Lego MindStorms Iambic Keyer and Paddle
Project by N9SSA



Here's the first iteration of my Lego paddles with built in keyer. I made this Iambic Paddle and keyer combination out of Legos, and the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention system.

I used NQC (Not Quite C) to program the Lego RCX unit

There are two sensors that detect the dit and dah paddles and the third wire lights a light that blinks in unison with the beeping dits and dahs. (That was for my 2 and 4 year old daughters... beeping is cool, but visual input rocks! :-)

It's not too precise, but works. Fun homebrew project, that's for sure!


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Here is the code written to the RCX in NQC.

#define DIT	SENSOR_3
#define DAH SENSOR_1
#define LIGHT	OUT_B
#define DITLEN 7
// Dah length normally 3* ditlength
#define DAHLEN 21
#define TONE 900

task main()
{
#ifdef __RCX
	// RCX needs to be told what kind of sensor is used
	SetSensor(DIT, SENSOR_TOUCH);
	SetSensor(DAH, SENSOR_TOUCH);
#endif

// loop
  while(true)
  {
	if(DIT == 1)
		{
		On(LIGHT);
		PlayTone(TONE, DITLEN);
		Wait(DITLEN);
		Off(LIGHT);
		Wait(DITLEN);
		}
	if(DAH == 1)
		{
		On(LIGHT);
		PlayTone(TONE, DAHLEN);
		Wait(DAHLEN);
		Off(LIGHT);
		Wait(DITLEN);
		}
	}
}
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