Today LEGO Ambassadors received information about the long waited update, for the LPF RC Receiver and also the respective RC Protocol document.
Below, the official announcement from the Power Functions Product Manager (Gaute Munch).
The LEGO Group has released a new version of the LEGO Power Functions RC Receiver (identified by a short blink on the green LED when power is connected).
The new version of the RC Receiver supports all functionality of the LPF RC protocol and we have added a command to access the extra address space.
We are hereby offering you an updated version of the LPF RC protocol documentation.
Please feel free to use any information from the protocol document for personal, non-commercial use only, provided you keep intact copyright, trademarks and other proprietary rights of the LEGO Group.
Gaute Munch
The LEGO Group
While not mentioned, the question now is to get confirmation whether:
- the previously detected failure about the 'single pin mode' was also fixed with this release or not? (expected but not yet confirmed)
- the new element will get a new product code?
- immediate orders of product 8884 to S@H, will be already dispatched with the new version of the affected element, or if there is still stock of the old element to exhaust?
...clarification request addressed to TLG.
Meanwhile you can download the new LPF RC Protocol document (version 1.10).
Edit #1:
Below the clarifications provided by Gaute Munch, to the questions raised.
- The new version of the RC Receiver supports all functionality of the LPF RC protocol including ‘single pin mode’.
- The product code is the same #8884 – the new item numbers are 4566735 (8884-1) and 4566756 (58123c01).
- Orders through LEGO shop online for #8884 will provide the new version.
Last Update: 2009.Oct.30 10:10 CET
Edit #2:
Some time later it was found that the documentation originally released (version 1.10) was incorrect, and it was replaced by an updated document (version 1.20), which the one that describes the protocol implemented with the RC Receivers currently in production.
Last Update: 2012.Jun.30 00:30 CET
Posts
13 comments:
Can someone please clarify what all this single pin business is all about?
How does this affect the 8+ receivers i already own? do I have to buy new ones? These things are very expensive ......
'single pin mode' has not been used by released LPF remotes till now.
So yours will continue to work with all the existing HW.
For further info about this mode, please refer to the protocol.
I've had a good look at the documentation and to be quite honest I haven't the slightest clue what the single pin functions could be used for.
We'll have to find out what we can do with it before we decide to buy some additional IR-Receivers
Thanks guys!
The single pin mode (both timeout and no timeout), would allow individual control of pins C1 and C2.
This way we could with an eventual and appropriate PF remote (not yet released) or through the NXT and one IR Link sensor to control these pins.
It would allow for instance to independently connect one LED or another on/off element, to each pin.
Thus allowing to control 2 devices per port, 4 per receiver and 16 considering all the 4 channels.
Taking advantage of the new extra address space, it could go even further (up to 32 devices, if I'm thinking rigth).
wow, this is great news for me! I have an IRlink sensor and an NXT, and that is what I use to remote control all of the powerfunctions. Hopefully there will be an update to the IRlink software to support this..
If you use other NXT languages than NXT-G, you can already do it programmatically by yourself.
I also have an NXT and IRLink, and I am still confused as to whether I need a new IR reciever to make use of this new feature or is it just the controllers that need to be updated?
The previous receivers had flaw, so the set, clear and toggle commands for single pin modes, won't work with them.
hah! just went and bought 3 on saturday :(
thanks for the info though
Can we (or The LEGO Company) update the software on our existing receivers?
what is this S@H shop i keep reading about ??
@mythbror
No! As stated in the original report, the problem was in the receiver firmware or chip masking.
So there is no SW update possible.
The old receivers are however still functional, despite not supporting all the protocols foreseen for the future.
@Anonymous
S@H stands for 'Shop at Home' the online store from LEGO.
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