Using old Lego Mindstorms with modern computers

There is also a USB IR tower that might be easier to get running if you do not have a serial port. it cannot work with vista and newer and needs patches for XP. I do not have one of those, so this was the solution I came up with. You might have more success with a better USB to serial adapter and the serial tower.

[@jackstrouse4833]

thanks for the vid! I just got an old kit off ebay and was wondering what hoops I'd need to jump through to get it to work. you saved me a lot of time!

[@nickolaswilcox425]

you can actually repair those old cables pretty easily, the plug ends are snapped together and can be opened with a little finesse and the wires inside are only attached by vampire taps so you can just pull out the old wires once you have the plugs open and push in new ones, speaker wire works fine for this, the only exception to this is things like the light sensor which are glued shut and internally soldered, you can still get it open end replace the cable but its a fair bit more destructive and wont look all that good afterward if you are too rough with it

[@charmingotter976rr]

🤓

[@lifesill]

Great video. I had no idea this lego even existed

[@glowytheglowbug]

oldest mindstorms few know of it

[@brickman26levi15]

You just earned a sub. Good job!

[@zrg5004]

Awesome. A Friend just give me one and i thought i was not going to make it work. Thanks.

[@ohavrda]

The VM trick is smart

[@makemindstorms]

A very entertaining video 😀

[@kkampf1213]

Thanks for this video. I plan to do this even tho I have it working on an old PC. One PC is all I have room for. BatteryPoweredBricks has a video on how to repair your 9v wires.

[@christianfriedrichs]

Thanks!

[@Parappadarappa2]

I remember this thing being in an episode of Zoom I always wanted it but it was too expensive

[@alexshepherd]

It’s interesting how the installation and running is so slow on your modern system with virtualised Windows. I have a Compaq Evo N620c laptop that I’ve prepared specifically for Mindstorms - I chose this model (from 2004) because it has Windows 98 driver support, plus a real serial and parallel port as well as USB for convenience. It’s a very fast Windows 98 system, being a 1.5GHz Pentium M. Installation of Mindstorms 1.5 took less than five minutes and it starts with only a second displaying ‘Loading…’ The software really flies, videos play immediately, and it’s especially nice not to have User Account Control or any other interventions. Also, the 1024x768 display works well for RCX code - not so great for all those video segments that seem to expect a 640x480 display!

[@jimlewis1]

I had issues using the serial IR tower, but trying a different USB to serial adapter solved that. I have never found a way to use the USB IR tower

[@jimlewis1]

and as the serial tower has it's own power that issue is resolved (if that was an issue?!)

[@mark-andre2142]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@gparyani]

It was difficult to get it running on Windows XP. For me, what worked was downloading QuickTime 6.5.2 from Apple and then writing a custom batch file to delete a temporary file that causes a crash every time it runs, and using that batch file to run the program. Also, I'm pretty sure you can get the USB tower to work on 32-bit Windows 10, but I haven't tried.

[@ViehDEO]

You can also use usb2serial on a modern pc

[@largewallofbeans9812]

Couldn't you just use a serial card? Or did your computer not have any PCIe slots?

[@Sprisa]

You look like that harry potter character with orange hair :D

[@WonnaCR]

just buy extension for main pc it installs in pcie

[@danielrolon56]

where did you buy your USB to serial adapter? I recently got one of these as a gift and was wondering where I could buy a cable that can work with a newer computer.

[@HappyJigg]

With my RCX, I use a gigaware adapter I got from radio shack a few years before they closed which works perfectly with the serial ir tower. You can still find them on ebay for around $15. I use robotc for programming. Although it has not been updated since 2012, it still works on Windows 10 64-bit. I also tried bricx, but it wouldn't communicate with my robot but it did run on Windows 10 and recognize my IR Tower.

[@dougsdevices1981]

Mine that didn't work was QVS branded.

[@DevanTW]

TRENDnet ones may work.