Macintosh Serial Port Solutions
If you have a late model Macintosh, you need some kind of serial
port replacement since they only come with USB. Here are some recommendations:
- RECOMMENDED - Keyspan
USB-to-Serial Adapter has the best driver support for old printers,
etc. Make sure to set it to "emulate printer port" in the control
panel it installs. Please note: you must have version 3.1
of Interface Cricket (see label MAC-IX3.1 in lower left corner) for
use with the Keyspan. Version 3 (MAC-IX3) will not work. You can
grab the the latest driver for OS X
or for OS 9 (updated 2002.07.04).
- If you have a desktop, you might be able to get an internal
serial port addition. Check out the GeeThree Stealth or the Griffin Technology gPort.
Please note that there are different models depending on exactly which
machine you have.
- LEGO is presently reselling the Entrega
USB-to-Serial Adapter. The Entrega device remaps to the Mac's
printer port, so you must type serial-init-alt into the
Microworlds command center after starting up Cricket Logo.
The Entrega is a good bet because LEGO is taking responsibility for
its compatibility with Mindstorms. Also it's the cheapest of the
three.
- The UConnect
USB-to-Serial Adapter emulates the modem port so you don't need to
type anything into the Microworlds command center. I used to
recommend this device (it's cheaper than the Keyspan) but now the
Keyspan seems to be the best choice.
Mac OSX
We're now supporting OSX versions for our software. The setup is a little more
complex, but doable. To begin with, you need to download an OSX-compatible driver
for your USB->Serial adapter. The Keyspan one is already
available, for other
companies please check their respective webpages.
Once that is installed, you need to install the java serial support. Download
the installer
and run it. Then you're all set to go!
PC Serial Solution
This page explains how to install Java Serial Support on a Windows computer in
order to run MIT Cricket and RCX Brick software. Please consider
printing out this page in order to make it easier to follow the
directions.
First, download the javax.comm drivers (or
download it from us). Unzip the file,
and you should see three files in the resulting javaxcomm directory:
- comm.jar
- javax.comm.properties
- win32com.dll
If you don't see the win32com.dll file, go into
the window's "View" menu, and choose "Options." Then click on
the "View" tab, and select "Show All Files." Click OK. Now, the
win32com.dll file should be visible. (You may have to hit
F5 to refresh the window...)
Now, you have to drag each of these three files to a particular
location:
- Put comm.jar in C:\Program
Files\javasoft\jre\1.1\lib\
- Put javax.comm.properties in C:\Program Files\javasoft\jre\1.1\lib\
- Put win32com.dll in C:\Program Files\javasoft\jre\1.1\bin\
There! You are done; the JRE and javax.comm are now installed, and
you're ready to run the MIT Cricket and Brick software.
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