Getting to Grips with Installing, Updating and Programming LEGO Mindstorms Kits

There is so much noise around LEGO Mindstorms on the web with enthusiasts and universities all attempting to do the NeXT big thing that it is hard for kids wanting to do more with their Mindstorms kit to figure out what is happening.There are three different Mindstorms kits and on top of this there is a plethora of tools for programming, different versions of NXT firmware and NXT software. Plus LEGO has changed the Mindstorms update pages on their website since release of NXT 2.0, so most old links don’t work any more, including links provided within the kit 8527 software. This article aims to provide concise information and resources to budding Mindstormers.

Terminology

Let’s get the terms clear first. So far the three Mindstorms retail kits from LEGO are named Mindstorms 1.0 also called Robotics Invention System (RIS), Mindstorms NXT (kit 8527) and Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (kit 8547).
There is also an educational (non-retail) version of the NXT called NXT EDU (kit 9797) and educational extensions to the NXT (kit 9648) mainly for universities and schools. This article focuses more on the NXT series retail kits and somewhat on the RIS kit.

LEGO software

The visual programming language shipped with RIS was called ROBOLAB. The visual programming language shipped with the NXT kits is called NXT-G. Kit 8527 came with version 1.0 of NXT-G. Afterwards a patch was released for NXT-G 1.0 which added dynamic block update functions. This allowed for additional sensor blocks to be imported into the software and it also allows older sensors from the RIS to be used with the NXT-G. Patched NXT-G 1.0 became NXT-G version 1.1.

Later versions of kit 8527 and kit 8547 ship with NXT-G version 2.0. So NXT-G 2.0 is different from NXT 2.0. The first refers to the version of software shipped with kit 8547 while the latter is the kit 8547 itself. You cannot upgrade for free from NXT-G 1.0 or NXT-G 1.1 to NXT-G 2.0 as all this is licensed commercial software. You can buy the NXT-G 2.0 disk if you wish to upgrade.

What is LabView and what has it got to do with Mindstorms?

LabView (actually written as LabVIEW) is a visual dataflow based programming environment from National Instruments (NI) which uses a computer programming language called G. LEGO and NI have been working together since 1998 to develop a simple LabVIEW like environment for programming Mindstorms robots. The result of this partnership was initially ROBOLAB (1998) and then the NXT-G (2006) language. In other words NXT-G is a cut down version of the professional LabVIEW environment - now you know where the suffix G comes from. You will see LabVIEW mentioned in forums and advanced topics discussing Mindstorms. NI also hosted the First LEGO League competition in 2005.

The intelligent brick

The intelligent brick that came with RIS is called the 'RCX'. The intelligent brick that comes with both the NXT (8527) and NXT 2.0 (8547) is called the NXT brick. The RCX and the NXT brick are not hardware compatible and firmware for NXT should not be installed on the RCX. The NXT brick supplied with the NXT 2.0 (8547) is identical to the original NXT brick (8527), so those two are hardware compatible. In short there is only one NXT brick and it does not matter which NXT kit you have.

Firmware for the brick

The NXT brick in kit 8527 came with firmware version 1.01. LEGO later released an update to this firmware version 1.05. A more recent firmware is version 1.29 which only works with NXT-G 2.0. You can upgrade/downgrade your firmware free of charge.

Drivers for the brick

The USB and Bluetooth driver files supplied with the NXT 8527 kit were also updated from version 1.0 and version 1.02 is available. You can upgrade drivers free of charge. However these drivers only work with Windows XP and somewhat with Vista 32-bit. They don’t work at all with 64-bit Windows or Windows 7 (Don't worry, we'll sort this out in the next section).

LEGO has finally released their own updated driver version 1.1.3 for PC and MAC which works with Windows 32-bit and 64-bit and OSX. You can upgrade drivers free of charge.

To simplify choices, I have placed download links in a tabular format below:

NOTE: You can get (and share) tips on getting your RIS working with windows 64-bit here.

Installing NTX-G 1.0 (kit 8527) on Windows 64-bit/7

If you try to use the NXT-G 1.0 software DVD supplied with kit 8527 on Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows 7 it will not work. The installation program will complete successfully but not install anything. You can however still install NXT-G manually1.

You will need the original installation disk that came with your Mindstorms NXT kit. You cannot download that software as it is licensed for you. You can order a new disk from LEGO here.

1. Remove any old LEGO software, drivers and language packs from your system first by going to Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs. This step is important.
2. Download and install drivers for the NXT brick for your version of Windows: 32-bit or 64-bit.
3. Insert your NXT-G software disk into your computer and browse it.
4. Install '\\Bin\LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Software\NXT_LEGO_MS\Mindstorms.msi' from CD. Press OK if you see any Flash8.ocx error.
5. Start '\\Bin\Products\LEGO MINDSTORMS - English\LEGO_Eng\MidstormsEng.msi' from CD. You will have to manually set the current install location correctly. It will be set to 'C:' change it to 'C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\' on 64-bit systems and 'C:\Program Files\LEGO Software\' on 32-bit systems.
6. If you have NXT-G 1.0, download and install the dynamic block update which should upgrade you to NXT-G version 1.1
7. Download and install additional sensor blocks for NXT-G 1.1 and NXT-G 2.0.
8. If you want to use the RIS sensors with the NXT-G download and install the legacy sensor blocks.
9. Plug in you NXT brick via USB and verify that it is detected by Windows and works.

