Bot Bench I'd Rather Be Building Robots
Just uploaded a quick video of the initial test done with the Dexter Industries NXTBee. It’s the same program Dexter Industries used in their flag waving video.
It’s really cool to have the wireless connection without all the stupid hoops you have to jump through to do a bidirectional connection in BT.
Much more to come soon; I have a couple of ideas in mind!
So is there a master and slave setup? From what I have read, it doesn’t seem that way.
One NXT can communicate with 16 other devices. Are the other NXTs restricted to that 16 or can they have their own set?
Have they hinted on a cost? It would be cool if they would sell them in sets, i.e. a set of two costs X, a set of 6 costs Y, etc.
Chris, the configuration in this particular program is master/slave but it certainly doesn’t have to be that way. I have some other code that uses a token system to allow bi-directional communication (well, more like half-duplex). The RS485 port in the NXT is half-duplex.
I don’t know how it works with one NXT having 16 and another NXT having another set. To be honest, I haven’t read through the datasheets carefully enough.
I believe the cost was around 2 for $100 us, but don’t quote me on that.
Wow, if they will only cost $100 for a set, that would be pretty good. Just the radios cost about $23 each. Hopefully they will sell them in sets withOUT radios as well though, so the user could use a higher power radio.
I am not really sure in practice how fast these can “talk”. How long would it take to communicate something like 10 user bytes (or a 10 character string), from initializing the send on one NXT, to having the numbers (or text) on the other NXT? I know BT has a HUGE lag time, and RS485 is almost instant (as observed by a human), but how would NXTBee compare?
Hello! Just a few responses:
Yes, $55 for one, $100 for two is the estimated pricing. Unless something drastic happens between now and next week, that will be the retail. A “Naked” version without a board, and a “PRO” version will be offered as well, Pricing TBD.
Great question about the actual speed. We’re working on clocking that right now. In theory, the communication between the radio and the NXT should be up to 250 kbps. We just haven’t tried it out yet.
It’ does pretty rapid data transmission, back and forth, using 9600 baud (the standard) and that’s what you see in the various videos that are out there right now.
Thanks for everyone’s interest!
John