Communicating a VEX with a NXT

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
#1

Hi, we are three electronics engineering students. We are doing a robotics project with a VEX robot using the VEX Cortex microcontroller and we need to know if it’s possible to communicate the Cortex with a Lego NXT in order to use the sensors from the NXT. We searched in the forum for something we could use, but found nothing.

So, could it be possible to communicate them both?

Thanks in advance!

URVguys

#2

Are you trying to communicate cortex -> NXT -> sensors? or just cortex -> sensors?

If I remember correctly, NXT sensors use I2C protocol? So you could communicate this way without the NXT.

If you want to communicate with the NXT you may be able to use a UART port on the cortex to go into the USB port of the NXT to communicate. You may need an arduino as an intermediate between the 2.

#3

The 4th sensor port of an NXT is I2C enabled. There exist conversion cables from the proprietary(ish) NXT cable to standard pin connections; for example, see here.

I’d recommend an approach as in the link above, but replace the Arduino with the Cortex controller using I2C.

#4