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Lego to Open Mindstorms NXT Firmware

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the arise-from-your-grave-oh-plastic-brick dept.

ajdlinux writes "LEGO has officially announced that the firmware for the Mindstorms NXT will be open source. They will be releasing several developer kits and the firmware source during August, the kits containing the NXT driver specs, the schematics for the hardware connection and the Bluetooth protocol used by the NXT. The NXT will be only US$250, which is only slightly more expensive than the Mindstorms RIS2 kit. I certainly can't wait. " We had covered the earlier announcement of this kit.

3 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Mail to daddypants sent 5 minutes ago.... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Informative

    The link is incorrect.

    You have trimmed the spaces from the name.

    correct one is: http://mindstorms.lego.com/press/2057/Open%20Sourc e%20Announcement.aspx

    liquidcoooled

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. If only... by VorpalRodent · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I haven't played with legos for years, but I've heard of these things.

    Just look at that robot on that homepage. Imagine all the things that it can do. Why, if Lego scaled up all its parts, I bet it could take on ASIMO easily.

    But seriously, if more work were put into developing things like this - toys such that everyday people with some ingenuity and some creativity could program their own robots, I believe that we would have a lot more ideas as far as where to take robots.

    Right now, major robotic undertakings seem to be limited to those with the research capital and funding to make them happen. If this were the thing that was researched, I would think that we would be seeing a lot more cool stuff developed as a result.

    Especially with the release of the firmware as open source. Lego is just inviting people of all capabilities to work with it.

    --
    Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
  3. Visual Studio Express by adolfojp · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can already program these toys with the free editions of the Visual Studio software.
    http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4127455334 .html

    Why, oh why didn't we get to have toys like these in out childhood. :-(