Firmware upgrade

Ensure the firmware on your brick is version 1.05. Otherwise upgrade it.
If you have the NXT-G 2.0 software you can upgrade firmware to version 1.31.

To upgrade firmware:

1. Unzip the firmware file to the folder '\\Program Files\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT\engine\Firmware\'.
2. Connect the NXT brick to the computer using the USB cable.
3. Start the NXT-G software, go to the Tool menu and select Update NXT Firmware....

What is the role of firmware?

The firmware on the NXT brick is used in conjunction with the programming environment. The firmware obtained from LEGO will work with NXT-G. If you plan to use another programming environment, they may require a completely different firmware. We will discuss alternative programming environments and firmwares in the next section. However having the LEGO firmware and the NXT-G software installed and working is useful even if you will be using a different environment as it allows you to reset your NXT brick to its default state at any time. NXT-G also provides building instructions for the LEGO robots in your kit.

Alternate ways of programming Mindstorms

If you are beginning programming, the NXT-G or ROBOLAB language supplied with Mindstorms is great to get your hands dirty. However if you want to try something else, here are some good alternatives.

There are two ways the Mindstorms robots can be programmed.
Technique 1 (program mode): The program is downloaded and run on the Mindstorm robot.

1. Programs have to be small and relatively simple.
2. The robot works autonomously.

Technique 2 (immediate mode): The robot is remote-controlled via bluetooth by a program running on your computer.

1. Programs can be quite complex because complex calculations can be performed quickly on your computer and the robot only receives simple directions.
2. The robot will stop working if it goes out of Bluetooth range from the controlling computer.
3. Requires an active Bluetooth connection, which will drain battery faster.

Most Mindstorms programming languages fall into one of the above categories. NXT-G programs the robot using technique 1.

Visual programming

Microsoft RDS is free, offers visual programming but uses technique 2 to control the robot. It runs on the standard LEGO firmware.

C like programming

You can use NQC for the RCX and NXC for the NXG LEGO bricks. Related to NXC is the NBC which is assembly level. These are free and work with standard LEGO firmware. However you can install a NBC enhanced firmware for more features. You also get the excellent BricxCC IDE which gives you much control over the NXT brick than NXT-G.

A non-free but extremely popular option for C like programming is ROBOTC which requires its own custom firmware.

All these mainly use technique 1 to control the robot.

Pure C/C++

Only for advanced programmers the NXTGCC uses Eclipse IDE and provides the GCC toolchain for writing your own firmware for the Mindstorms bricks. This is not suitable for beginners and requires good knowledge of Linux.

NXT++ uses technique 2 to control the robot from any C++ program. Requires knowledge of Visual Studio and is again only recommended for advanced programmers. It runs on the standard LEGO firmware. LesTat offers similar functionality to NXT++, but for Linux.

C# and Visual Basic

Microsoft RDS provides C# and VB programming options using technique 2. It runs on the standard LEGO firmware but is again not intended for beginners at programming.

Java

LeJOS is free and provides a Java like language for the RCX and NXG bricks. Again custom firmware is needed for this to work. LeJOS uses technique 1 for controlling the robot though it provides some examples of using technique 2 and also allows the robot to log data to a computer. This is well maintained, actively developed and Java is simpler to learn than C. It is also cross platform and can be used to program the NXT from Windows, Linux or MAC. A nice tutorial of setting up JAVA, LeJOS and eclipse for programming the NXT is here.
BEWARE: LEJOS OSEK is completely different beast from LEJOS, don't confuse the two.

pbLua

pbLua is a port of Lua programming language for the NXG brick. The syntax is extremely similar to C++ and it uses technique 1 to program the robot. It provides its own firmware and drivers and a very powerful API with data-logging capabilities. Try it and you might fall in love with it!

Taking your robot further

...where no robot has gone before!

The Idea Book: Great ideas for new robots, including RaSPy, the robot that plays Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Roila.org: Learn RIOLA and start talking to your robot! ROILA is a spoken robot interaction language designed such that it is easy for humans to learn and easy for robots to understand and is being developed for the NXT.

Cognotics.com: A website with lots of resources on building robots that see, speak, and reason and Learning openCV, a book on practical Computer Vision.

Extreme NXT: For the electronics enthusiast, understand how the NXT sensors are built then follow the instructions to build your own sensors.

• 1. These instructions are originally from Oliver Schenks blog.