Re: Direct control of NXT mindstorms

["Alex R. Mosteo" <alejandro@mosteo.com>]

Jeffrey Creem wrote:

> Alex R. Mosteo wrote:
>> Hi people,
>> 
>> I'm studying the options for Ada direct control of a NXT brick from an
>> external computer using the USB connection (as opposed to flashing a new
>> firmware, which is the way that GNAT for Mindstorms does). After looking
>> for what's available out there I've come to the following options:
>> 
>> a) Pure Ada library, would require binding to libusb.
>> b) Binding to some of the other libraries out there. I couldn't find a
>> C/C++ one that has USB implemented, so next good candidate seems Python
>> or OCaml. c) Completing the libnxtc (the one in C) with the missing USB
>> bits.
>> 
>> Probably the less work is b) or c), and then bind to it from Ada if
>> wanted. Anyway, just for the sake of completeness, I'd like to ask the
>> group for any related experiences or missing bits. More precisely:
>> 
>> p) I'm missing some approach in the above?
>> q) Are there any Ada bindings to libusb already? Not according to my
>> googling, and only some early efforts in old threads that didn't get
>> reported here afterwards.
>> r) Experiences in binding to Python/OCaml? I guess a C glue layer is the
>> way?
>> 
>> Kind regards,
>> 
>> Alex.
> 
> I never finished it but another approach with a start that is present is
> at http://nxtada.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/nxtada/trunk/
> 
> This controlled it from a computer over bluetooth essentially using a
> serial API and a bluetooth virtual serial port.
> 
> Suggested as another initial source of ideas and approach.

Thanks, that's interesting. Actually I explicitly don't want to use 
bluetooth, but I've seen devices attached to linux boxes where they appear 
as a serial line. I must check if this is the case with the NXT, since this 
would make unnecessary (I guess) the use of libusb. In this case I could 
jump right into continuing with your code...