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Bots /The Ultimate Palm Robot/ Mukhar & Johnson / 222880-6 / Chapter 10
Bots /The Ultimate Palm Robot/ Mukhar & Johnson / 222880-6 / Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Having Fun with Your Robot 255

If you’re not a programmer but you want to experiment a bit with the
PBrick Library anyway, you can: the software comes with a pair of demo pro-
grams that give you a taste of what’s possible with the software. First, down-
load the software from www.harbaum.org/till/palm/pbrick.
You need to install three files on your Palm: the PBrickLib.prc file itself, as
well as PBRemote.prc and PBDemo.prc. Here’s what they do:

❏ PBRemote.prc This program emulates the Lego Mindstorms
remote control, and it can be used to operate the RCX unit. You
can use the remote to operate the motors, for instance, as well as
activate whatever programs are stored in the five storage blocks.
❏ PBDemo.prc This demo program actually uses two-way
communication with the RCX unit and shows a lot of the power
the software is capable of. The FW button queries the RCX unit to
determine the firmware version number, for instance, and the BT
button determines the battery level.

NOTE: When we tested the PBrick library, it wasn’t compatible with Palm
OS 5 devices like the Tungsten T. We ran it successfully on a Palm m515,
though, so it should run fine on almost all older devices.

What Is Lego Mindstorms?
If you haven’t experienced Lego Mindstorms, you’re missing out on
something very cool. Yes, they’re Legos—but they’re not just for kids. The
Mindstorms Robotic Invention System 2.0 is an open-ended set of robotics
tools that lets you create a wide-ranging variety of robots and program
them to interact with their environment and other Mindstorms robots.
The heart of every Mindstorms robot is the RCX (which you can see in the
next illustration in the image of a typical Mindstorms robot), which
houses the battery pack, motor and sensor ports, infrared transceiver, and
a CPU. After you build your robot, it can be stationary, or it can walk or
roll—you program it using a visual, drag-and-drop environment on the

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