Building Mouldking Remote control how to start

[marcrupprath]

If i am right Espruino contains a module too communicate / control Mouldking RC Boxes for their brick sets.
I would like two build a remote control for these boxes and ask myself how to start:
Wich board two choose and what Communication module i need (Bluetooth or nrf2401 for example.
I wanted also two know if i can choose an STM32 or ESP32 board of my choice.

Does someone have practical experiences about steeering mouldking rc boxes with espruino and give me somew hints

[gfwilliams]

Hi - yes, the docs on using the Mouldking remote are at https://www.espruino.com/LEGO+Power+Functions+Clone - there's some example code there and it's reasonably straightforward.

The module was built to run on an nrf52-based board (like Puck.js/Bangle.js/MDBT42 breakout/Jolt.js/etc that we sell), nrf24 won't work, and STM32 doesn't have Bluetooth. ESP32 may work, but I haven't tried it - it may not have Bluetooth advertising set up well enough at a low level.

I should add someone also reported having some issues with their Mouldking box - here: espruino/EspruinoDocs#727. I have a M-0006 one here I used to develop the code and it works great but it looks like at some point they may have changed the protocol they used:

[marcrupprath]

Positive thing first, i manag two install esproino on nrf 52480 dk board
It worksa fine because LED and buuton tests from tutorial works as expected.
It works as expected when loading into flash after power reset.

Where to find dokumentation of all parameters of this lib ?

[marcrupprath]

Because:
The mouldking app can connect to up two three Version 4 boxes, but code works only wirh first box, indicating the active box by LED blinking code.
How to connect two severall boxes with youre lib and adress specific outputs on box no 1-3 ?

Thanks

[gfwilliams]

The parameters of the lib are on the link I gave: https://www.espruino.com/LEGO+Power+Functions+Clone#reference

The lib itself only supports one device, but it should be possible to change it. The actual code is at: https://www.espruino.com/modules/mouldking.js

You can see down the bottom there's exports.start and .set. Those call NRF.setAdvertising` which advertises just a single advertising packet.

You should be able to use NRF.getAdvertisingData to get the advertising data for that one device, and then to put it into an array so then Espruino is advertising a packet for each device in turn:

var advertisements = [];
var lego = require("mouldking");
lego.DEVICE_ADDRESSES = 
[[193, 194, 195, 196, 197],
[193, 194, 195, 196, 198], // guess
[193, 194, 195, 196, 199] // guess
];

lego.startDevice = function(deviceNumber) {
  var commandData = new Uint8Array([173, 196, 189, 128, 128, 128, 0, 82]);
  var payload = lego.get_nrf_payload(lego.DEVICE_ADDRESSES[deviceNumber],commandData);
  advertisements[deviceNumber] = NRF.getAdvertisingData({},{showName:false,manufacturer:65280,manufacturerData:payload,interval:20});
  NRF.setAdvertising(advertisements,{showName:false,interval:20});
};

lego.setDevice = function(deviceNumber, o) {
  o = o||{};
  o.a = 0|E.clip(Math.round(o.a),-7,7);
  o.b = 0|E.clip(Math.round(o.b),-7,7);
  o.c = 0|E.clip(Math.round(o.c),-7,7);
  o.d = 0|E.clip(Math.round(o.d),-7,7);
  if (o.a<0) o.a = 8-o.a;
  if (o.b<0) o.b = 8-o.b;
  if (o.c<0) o.c = 8-o.c;
  if (o.d<0) o.d = 8-o.d;
  // 1..7 one way. (1..7)+8 the other
  var commandData = new Uint8Array([125, 196, 189, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 130]);
  commandData[3]=(o.a<<4) | o.b;
  commandData[4]=(o.c<<4) | o.d;
  var payload = lego.get_nrf_payload(lego.DEVICE_ADDRESSES[deviceNumber],commandData);
  advertisements[deviceNumber] = NRF.getAdvertisingData({},{showName:false,manufacturer:65280,manufacturerData:payload,interval:20});
  NRF.setAdvertising(advertisements,{showName:false,interval:20});
};

//...
lego.startDevice(0);
lego.startDevice(1);
lego.startDevice(2);
// ...

lego.setDevice(0, {a:1 });

I've guessed what what DEVICE_ADDRESS is needed for each device. Not sure if that'll work or not...