LEGO RCX IR tower Linux/Mac

[pepijndevos]

I made this excavator that uses the NXT and RCX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpYrzX9tD1c

But I'm having trouble controlling it. The NXT can ostensibly be controlled over bluetooth and for sure over USB with NXTPython, but the RCX is harder.

On Linux there is a kernel module for the USB IR tower, which seems to work, except it does not work. If I plug in the tower /dev/usb/legousbtower1 appears, and when i echo to it the led goes on.

However, I can not get the RCX to respond in any way whatsoever. Based on http://www.mralligator.com/rcx/protocol.html I had hoped this would do the beep sound:

Code: Select all

$ echo $'\x55\xFF\x00\xd2\x2d\x80\x7f\x00\xff\x52\xad' > /dev/usb/legousbtower1

I then tried to install NQC, but that also did not work. The led lights up, but I get an error message and the RCX does not respond. Command taken from http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/doc/faq.html#control

Code: Select all

$ nqc -S/dev/usb/legousbtower1 -v -raw 5103
Could not open serial port or USB device

Any ideas? Mac would also be okay, but AFAIK there is no IR driver for it.