MonoBrick Tunnel

The MonoBrick Tunnel makes it possible to communicate with the LEGO Mindstorms NXT Brick over a Wi-Fi or internet connection using MonoBrick or the MonoBrick Remote. The idea is simply to have the MonoBrick Tunnel connect to the LEGO Brick via USB or Bluetooth and have clients connect to the Tunnel. This setup makes it possible to forward messages from TCP/IP to USB/Bluetooth and vice versa. All features from the MonoBrick communication library and the MonoBrick Remote can be used with the Tunnel. This provides a very easy way to read sensor value, start a program, upload a file and even drive a vehicle over the Internet. The Tunnel runs as a simple command line program and can run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. With MonoBrick Tunnel you can:

• Log events and store these in a file
• Throw off clients when the server is running
• Have multiple clients connect
• Select whether IP addresses should be rejected or accepted
• Connect to the client when behind a firewall or the IP address is not visible (NAT’ed)

Running And Setting Up The Tunnel

On Windows and Linux the MonoBrick Tunnel is distributed as a zip file while Mac users have a dedicated DMG installer  – use the download link to get the latest version.

• Windows
  • Unzip all files from the download to a folder of your choice
  • Run the exe-file found in the folder where you unzipped the download from a command prompt
• Linux
  • Unzip all files from the download to a folder of your choice
  • Install Mono Runtime and LibUsb using this this guide
  • From a terminal use Mono to run the exe-file found in where you unzipped the download
• Mac OS
  • Install the Mono Runtime from the Mono website. This guide might be helpfull.
  • Install MonoBrick Tunnel using the Mac OS installer
  • From a terminal use Mono to run the exe-file found in /Applications/MonoBrick\ Tunnel.app/Contents/MacOs/MonoBrick\

By default this will connect to the Brick using USB and listening for clients on port 1500. To make the tunnel connect to the client on startup simply write

MonoBrickTunnel.exe -connect 89.398.34.55

When the tunnel is running the following keyboard commands can be applied

• Press Q to stop the tunnel
• Press C to connect to a client
• Press T to throw off all clients

In most cases these commands to should be enough to establish a network connection to your LEGO Brick. Below some more advanced settings are described.

Using the settings file

The Tunnel gets it settings from a XML file which is located in the same folder as the exe file. If the file is missing a new file with default settings will be created. Below the default settings file is shown.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ConfigRoot xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <ListenForClients>true</ListenForClients>
  <LogFile>log.txt</LogFile>
  <IPFilter>
    <IPAddresses>
      <Range>
        <Lower>192.168.0.100</Lower>
        <Upper>192.168.0.150</Upper>
      </Range>
    </IPAddresses>
    <IPRangeMode>Disable</IPRangeMode>
  </IPFilter>
  <Connection>usb</Connection>
  <Port>1500</Port>
  <MaxConnections>1</MaxConnections>
</ConfigRoot>

The XML tags have the following meaning

• ListenForClients – when set to true the tunnel accepts incomming connections from clients
• LogFile – the name of the log file. Leave this tag empty to disable creating a log file
• Lower IP – set the low address of the IP filter
• Upper IP – set the high address of the IP filter
• IPRangeMode – set the mode of the IP filter this can be set to “Disable” , “Reject”  or “Accept”
• Connection
  • To use USB this should be “usb”
  • To use Bluetooth on Windows use for example “com6” to connect via comport 6
  • To use Bluetooth on Mac OS use for example “/dev/tty.Great-DevB” where to Great is the name of the LEGO Brick
• Port – set the port number to use
• MaxConnections – determine the maximum number of clients that simultaneously can be connected to the tunnel

Support

Questions related to the MonoBrick Tunnel can be found in the MonoBrick communication library forum.