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I built a treaded forklift to demonstrate coding techniques. It uses motors, lights, and touch sensors. The image below was not the final design, but it’s close enough. Each tread has its own motor. Another motor hidden behind the lift turns pinion gears for the vertical racks. Upper and lower touch sensors are activated when the lift reaches either extremity, which overrides the lift motor control. I named the robot Leinad for my friend Daniel spelled backward. This robot was about 10 inches long and 6 inches wide. It was strong enough to lift most modern smartphones. (My next robot (under construction) will be an R2-style droid which adds the optical sensor.)
With the U.S. edition, you can program set 9700 in Logo for the Apple II series, Logo for the IBM PC, or BASIC for the IBM PC. (Note: Lego doesn’t provide a full-featured Logo implementation. Instead, they give you Lego TC (Technic Control) Logo which is a custom version of the language. The command set is abridged and simplified from mainstream Logo(s), but it is also extended with custom commands to communicate with the interface box.)
1986: Release in the U.K.:
- Lego Lines: This is a graphical shell so children can focus on program logic rather than code syntax. It uses BASIC underneath, with assembly code for graphics and sound. (Lego Lines page coming soon...)
- Buried near the end of the 180-page Lego Lines manual are five pages containing starter routines for using Applesoft BASIC, Logo II, and 6502 assembly.
- Applesoft BASIC — This is my favorite configuration. BASIC on Apple II computers is how thousands of teenagers in the 1970s-1980s got hooked on programming, including me! (I learned Logo on a Commodore 64 in elementary school, but just as in many other schools they only taught us turtle graphics, not the full language.)
- Logo II is an obscure language. Here's what Lego says about it.
- Under construction: 6502 assembly — That’s the most powerful and hardest-to-learn programming option.
1987: Release in U.S., Australia, and elsewhere
- Lego in 1987 introduced the U.S. version with TC Logo. This edition of the kit strongly emphasized the Apple II. In theory the IBM version of TC Logo is identical. Here’s an article by the developers.
- IBM PC BASIC — Lego supplied printed code but not a disk.
- There is one more Lego-sanctioned option: LogoWriter Robotics from 1988. As explained by M.I.T., “LEGO TC Logo was a version of LCSI's popular LogoWriter with additional primitives added to read from sensors and to control motors and lights. Some LogoWriter features, such as color and multiple shapes for turtles were not included. There were versions for Apple II and MSDOS computers. In 1988 LogoWriter Robotics was released. It included all of the features of LogoWriter and of LEGO TC Logo in one program. People working with both environments no longer had to switch programs.” (Unfortunately I have not found anyone who has the disk. Even the authors of the language don’t have it. If you have a LogoWriter Robotics disk, then please email me at mbts@(this site's domain).)
- In theory, any programming language could work if it communicates to a serial port. Here’s an example.
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