Vex and Robotics Studio?

VEX V5 General Discussion Technical Discussion
1

I just downloaded Microsoft Robotics Studio and ran the NXT simulation, now I don’t have an NXT but this simulation was very cool. Has anyone hooked up Vex to robotics studio and actually controlled Vex though MRS?

2

I have not tried out Vex with MRS, but the simulations are cool. Hopefully, when I have some spare time, I will be able to make a Vex model and incorporate it with the program.

Technic-R-C

3

i might be able to help you,i know you have to convert your CAD into a mesh and then you have to set physics and gravity, etc…

also i think you have to make your own service and then integrate it into the visual programming lagnguage (came with msrs) and then compile and simulate it with msrs

4

sounds like a lot of work, i’ll have to find some free time and start playing around with the program.

5

I’ve posted an interface for when you want to connect your app to the robot. It is hosted at http://www.codeplex.com/VexMsrs.

Enjoy
Ed

6

Excellent

Thanks

Technic-R-C

7

Forgive me if this is too simple, but how to I install the MSRS interface for vex?
I already have MSRS.

8

Sorry for the delay (Typical turkey day stuff). I’ve got some instructions posted on the discussion board… Setup and Building.

The quick summary is:

  1. Install MSRS into C:\RStudio since the Microchip complier cannot handle long paths names.
  2. Create a subdirectory off of the Samples directory called VEX and unzip the sources there.
  3. Building the VEXCsharp solution will create the windows half of the solution and make it ready to work. (Note that some work will need to happen so that you get the references correct… see the message in the discussion board for details of how to fix this.) Note that it was built with Visual Studio 2005, not 2008. I have not tried building with 2008 yet, but that is on my agenda soon.
  4. Upload the appropriate hex file to your robot. VexCOM1 for the version that works through the dongle. VexCOM2 for the version that works through the RS232 port by the IO ports.

I’ve left the details out, but you get the jist: not overly complicated, but not trivial either. Please e-mail me directly if you run into any issues. (I’d like to hear whether it works for you and what you are trying to do with it. I’m personally trying to build a Mars Rover style of robot for astronomy outreach.)

Ed

9

Sorry, I haven’t checked the forum lately. I’ll try the steps as soon as i can.

Thanks!

10

I have been hoping to use MSRS for Vex programming. I really hope someone can figure out how to get it to work.

11

Give my stuff a try. If there are problems, I’ll be glad to help anyone with solving them. So far, only one person who’s downloaded the system has even bothered to contact me to give me feedback, so either it’s perfect (ya, right) or no one’s bothered to let me know they’ve had problems. (Thanks again Vince for helping to really improve the code base.) Send me e-mail through the link in CodePlex and I’ll see it within a few days. I try, but I can’t monitor the various forums that closely due to real-life getting in the way of play time however that link goes directly to my home e-mail.

Ed

12

does microsoft robotics studio work with VEX? if so can someone offer some guidance on how to go about doing this. I’ve read a million things about VEX and microsoft robotics studio but im still not sure what’s going on.

Thank you.

13

Yes RDS will work with the VEX. There is a version currently posted on CodePlex. I am currently updating it to work better with VPL (the visual programming language). The current version was designed to work more with directly programming in C# rather than with VPL. (I should have the update posted later this week.)

Send me a note via CodePlex and I can give you more details.

Ed

14

I’ve just posted an update to the services for the R4 release. It is a major redesign of the services so that it now works cleanly and properly with VPL. (You add a new instance of the service instead of adding a sensor into the service.) Additionally, all of the service web pages are setup to refresh the display with the current values from the controller.

Please let me know if you have any issues with this release,

Ed Harfmann