My FRC team recently was gifted a large educational kit containing about 15 original yellow Mindstorm bricks and all the required parts (sensors, wireless towers, chargers ect.). We’d like to be able to use these parts in the off-season with our 2 FLL teamsto teach programming, but with the new programming language so the skills are useful with the actual robot. Does anyone know if this is possible?
Also, I haven’t actually been able to install the old (included) language yet, but is it similar enough that the skills transfer easily? Obviously, if we could get the new language working it’d be better, but is the old language really the same other than its looks?
The languages included with current mindstorms kits is not compatable with the RCX. I suggest you get yourself a copy of RoboLAB (You may have one already, I know it was included with a lot of these bulk educational kits). Much more similar to current NXT and EV3 programming, and has a lot of parallels to FRC Labview as well. If you can’t get your hands on a copy, the RIS language is still perfectly capable, and the kids should learn a lot.
No matter how you do it, plenty of skills will transfer. Kids need to learn the structure of a basic program, how it relates to the robot they’ve built, and how to think logically, more than they need to learn what icon on the screen does what.
Also, if you’ve come into possession of a large number of RCX kits, consider using them to expand your team’s FLL program. They are still competition legal, fantastic teaching tools, and despite what a lot of people will tell you, can still be quite competitive in FLL and arguably have some advantages over the current mindstorms kits.
If you have any further questions about the RCX, let me know. I have tons of experience with it through competition, and teach a summer camp at a community center that hasn’t been able to switch to NXT.
I’d recommend downloading a program called BricxCC. I use the NQC programming language with this on the yellow RCX 1.0 bricks. Let me know if you need anything.
Also, if you’re looking to get rid of the yellow RCX bricks, we may be interested, as we have about 13 already.
Please also be advised that the the original programming language was finicky about the platform it was loaded on. Modern computers may not run it. I think there were some workarounds for XP but it was intended for earlier versions of Windows.
I’d like to reinstate what Joe said. The RCX is not compatible with the NXT and EV3 languages. However, it is still an excellent tool to learn programming basics. And yes, it is similar to how NXT and EV3 works. The RCX itself is still a useful tool as well, as Joe mentioned. (I should get one of mine out sometime…) I remember a sumo challenge I did, and guess who won: my dad, with an RCX robot.