Spybotics
Four pre-built robots from 2002, each a fixed computer with two motors, a touch sensor, a light sensor, two infrared detectors, four infrared emitters and an LED array: 3806 Gigamesh G60, 3807 Snaptrax S45, 3808 Shadowstrike S70 and 3809 Technojaw T55. Each hears a 76 kHz infrared carrier, the short-lived 76 kHz IR family, and on that same carrier the robots talk to each other and not only to a handset.
Reach
| Capability | State | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Drive from the bridge | out of reach | 76 kHz is above what the bridge's infrared hardware can produce |
| Drive from the set's own handset | works, untested here | three modes: Secure broadcasts on a channel, Control drives from the buttons, Game sends the codes the CD-ROM challenges expect |
| Handset drives a Bionicle Manas | works, untested here | its first two channels are the two the Manas uses |
| Drive from an RCX over infrared | works, untested here | the rcx2spy_remote.nqc example reaches three robots on separate channels, two motors each |
| Robot to robot | works, untested here | each beacons its own ID and builds a list of who it can see, with range and direction |
| Send VLL to a Micro Scout | works, untested here | a VLL output on the robot, so Spybotics sits in the light family as well |
| Read VLL as input | unknown | orionrobots reports one; unconfirmed elsewhere |
| Program over the socket on its back | works, untested here | the kit's CD-ROM software down a cable, 2400 baud |
| Hear one talk back | out of reach | needs a 76 kHz receiver and nothing here has one |
What it hears
The handset link is one way, but between robots the carrier runs both ways. Each robot beacons its own ID, keeps a table of everyone in sight with range and direction, and fires events on what it hears. Its emitters are directional, front-left, front-right and back plus a high-power one, so where a message came from is part of the message and not a guess. The same codes go out whether a handset, another robot, a computer or an RCX sent them.
The light sensor is paired with a VLL output: a Spybot can command a Micro Scout, which puts these robots in two optical families at once. All of the above is confirmed from Spybot.h on the kit's own CD.
The command set, the transmit envelope, the ping intervals and the world table each robot builds of who it can see: Spybotics IR protocol. The carrier and the bricks that share it: 76 kHz IR family.
Reaching it today
Nothing here reaches one, the bridge included: 76 kHz is a hardware ceiling its infrared cannot pass. Least effort first:
- The set's own handset, if the set is complete. No computer at all.
- An RCX. The NQC example
rcx2spy_remote.nqcon pbrick.info sends remote-control messages on a channel with forward and reverse, at high transmit power for range, and reaches three Spybotics on separate channels with two motors each. That is six extra motors for an RCX, over light. - The kit's CD-ROM software, down a cable to a socket on the robot's back. orionrobots describes that socket as a VLL socket with two half-pins and a triangular polarity lock, and built the RS-232 cable for it by hand. The languages were MindScript and NQC, which treats a Spybot much like an RCX. Ten missions shipped, plus a custom-mission editor called Special Operations.
- A 76 kHz emitter of your own. The open-source LIRC and IRLib2 generators in
ir-spyboticsalready carry the command tables.
Links
- Sets 3806 Gigamesh G60, 3807 Snaptrax S45, 3808 Shadowstrike S70, 3809 Technojaw T55 — Sets & bricks index · Rebrickable · Wikipedia.
- Full I/O list, the three handset modes and the programming socket: orionrobots. The VLL input it reports is single-source.
- Physical layer, with open-source LIRC and IRLib2 generators: github.com/JorgePe/ir-spybotics.
- Carrier decoding: ofalcao.pt.
- The kit's own CD-ROM, where
Spybot.handrcx2spy_remote.nqclive: Internet Archive — insidedata2.cab, underProgram Files/Include/. - The hand-built cable from a robot to a computer, on video: youtube.com.
- Missions, FAQs and the RCX example: pbrick.info · pbrick.info p=35.
- The carrier is shared with Bionicle Manas, RC Nitro Flash, the DUPLO Dozer and the early RC Train (IR).