Mindboards

Hi all,

I'm new to MindStorms and new to your super-informative forum.

I picked up a 9719 kit with an RCX 1.0 brick, a serial tower, and everything else...EXCEPT the CD-ROM.
I'm hoping to get the original software, or some other user-friendly software so that my 10-yr old nephew with no programming experience can use it too.

Any tips on where I can download the original software & drivers, or equivalent?
Worst case, I can buy an original CD ROM on ebay for $25, but I'd rather not wait for delivery.

Can't wait to fire this thing up!

Thanks in advance for any help,
Woody

I don't know of any place where you can download it, but you can buy the original RIS 1.0 software here. Keep in mind that used ones might not include its original fancy paper-board case, you may wish to contact the seller to check wether or not it includes it. Hope this helps.

I believe you can program it with the Brixc Command Center but I have never tried it myself (I only use the NXT).

I have an old copy of the RCX software 2.0 somewhere but I think it only works on ME, whereas the BCC will run on just about anything modern.

I highly doubt you will be able to download it. Best bet I would say is to buy it used from someone who lives near you. Even though you don't have the software you can still get started with building robots. You might find some building instructions on the web. I made a Plotter, but it was based on the RIS 2.0 parts list. Instructions here: http://ricquin.net/lego/instructions/plotter.htm
You could try BCC (Brixc Command Center) which allows you to program it with NQC (Not Quite C), however it is text-based and quite a bit harder to learn. Though harder, text-based programming is better in the long run and it will be easier to start doing real programming afterwards.

I don't think BCC includes any drivers though. The serial tower might work anyway? You could try it out.
Philo has a few downloads for some old RCX related files, but I don't think they will be of much help... http://www.philohome.com/sdk25/sdk25.htm
You might not be able to get RIS 1.0 to run anyway unless you have an old Win98/2000 computer around. (I don't know about RIS 1.0, but 2.0 was so buggy that I will never touch it again.) RIS 2.0 ran on XP though since there is a patch and I think I got it to run on vista or win7 too using that. USB tower will not work on 64-bit OS'es though.

Thanks for all the advice. I do have access to old laptops with old OS's, so that's not a concern. It is a serial tower, however that factors into things.

I don't know if it'd be of help, but mattallen37 has worked some on a USB based IR tower. That means that you can use a new operating system, without having to worry about drivers and such. His post on the forums here and his blog post here.

The IR tower works fine on my Windows 7 laptop. My tower has a proper serial cable but my laptop has a serial port (pretty rare nowadays), so it was all good.

- Xander