution for SAM7S-EK (Atmel's evaluation kit/development board), but I don't know whether it works out-of-the-box.

 

IMHO Lego NXT brick can be flashed via SAM-BA, so it is basically the same like when you flash erased Netduino.



#4 Gutworks

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Posted 30 January 2013 - 07:23 PM

Hi Stanislav,

 

It's been some time since I've used my Lego Mindstorm NXT, but I was pretty sure I was able to use C# within the Microsoft Robotics Studio software. 

 

On a side note, I wish I could easily use my NXT sensors on the Netduino, but if I recall it uses a funky version of I2C and I haven't made any attempts to decipher it yet. Perhaps some day before my gyros, compass, etc all start to rot away :)

 

Cheers,

Steve



#5 bsilvereagle

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Posted 31 January 2013 - 01:47 AM

Steve,

 

http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/1430224533

 

Has all the information you need to reverse engineer the NXT sensor i2c if I remember correctly. It's on a bookshelf that's not in my dorm so I can't double check. 



#6 Stanislav Husár

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Posted 31 January 2013 - 02:34 PM

Hi Steve,

 

I know about Microsoft Robotics Studio. But, as far as I know, Robotics Studio code runs on computer which controls NXT Brick via bluetooth. I want to program directly to NXT Brick.



#7 Stanislav Husár

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Posted 31 January 2013 - 04:14 PM

Hi,

 

I am as crazy as I tried erasing NXT Brick, and deploying Netduino´s firmware into it. But I got stuck  on flashing TinyBooterDecompressor. I ran SAM-BA, selected right COM port, and AT91SAM7S256-ek processor. Selected Flash tab. There was no "Boot from flash" option, so I omitted it. I ran "Enable flash access". Then, I have tried sending TinyBooterDecompressor, which failed.I power cycled NXT Brick, but it was still AT91SAM7S256, instead of TinyBooter.

 

@CW2: Is there any tutorial or guide or... on how to use .NET MF Porting kit? I am such a newbie in this area, not sure, if I could do it correctly :( Anyway, I will try it on my own first.



#8 Gutworks

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Posted 31 January 2013 - 08:52 PM

Steve,

 

http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/1430224533

 

Has all the information you need to reverse engineer the NXT sensor i2c if I remember correctly. It's on a bookshelf that's not in my dorm so I can't double check. 

Awesome! I will certainly have a look at this book and hopefully find some good I2C information. Then who knows, maybe I'll resurrect my NXT sensors. 

 

Thanks,

Steve



#9 Gutworks

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Posted 31 January 2013 - 08:54 PM

Hi Steve,

 

I know about Microsoft Robotics Studio. But, as far as I know, Robotics Studio code runs on computer which controls NXT Brick via bluetooth. I want to program directly to NXT Brick.

Ah, yes. I forgot about that part. It was some time ago, but I was attempting to create a cellphone controlled robot and got lost in the complications of the Bluetooth stack. 






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