Aaron,

> Thanks for the great explanation.  Can you answer a follow up question?
>
> http://nxt.natulte.net/trac/wiki/ElectricStorm
>
> I believe lejos uses code from that project.
>

Yes, we use David Anderson's libnxt library and he is now a lejos developer. 
It is libnxt that talks to SAMBA (via the runjava utility), and downloads 
the lejos VM and Java programs to the NXT. We don't use anything from the 
Electric Storm project as that was not far enough developed when we started 
lejos development.

> Can you explain what the firmware lock bits are?  Does that mean if I
> upload a new firmware too many times, my Nxt will break?
>

Yes, the locks bits are used every time that you put the NXT into firmware 
update mode and every time you download firmware. They are only specified 
for 100 cycles, but people seem to believe this is very conservative and 
they will probably do a lot more cycles.

Leaving the NXT in firmware update mode and running lejos on it does not use 
the lock bits, but switching between lejos and the standard firmware does.

> If the firmware can only be flashed so many times, is that why NXJ
> isn't being put into firmware yet?
>

That is part of the reason. We decided to start development in RAM for that 
reason. We could write a flash firmware download utility that doesn't touch 
the lock bits, but to reload a new version would still require going in to 
firmware update mode, which would use up a cycle. This is not practical for 
development. We may be able to make a flash version of lejos overwrite 
itself with new firmware without going into firmware update mode and without 
touching the lock bits.

Another reason is that we have not written a USB driver yet - USB handling 
is currently all done by SAMBA.

Lawrie 


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