Read all about it!

http://botbench.com/blog/2013/01/07/leg ... announced/

It's exploding all over the Net

= Xander

Wow, that's good news. I was always hoping a more powerful brick. Can't wait to get my hands on one of those.
Several questions:
- You mentioned that it's backward compatible, should we expect all existing programs will work without any modification?
- Since the OS is now Linux, it seems RobotC firmware must be changed to support this new environment. If so, will there be a RobotC upgrade to support the new brick? This almost implied a "no" to the above question or at least must be recompiled with the new RobotC that support this new brick.
- Will the FTC competition embrace the new brick?
- When is general availability?

It is backwards compatible for sensors, not programs.

I would be surprised if there wasn't going to be a version of ROBOTC for this new platform

I would say so, since the NXT will eventually be made obsolete.

In the second half of 2013.

= Xander

Just imagine the possibilities...

Will you need a special USB-cable to daisy-chain the bricks? And can they communicate with each other through it?

I was assuming you must have beta tested the platform with RobotC so you will know the compatibility with RobotC and whether the existing version of RobotC will work. But from the sound of it, I am wrong then?

So now that the OS will be Linux, I assume we can more easily use C / C++ / anything-else-running-on-Linux for backend processing, and ROBOTC more as an interface for physical devices?

No, I an safely say that I have not tested EV3 with ROBOTC, just the programming environment that LEGO is working on.


No idea how ROBOTC is going to be implemented for this platform, I wish I did But yes, you should be able to use gcc with the EV3 platform, provided you know how to access the devices, otherwise it's not a whole lot more useful than a bare ARM9 system.

= Xander

Do you know whether the Ultrasonic sensor has improved over the current version? I have done some testing with the current version, but it looks rather useless, when detecting (not so square) objects on a table for example.

I have a preproduction version of the ultrasound sensor and I like it

However, detecting non-flat surfaces will always be difficult with a US sensor, due to the physics involved. I'm afraid that is not going to be much different. If you need pin-point accuracy, you need to use a pin-point sized beam, like a laser. US comes out in a cone, so if a lot of it deflected, rather than reflected, you're only going to get a very slight echo back.
In a small test I did, I was able to accurately measure the height of my room, which happened to be 230cm. Keep in mind that this was done with pre-production hardware.

Regards,
Xander

Just to keep people in the loop, we still do not have EV3 hardware in our hands here at ROBOTC HQ, so we don't even have an Alpha of the software to play with. We've been living vicariously through Xander.

Our goal once we get hardware is to have ROBOTC by the launch window (which I believe is Q3 2013). The EV3 hardware will not be a supported platform for FTC next year (2013-2014 season). Pricing, Upgrade Info, Details have yet to be determined from our standpoint.

It's hard to have a firm commitment to this though not knowing what limitations there will be in terms of running custom firmware on the brick. Once we get the hardware and some documentation on the inner workings, we'll be able to provide a clearer answer. Our full intent, however, is to have full support for EV3 and all features/functionality.

Will the EV3 software work with the NXT? (For example, the older ROBOTC packages worked with both the NXT and RCX.) Or, will the NXT software continue on as a separate license?

//Andrew

The product will continue to be "ROBOTC for Mindstorms", so both NXT and EV3 support will be in the same package/license.

I'd hate to see my NXT be forgotten, as I have only had it for one year. Will robomatter continue to make NXT sensors?

RoboMatter doesn't make NXT sensors, they do resell several of them. I'd say that they'll continue to sell them as long as the NXT is supported by LEGO. Don't forget that the NXT sensors will work with the EV3.

= Xander

Good.