General Configuration

 

Infrared Range

You can use these radio controls to select the default range of your tower.

• Short range is about one meter
• Medium range is about 5-6 meters
• Long range is 10+ meters, depending on the environment conditions

 

In order for the tower to operate in long range, it needs to draw a higher amount of power from the PC. Therefore the long-range option is enabled only if you check the Enable long range infrared transmission check box (see below).

 

Enable Long Range Infrared Transmission

This checkbox enables the tower to be set in long range, but this requires the tower to draw more current from the PC. Typically, bus-powered USB hubs (and sometimes battery-powered notebooks) won't be able to deliver the requested amount of power. When this is the case, this option is disabled on the control panel.

If you enable long range and later on plug the tower on a hub that can't deliver the needed power, Windows will pop up with a dialog box inviting you to plug the device to a different hub. You can just press No and dismiss the dialog, as the tower driver will automatically scale down to low power consumption.

 

Default Communication Mode

Your LEGO USB Tower can use two different communication means: infrared (IR) and visible light link (VLL). Infrared is the default communication mode and is used to communicate with RCX and Scout bricks, remote controls, etc. VLL is used to communicate with the Scout and MicroScout bricks (the Droid Developer Kit ones).

N.B. The tower can only transmit VLL signals; it can't receive.

 

Reset

Pressing this button will automatically reset the configuration to the factory settings.