RCX Command Center

RCX Command Center is a Windows (95, 98, NT) program that assist you in programming the Lego MindStorms and Cybermaster Robots. It provides a higher level interface to the RCX, the programmable brick that forms the heart of the Lego Robots.

Downloading

The most recent version of RcxCC is version 3.1 which uses NQC 2.1r1 (Mar 6, 2000). Because NQC 2.0 is not compatible with previous versions quite some things have changed. RcxCC 3.1 can translate NQC 1.x files into NQC 2.0 files. There is also a backwards compatibility mode. See below for a description of the various features. Changes with the previous versions can be found here.

RCX Command Center 3.1 can be used free of charge. It includes the NQC tutorial.

Version 3.1 (1.1 Mb) (Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT).

Installation

To install RCX Command Center, simply run the program. If you upgrade from version 3.0, there is one slight problem: The new keywords switch and case are not drawn in bold. To avoid this, first uninstall the previous version of RcxCC. You can now run the program from the start menu or by clicking on a .nqc file. Uninstall the program through Add/Remove Software in the Control Panel.

Make sure that the class spirit.ocx is registered on your machine. The easiest way to do this is to install the Lego Mindstorms or Cybermaster software. Alternatively, locate the spirit.ocx file in the Mindstorms disk (in the directory Ocxreg) or Cybermaster disk and register it as follows: Copy the spirit.ocx file to you hard disk and use the Run command in the windows Start menu to execute

REGSVR32.EXE \spirit.ocx

where is the path where spirit.ocx is stored. This will register the OCX on your machine. If you don't have the Mindstorms software I cannot help you. Spirit.ocx is property of Lego and cannot be distributed freely.

Description

RCX Command Center is based on the Not Quite C language and compiler written by Dave Baum. Not Quite C is in my opinion the easiest and most powerful way to program the RCX. The main window of the RCX Command Center is an editor for this language. The editor color-codes the syntax of the language. Multiple files can be edited. From the editor you can call the compiler and download the code to the robot.

RCX Command Center has many further functionalities, like a window to watch what is going on in the robot, a window to control the robot directly, a window to contol it with the joystick, a window for diagnostics, a window to let the RCX make music, and tools for downloading firmware, etc. The new version also has full on-line documentation, both on the program and on the language NQC. Here you find pictures of some of the different windows:

Source Code

Because my time to work further on RcxCC is limited and people have asked for many extensions (Scout support, etc.) I have decided to make the source code available. RcxCC was written in Delphi. It is a rather extensive program so don't start working on it unless you are an experienced Delphi programmer. The source code is distributed under the Mozilla Public Licence which give you ample freedom to create and distribute new versions. For more information see the readme file.

Source code of RcxCC version 3.1 (320 Kb).

Extended Version

Bert Streefkerk developed an extended version of RcxCC. The main extensions are: