Programming Interface: Experiences and Level of Creation

[cscott]

Has anyone had any experience with this? I'm interested in what the programming interface is like and what level of stuff you can make.

 

[gnome]

They're a lot of fun, and very useful as an intro to ai and robotics. I've never tried the RCX code that comes with the kit; it'sprogramming at a very elementary level, although they give examples of some fairly impressive stuff given the simplicity of the code.

For more a bit more advanced programming you can install NQC, a free download at http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/. NQC (Not Quite C) can be used to attack some fairly challenging problems.
Or you can install BrickOS, also free:
http://brickos.sourceforge.net/ which gives you a full C/C++ environment.

With all of the above, the program is written and compiled on a pc, and the compiled code is downloaded to the RCX, which then operates autonomously. It communicates with the pc via infrared, can send data back to the pc, and can also be controlled by the pc via the infrared, so there's really a vast range of things you can do with it. You might get a kick out of this one, for example: http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html