How many robots can a single PC control? Is the only limit the number of gamepads that can be attached?
The number of robots that the application can control is a function of the message blocks that are assigned to each robot. Using the single byte message command provided by the RCX, this gives us 255 messages to send. So, theoretically, we could have 255 robots that each got one message. Currently, the system is set up for 16 robots where each robot gets 16 unique messages. Also, we’re limited by the speed at which the IR tower can transmit. We’re using the 2400 baud mode. Each message we send takes 9 bytes (yes, even for only a single byte, all of the set up and checksums come out to 9 bytes per message…) so, that gives us the capability to send roughly 33 messages per second. So, with message blocks of size 8, that should give you the capability to send a message per second to 32 robots. (Please, be aware that this is all theoretical. The most we’ve tried it with so far is 6 robots…) Finally, the current 1.3 revision of the code handles the gamepad message pretty inefficiently. I
