The NXTender...

Sivan has brought us another great tool... from his email to me:

"NXTender is a Windows program that allows your NXT to control your PC. It allows the NXT to send keyboard keyclicks to the PC (simulating a keyboard), to open windows and display data in them, and to receive joystick input from the PC. When you use NXTender, you normally program only the NXT brick. The NXTender runs on the PC and does not require programming. Bluetooth messages from the NXTtell the PC what to do, when to send data back, where to send it, what to display on the screen, etc.

Additional functionality can be added to NXTender via relatively-simple plugins that are implemented in Java. That is, the standard version of NXTender does not allow your NXT to control your USB cup warmer, but if you know a little bit of Java and you know how to control that cup warmer from a PC program, then you can write a NXTender plugin that will give your NXT conrol of the cup warmer.

Finally, a challenge. NXTender allows you to build a Lego mouse-type device for your PC without any PC-side programming. Try to build a good one.

Check it out here.

Comments

Brian Davis said…
VERY cool! I couldn't agree more that I want to keep my programming on the NXT, not the computer. I know of at least one person trying to make a LEGO trackball for remote control of a NXT as is, he'd probably love to turn his NXT into a $250 mouse for his computer ;-). Question: can you have the NXT send messages to NXTender using NXT-G?

--
Brian "still Mac-based, after all these years" Davis
Anonymous said…
Yes, all the NXT programming I did is with NXT-G, nothing else. The NXT sends and receives messages using the usual Bluetooth-Send and Bluetooth-Receive blocks.

In the plugins documentation pages there are example NXT-G programs that should work and that show how it's done.

NQC should also work, since it's sending messages in the same way, via the firmware, but I haven't really tried.
Anonymous said…
Hello I Think your program is Aweosome i Realy want to control mi NXT via joystick. But i have the following problem:
I Dont know if i have instaled NXTender becaouse when I double clik shortcut it apear NXT icon on the tray, but when y put over the icon my mouse it disapear and Im not able to clik it for propertis.
Plz try to answer My question
Thx Nicolas Palacios
Anonymous said…
If the icon disappears when you hover over it, it means that the program crashed. It probably crashed a while before you hovered, but windows does not bother to update the system tray very often.

Try to run the program from a command line (start->run->cmd) to see if there are any error messages when it crashes, and if there are, send them to me so that I can try to figure out what is going wrong.
Anonymous said…
Hello thx for try to help me.
I put Start>Run>cmd>C:\Program Files\NXTender\NXTender.bat and nothing happen... I try also whith
C:\Program Files\NXTender

dont know whats going on. Becouse Im not able to see run it form Star>run i dont know if it gives an error.
Do i need to have both blutooth on before runing program? Or How I Instal it? It dont apear like Instaled Programs.
Thx for helping
Nicolas Palacios
Anonymous said…
Hello I know this have nothing to do in this post but I Want to ask someones help! PLz!
My Nxt was working great for 2 month and i Try downloading NXT firmware v 1,03. (meanwhile It was downloading i went to bathroom) When I come back and see my nxt was shut down. I Turnit on and starts like cliking and dont show anithing in screen.
Cant solve this trying to download again Firmware (I Donwload this firmware time ago and work fine) becouse now computer dont recognise -NXT when i connect via USB. PLz Help me!!!
Thx Nicolas Palacios
Anonymous said…
I wish I had bluetooth connectivity yet, this sounds like a quite fun challenge to do.

Quick aside question for Brian "still Mac-based, after all these years" Davis:

Any news about the universal binary version? Wasn't that supposed to happen in august, did I miss it?
Anonymous said…
I have same problem as nicolas, i cant clik de program and im not able to see it en start>run to send you the error.
How you isntal this software, yus unpack it and its ready?
Anonymous said…
Hi, Sivan! I have a prob.. i cant get that NXtender properties window open... anytime i click that shortcut it opens a black window with some text in it... help, please
Anonymous said…
Open a cmd.exe window (start->run then type cmd and enter), cd to the directory where you installed it, and then type NXTender.

Then you will see the error message and you can report what it is.

One likely source of problems of this sort is an older version of Java. NXTender requires Java 1.5, so if you have an older version, it will not run. It should not be difficutl to upgrade if this is the problem.
Anonymous said…
Ok.. now something just happened...
I typed my file destination in cmd
C:\NXtender\Nxtender
Then this appeared below:

[IMG]http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/4799/cmdpd7.jpg[/IMG]

hope now you can help me :)
Anonymous said…
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/
4799/cmdpd7.jpg

ok ... again... the last one didnt work
Anonymous said…
Run it in the directory where you unpacked the zip, which in your case is c:\NXTender, otherwise the .bat program does not find the executables.
Anonymous said…
ok, now all the plugins are loaded, etc. but the default com port is not set... How?


Sorry for asking so much ;)
but i realy wish to get that program working :D
Anonymous said…
In the popup menu of the tray icon you will see a list of your COM ports. Just select one and try to send messages from the NXT (use one of the sample programs, like the keyboard sample). If you see some printouts, it's the right port. If not, try another one. It's likely to be the lowest one among the high numbers (that is, not 1, 2, 3, but if you have 10, 11, 12, it might be 10). Just try.

Let us know if you succeed.
Anonymous said…
The problem is that i dont have a popup menu... i have the ms-dos window ...
Anonymous said…
ok... i have a better idea... hoe about we exchange our e-mail and you give me a distant help, it would take a lot less of your time
Anonymous said…
That Will be nice My Email is xhdixpalacios@hotmail.com. PLz help me solve it!
Anonymous said…
ok... i'm the one that keeps asking you stuff... so my email is david_jereb@hotmail.com
Anonymous said…
PLz help me I Realy want to have this program running. Im Very intereseted on Bluetotth capability.
Thx Nicolas Palacios

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