Getting started, sort of

[zzaappp]

A couple of weeks ago I got my Mindstorm NXT and immediately installed the UI so I could play around with things and become familiar with the interface.  I can tell this will be a lot of fun.  I have heard you can go right to the firmware level and start programming the device at a less abstract level, and that is what I am interested in doing.  I found the link for the Labview toolkit for lego mindstorm over at the NI website, downloaded and tried to install, but the install immediately balks with the following message:

    LabVIEW 7.1 or greater must be installed prior to installing the LabVIEW Toolkint for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.

I assumed this meant I should uninstall all the stuff that came on the Mindstorm CD (and all the updated installs I downloaded from the Lego website).  So I did that, then tried installing the LabView toolkit again; but I get the same message.

I'm already familiar with the ARM7 in the form of the ST-2051 microcontroller from ST-Micro, so I'm not a complete stranger to ARM and thumb instructions and writing embedded firmware.  I've also worked with a couple of different ST-Micro toolchains, and the Cosmic toolchain, Rowley's toolchain, and embedded linux, so I'm at least vaguely familiar with the trouble I'm looking to get into by wanting to get right into the firmware level and do my development in C or C++ .  On the other hand, I'm an absolute beginner with this toolchain and can't get past the installer, so I know I need to raise my hand and ask for help!   I did write this up and send it to the NI support page, but I never heard back.

So how do I install this thing?  Is there maybe a FAQ or other document for getting the toolchain installed?

Many thanks!

[JamesB.]

Hi zzaappp,

The NXT Toolkit was not designed to work with the software that came with your MINDSTORMS NXT.  Instead, the toolkit is for users of LabVIEW, probably NI's most popular product.  While the MINDSTORMS software and LabVIEW have many similarities, you'll need to obtain a version of LabVIEW to use the toolkit.  A good place to get started on that is this page on our website: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4435.

I'm going to venture a guess, though, and assume that you're probably not very familiar with writing code in LabVIEW.  If you're more comfortable writing code in C or C++, you may be more interested in the Fantom SDK.  Fantom is the device driver used to communicate with the NXT, and our developers have published an SDK that will allow you to use the Fantom library in your own C/C++ code.  This is how many other software developers have written their own programs to communicate with the NXT.  The Fantom SDK is available from LEGO's NXT'reme website: http://mindstorms.lego.com/Overview/NXTreme.aspx.  You'll want to download the Driver SDK and the Bluetooth DK.

Hope this helps you get started!  Let us know if you have more questions along the way.