nxtprograms.com

Fun Projects for your LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT!

Home     Projects     Help     Contacts

How do I view the program files and get them to my robot?

Program Downloads

There are two kinds of program download links you will find on this site.  If the program download looks like the following:

Youtube Html5 Video Player Codepen ((new)) [TESTED]

This is where the combination of the and platforms like CodePen comes into play. CodePen allows for the rapid prototyping and sharing of web concepts, and it's the perfect sandbox for creating your own custom, HTML5-powered YouTube player. In this article, we'll explore what you can create, how to build it, and why you might want to go beyond the default YouTube controls.

: This is the official and most reliable way to embed YouTube videos with programmatic control. You can see a live example in this Auto Play YouTube Video CodePen . youtube html5 video player codepen

.video-container:hover .player-controls opacity: 1; This is where the combination of the and

.time-display font-size: 12px;

iOS and Android browsers frequently block video autoplay and programmatically triggered volume levels. Videos must typically be muted to autoplay. : This is the official and most reliable

playPauseBtn.addEventListener('click', () => if (video.paused) video.play(); playPauseBtn.textContent = 'Pause'; else video.pause(); playPauseBtn.textContent = 'Play';

, a developer wanted full control over video playback—without YouTube’s branding, but with similar functionality. So they opened CodePen and built a custom HTML5 video player from scratch.

Required Software

The downloadable programs for the projects (.rbt files) are written using the NXT-G programming system, which requires the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software to be installed in order to view them, edit them, or download them to the NXT brick.  The program files cannot be used with RoboLab or any of the other NXT programming systems, not can they be viewed in standard text/graphics programs such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Reader.

Note: The NXT 2.0 projects require the NXT 2.0 version of the software, which comes with the 8547 set.  If you are using the LEGO Education software, the LEGO Education NXT-G 2.1 software is required to use any programs that use the color sensor or the Pack-and-Go (.rbtx) format, otherwise the LEGO Education NXT-G 2.0 software will work with most 2.0 programs.  The NXT 1.0 projects will load and run in any version of the NXT software.

If you have the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software installed, then a program file (.rbt) will automatically load into the NXT-G programming system when you open the file.

youtube html5 video player codepen youtube html5 video player codepen
If you do not have the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software installed, you will get a message something like this
(this example alert is from Microsoft Windows XP).
You need to install the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software.		 If you do have the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software installed, you will get a message something like this
(this example alert is from Microsoft Windows Vista).
Press the Open button to load the program into the NXT-G programming system.
   

Downloading Programs to the NXT

After the program file loads into the NXT-G programming system, you download it to the robot by connecting the USB cable to the NXT brick and pressing the Download button on the controller in the lower right corner of the NXT-G window.

  

youtube html5 video player codepen

Errors Trying to Load or Compile a Downloaded Program

All of the program (.rbt) files on nxtprograms.com should load, compile and upload to your NXT through the standard NXT software without any additional software, if you have a suitable version of the NXT software installed, as explained in the Required Software section above. 

If you are getting "Error 5002" or "The program is broken. It may be missing required files", you are most likely trying to load an NXT 2.0 program into the NXT 1.X or other older version of the software.

If you have the correct NXT software installed but you still get an error trying to load or compile a downloaded program such as "Invalid program file", or "Internal Compiler Error", it is possible that the file was not downloaded completely by your browser or was corrupted.  The .rbt files are large and may fail to download completely in some cases.  If this happens, try downloading the program again.

Saving Changes to a Program

If you open a program file directly from the web site without saving it to your computer first, and you want to make changes and save them, you will need to save the file to a different location using the File -> Save As menu command.  If you want to save the program to the default location for NXT program files, this location will be something like the following:

Windows: (Your Documents Folder)/LEGO Creations/MINDSTORMS Projects/Profiles/Default
Macintosh: (User)/Documents/LEGO Creations/MINDSTORMS Projects/Profiles/Default

NXT 2.0 vs. NXT 1.X and Retail vs. Education Versions of the NXT Software

The retail versions of the NXT kits (The original 8527 and the NXT 2.0 8547) come with the NXT software CD.  If you lost your CD, you can contact LEGO Technical Support to get a replacement.  The NXT 2.0 software can read and use all programs written for NXT 1.X, so if you have the NXT 2.0, you will also be able to load the programs from the NXT 1.X projects and possibly adapt them a similar robot of your own design.  The NXT 1.X software cannot in general use programs written for NXT 2.0.  You will usually be able to load them and examine them, but some blocks may not display properly.  Some very simple NXT 2.0 programs can be downloaded to a 1.X NXT, but in general you will not be able to use them.

The NXT software for the Education version of the NXT (9797) is sold separately here at LEGO Education and contains different help material and building instructions from the retail version of the software, although either version of the software can be used to write programs for either NXT kit.   For the NXT 2.0 projects on this site, the LEGO Education NXT-G 2.1 software is required to use any programs that use the color sensor or the Pack-and-Go (.rbtx) format, otherwise the LEGO Education NXT-G 2.0 software will work with most 2.0 programs.

Home     Projects     Help     Contacts

Copyright © 2007-2011 by Dave Parker.  All rights reserved. 
All project designs, images, and programs are protected by copyright.  Please see the usage policy.