I found this question: Lego Mindstorms RCX RIS 2.0 IR tower Windows 7 / Windows XP driver and I wanted to ask if someone found a solution. But due to my lack of reputation I couldn't create a comment asking ... further my system differs to the original post.
Kind regards
As many of the RIS 2.0 questions here suggest, you may be better off finding a different way of talking to that pedigree of brick.
Virtual machines and other operating systems running other software are your best choices at this time. Running old, unsigned 32-bit drivers on Windows 10 presents a nearly impossible set of hurdles just to push a few bytes to a brick.
I maintain a fork of NQC, for example, and I'm pretty sure I'll never try to get the USB tower part of that updated for Windows 64-bit.
Another option is to find a classic serial tower and use a USB to serial dongle. I've had some success on that on OS X and earlier Windows releases.
Robotic Invention System 2.0
Hello. I found this blog as I just upgraded my Mac with an Intel processor to one with an M1 processor. I was running RIS 2.0 and Mindstorms NXT on Windows XP through Parallels. Unfortunately, the new version of Parallels for the M1 processor no longer supports installing Windows XP.
But I just found a solution that worked for me. UTM is similar to Parallels and you have two options: make a virtual machine with Windows or emulate it. I took the option to emulate it and was able to install and run perfectly RIS 2.0, the Ultimate Builders Set, and NXT versions 1 and 2.
Requirements:
Install UTM on the Mac. Here is the link: https://mac.getutm.app
Have a CD with Windows XP and make an ISO (CD image). (You can search the internet for how to make an ISO from a CD or DVD.
You also need to make an ISO of each Software you want to install: RIS 2.0, NXT, etc.
Download the “capsule” for Windows XP from the following link and follow the installation instructions: https://mac.getutm.app/gallery/windows-xp
Once Windows XP is installed and you run it through UTM, you will see a gray symbol in the upper right part of the Windows window, like a CD.
You click on it and it is as if you “loaded” the CD, in this case, the RIS 2.0 ISO.
You have to select it from the folder where you have saved it.
Once you load it, the installation menu will come out automatically.
If this doesn't happen, go to My Computer, all within Windows XP, and select drive D, which is actually a virtual CD drive that loaded the RIS 2.0 ISO. You double click to start the installation.
Everything should install without problems.
The IR transmission tower MUST NOT BE CONNECTED UNTIL THE SOFTWARE HAS BEEN PROPERLY INSTALLED.
Once the program requests it, you connect the IR tower.
IMPORTANT. When the tower is connected, Windows has to recognize and install it. When you get the option to install it, you have to tell it that it will use the software that is on the virtual CD. (Sometimes the RIS install window is on top of the Windows window to install the tower. You'll have to find it by temporarily minimizing the RIS install window.) If Windows doesn't install it, the software won't recognize it.
If you do this correctly, the RIS 2.0 software will recognize the tower and you will no longer have a problem.
If you have the Mindstorms NXT ISO, the installation is even easier because you don't have to install the tower.
I think using a Raspberry Pi device might work well in this situation.
Here is a tutorial on how to install Windows 98 on a Raspberry Pi. https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/run-windows-98-on-raspberry-pi-with-dosbox-x
Then install the old IR software onto that.
Plug IR Tower in and it could work.
I found this tutorial, too. https://minordiscoveries.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/using-nqc-on-a-raspberry-pi-to-program-a-lego-mindstorms-rcx-brick/
Since most of the questions and answers regarding the old LEGO Mindstorms are outdated and/or not working (at least that I could find), I'll provide my solution, which worked for me as of 2024 using Windows 11 Pro, that should be applicable for current and future modern systems.
This solution is for the LEGO Mindstorms RCX 2.0 with USB infrared tower. Some steps may be applicable to other versions (please comment or edit if you try other versions).
In summary, the following steps walk you through installing a VM and installing the USB tower in the VM.
You'll need software to run virtual machines (VMs), but note that you'll need VM software that supports USB-passthrough in order to connect the infrared tower. Options:
(not recommended) The Hyper-V software that's included in Windows 11. This is accessed via Turn Windows features on or off which you can search for in the start menu. However, it does not passthrough USB devices. There are workarounds, but they're not simple. One involves setting up RDP and passing USB devices through the remote connection; I tried this is and gave up because I couldn't get it working.
For Hyper-V, you'll need the following enabled in the Turn Windows features on or off settings
Hyper-VVirtual Machine PlatformWindows Hypervisor PlatformAnd if you ARE NOT using Hyper-V, then you should probably disable the above options, as they may conflict with other VM software
VirtualBox (for Windows) supports USB devices. This is supposed to work, but I tried it and couldn't get it working on my Windows 11 Pro host PC. VirtualBox showed the LEGO tower in the list of devices but gave an error when I tried to connect it to the VM. I think it was just my particular setup, so feel free to try this yourself.
VMware Workstation Pro (for Windows) supports USB devices. As soon as I plugged in the USB tower, a prompt appears asking if you want to connect it to the VM. This worked great.
How to download: VMware Workstation Pro is now free for personal use. It's a bit hard to find the download page. Since Broadcom Inc. acquired VMware in 2023 (source: Wikipedia), you'll now find the download at broadcom.com. You'll need to sign up for a free account then you'll find the download at https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro shown here:
I used the first one listed, using Windows 11 Pro as the host PC.
You should be able to use other VM software on other hosts too, like linux or mac. Please report if you try these.
I used Windows XP with SP3. I've seen others report success with Windows 98.
You'll need the installation disc (.iso file)--details not included here for the sake of brevity. But I'll note that there's good info over here (which I contributed to) on activating Windows XP now that Microsoft's activation servers are offline.
If it helps, my Windows XP VM was setup with:
If you have the original disc(s), go ahead and install them inside the VM. I found that the included driver didn't work. Instead, I found that the USB tower only worked once I installed updated drivers found here called Tower driver version 1.0.50.164. For ease of getting these files into the VM, I packaged up the driver into an iso file which you can download at github here. You can attach the iso file to the virtual CD drive.
Here's what it looks like once setup in VMware:
The host PC does not need any drivers installed, but it should detect the USB tower nonetheless.
Open the RIS software and run through the config wizard in the Settings menu. You'll need your RCX brain powered-up and sitting in front of the infrared tower. After that, you should be good to go. Good luck!
