LM Vision Command for WinXP

[alexGS]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:36 AM, Toastie said:

How cool is this? I searched for weeks ... thank you very much!!!

The schematic is perfectly matching mine . The author (user "Frank" on the forum of www.elektronik-kompendium.de) used the ISA bus as main "layout defining" part. As 9771 uses only 8 data, 10 address, IOR, IOW, and AEN (plus 5V and GND) lines of the ISA bus, I made it less "strict" on the terminal layouts (ISA bus and 9771 output bus = LIA bus) and tried to focus on the logic ... this is where I am right now, need to add 5V/GND on the ISA bus and on the LIA bus:

 

 

Thanks again,

Best,
Thorsten

P.S.: Don't want to derail this thread, will updates post elsewhere.

P.P.S.: I am aware of the parallel port approach - a beautiful website I visit quite often!

 

It’s always quite exciting when topics are discussed at the very time that I am thinking about them - i.e. within a day or two (for something that I last considered at least a year ago) :)

I am wondering whether the 9771 card logic (which I had found previously at the other link) could be interfaced to a PCMCIA slot as found on old laptops?
Would the LEGO software then ‘talk to’ port 925 and would those signals appear at the PCMCIA connector?

PCMCIA pin out http://www.hardwarebook.info/PCMCIA - seems to have OR, OW, and EN? And address/data of course.

I’m not clear whether a system with a PCMCIA slot has an intervening ‘card services’ in BIOS that only configures ‘approved’ devices, or only enables certain address space. Or does it simply expose all the ISA signals at the PCMCIA slot? The wiring of the LEGO card would presumably configure it at a particular address - as I recall, there is a jumper to select “adress” (!) 925 or 926?

The only other practical solution I can think of, to use the LEGO software on a system that doesn’t have the ISA card installed, is to somehow modify the software to redirect output to the printer port. I presume via disassembly the port address could be changed from 925 to 378h? I guess it would be very difficult to match the 9771 port characteristics in terms of output bits and input bits being at the same port address. 

 

Thanks for any insights in solving this conundrum 

-Alex

On 12/14/2022 at 2:57 AM, jarstx said:

Hello everyone,

I had already found the CD/ISO of the Vision Command for WinXP in English but I forgot to post it here...

For those who need the software, here is the link:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ohsruj4zmjy9g#718o6673jhpn9

I just realised that I have hijacked your thread in replying to Thorsten on his topic (which I landed on from a Google search).

Sorry about that.

 I am glad you have found the software you were looking for - I shall download it too, in case I get one of those little blue cameras for my Mindstorms :) 

-Alex

Edited December 15, 2022 by alexGS

[Toastie]

11 hours ago, alexGS said:

I am wondering whether the 9771 card logic (which I had found previously at the other link) could be interfaced to a PCMCIA slot as found on old laptops?
Would the LEGO software then ‘talk to’ port 925 and would those signals appear at the PCMCIA connector?

@alexGS

Hi Alex,

not sure, but a very interesting idea - should we discuss this further in a dedicated topic, not derailing this VC topic? I just created this one:

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/192941-lego-interface-a-97509771-–-lego-technic-control-1-tc1-referenceideas-thread/

Best,
Thorsten

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Toastie

[Heppu]

Oh wow, a pleasant surprise for someone to revive this topic just now!

I've been toying with using just the camera for a project and got it working almost out of the box in Linux Ubuntu 19.04. with v4l2 drivers. The problem I'm facing is that with those drivers, the maximum resolution is 356x292px. Also the picture quality is also really dark and grainy. For comparison, here are some example pictures taken of the same model with different cameras in same lighting conditions.

* all photos scaled to 640x480 resolution.

On 12/10/2022 at 6:28 PM, UVAChEEngineer said:

 In every scenario, the software and camera worked better on the WinXP version.  A deeper dive into the install files shows a Logitech Qucik Cam driver update on the XP install that is approximately 2 years newer than the Win98 install which probably explains alot of the performance improvements. 

So Im wondering, what are the improvements you experienced using the winXP drivers?  Would it be beneficial for me to try and get this running instead with a WinXP VM? I would be ok if the image quality could be comparable to the Playstation 3 eye camera with 640x480 resolution. I've understood that 640x480 should be the theoretical max of the Logitech quickcam inside the Lego camera but the Vision Command software never enabled that.

[UVAChEEngineer]

Heppu,

The WinXP install did not crash / freeze and the in program camera image did not lag or stutter anywhere near as much as the Win98 version.  I saw similar dark / low res issue w the image similar to what you posted.  I think that it is simply a limitation of the camera tech…it’s a late 90s budget webcam…nothing by today’s standards but not bad 23 years ago.  
 

As for VMs, I can tell you Virtual Box significantly squashed the throughput usb data on both installs of VC to the point the camera was unusable. Perhaps there is a better VM solution out there, but I eventually took a Win7 64 bit laptop I had,  downgraded the Win version to Win7 32 bit, and Vision Command XP install ran great.

Hope that helps!

[Heppu]

Ahh, thank you so much for the insightful info! Yeah wasn't expecting anything spectacular from the camera. Was just curious because of the rather uncommon 356x292 resolution that there might be some better setting available. I will just stick to the Linux drivers then and try to deal with the bad quality :)

[DrJB]

The camera's performance is much better in a bright room. Otherwise it's just grainy. I used it with the RCX 2.0 about 14 years ago, and it performed ok, including motion detection etc. My son used it to sound an alarm whenever anyone stepped into his room. So, it is pretty capable, but do not expect a GoPro 11 performance and image quality.

[UVAChEEngineer]

On 12/12/2022 at 12:00 PM, DrJB said:

CD files (ZIPped) uploaded to Archive.org. Try to download/run. If not, make an ISO on a virtual drive. ...

Someone please try this and let me know if it works.

https://archive.org/details/vision-command-xp

Hi DrJB,

I finally pulled down and installed the zip file you posted but it appears to only be about half the size of the cd size you cited and missing some files.  Anyway to copy the cd to a iso file and reupload?

[UVAChEEngineer]

One update.  Tried VirtualBox 7.0.6 today after years of using versions of 4.3.x and 6.0.x for other reasons and noticed that the slow to non USB camera performance seems to no longer be an issue.  Very happy with that but really confused why it took years for Oracle to identify and resolve this kind of issue over several major and dozens of minor releases.  Oh well...onward and upward.

[PassengerJet]

With Oracle, just be glad that they didn’t charge you for it.  

[nikzagvit]

not so long ago I was interested in the topic of connecting the lego vision camera to EV3. I managed to implement a web broadcast from the camera (I raised the web server to EV3). implemented recognition of the red lego ball. and it even turned out to implement object tracking. but the more complex the project, the more heated the EV3 is. cracks appeared on the screen.