LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS and LabVIEW for Education

[Craigwd_2000]

I have just found a new bug.  I can't get LabVIEW Toolkit for Lego Mindstorms NXT 7.1 to install.  I'm using a "12 PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz with Combo Drive with 1.25 GB of RAM running 10.4.10.  I tried just double clicking on the .mpkg file in the Disk Image.  After I run through the installer completely it fails to install any files into my Applications folder.  Surely this must be a bug.  I also read that the current version of the LabVIEW Toolkit for Lego Mindstorms NXT is incompatible with Leopard.  I really want to buy a family pack to upgrade all of my Macs to Leopard but I need for the LabVIEW software to be compatible with Leopard first.  All the information on NI's site says the current version of LabVIEW FOR Lego Mindstorms NXT is incompatible with Leopard.  How soon will a patch be available to make the software Leopard compatible?

[JamesB.]

Hi Craig -

I'm sorry you're having trouble getting things installed.  To make sure I clearly understand your troubles, I'm going to ask a couple of questions.

Your first issue is that you can't get the LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT (hereafter called the NXT Toolkit) to install on your PowerBook, which is running Mac OS X 10.4.10.  What version of LabVIEW do you have installed on that PowerBook?  I can't remember all the details of the different Apple computer models -- does yours have a PowerPC or Intel processor?

Your second question is whether the NXT Toolkit will run on Leopard, or Mac OS X 10.5.  We have not fully tested the NXT Toolkit on 10.5, but with the fiddling around I've done, I know it won't work "straight out of the box," so to speak.  I'm not aware of any immediate plans to release a patch for the toolkit, but thanks for letting us know you are interested.  We're constantly evaluating the demand for a new version of the toolkit, and posts like yours help us gauge what our customers are interested in.

[Craigwd_2000]

My PowerBook uses a IBM PowerPC G4 1.5 GHz processor.  I've heard about bugs related to the new Intel Macs involving iTunes 7.4.X & older Third Generation iPods too so I'm a bit leary of the new Intel Macs.

[JamesB.]

And the version of LabVIEW that's currently installed?

[Craigwd_2000]

I have been trying to install LabVIEW 7.1 but I can't get it to install.  I think it must be a bug in the .mpkg installer.  I'm not sure why it won't install it for me.

[JamesB.]

Ah, so you're having problems installing LabVIEW itself, and you haven't even gotten to the point where you can attempt to install the NXT Toolkit.  It seems weird that LV 7.1 won't install on Mac OS X 10.4 PowerPC, so I'll try it out here and see what I find.  I won't have time to look at it this afternoon, but hopefully early next week sometime.

[Craigwd_2000]

Update: I just tried to install NI LabVIEW on my "17 iMac G5 1.8 GHz with Super Drive with two GBs of PC-3200 RAM running 10.4.11.  I just wanted to confirm that the NI LabVIEW refuses to install on both of my Macs now.  At first I thought it might have been a G4 specific issue so I decided to try & install it on the iMac G5.  Which didn't work either.  Right before updating to Mac OS X 10.4.10 Bluetooth was working fine on my "12 PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz with Combo Drive with 1.25 GBs of RAM.  Upon updating to 10.4.10 I was unable to connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to the NXT Brick.  10.4.11 didn't fix it either.  I checked the release notes for 10.4.11.  No Bluetooth specific updates were made.  Supposedly there's a Bluetooth Firmware update available for "12 PowerBook G4s.  I tried installing the update to flash my Bluetooth firmware.  The installer gave me a error message about some sort of model specific incompatbility.  I tried using Pacifist to force extract the Bluetooth updater from the installer package.  It worked but the flasher app refuses to update my firmware.  It states that it is unable to update the firmware for my PowerBook.  As if it's designed for an earlier model of "12 PowerBook G4 or something.  Recently the Combo Drive was having trouble reading my bundled iLife '05 DVD-ROM that was included with the Mac.  I ended up having to reset the PMU to get it to recognize it properly.  PMU is short for Power Management Unit.  Apparently it needs to be reset from time to time if issues like this occur.  Supposed there's a Bluetooth option available for the iMac G5.  I asked Small Dog Electronics about it.  They said my Mac was missing the necessary Bluetooth antenna.  Are they right?  Is it impossible to install the Bluetooth as a aftermarket upgrade?  Moreover these compatibility issues worry me.  I hope NI has tested LabVIEW for Leopard compatibility.  I want to upgrade both of my Macs to Leopard.  If NI's LabVIEW turns out to be incompatible with Leopard it may be a deal-breaker.

[bassoon]

I run Labview using Rosetta on my Intel Mac, but the whole software crashes when clickin on the NXT Terminal Button.
Any ideas?

[MikeBurns]

I'm running LV 8.5 on 10.5.1 on an Intel iMac. When I tried running in Rosetta as instructed in the Release Notes I also got a crash as soon as the NXT terminal window appeared. However, when I turned Rosetta off and tried it, it worked fine. I compiled and downloaded the sample vi from the Getting Started Guide (over Bluetooth). I haven't done more extensive tests yet to see if all the functions work.

[bassoon]

Did you update your NXT Toolkit to 1.1? How did you do that? The console commands don't work because i allways get "No Permission"