ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Yonas Alizadeh, a student at the University of Southern Denmark, has hinted me to a nice project of theirs where they use LEGO® MINDSTORMS as an autonomous platform for exchanging the batteries of a drone:

Fellow MCP and guest blogger Anders Søborg from Denmark asked me to share this with you all: Run .NET programs on the EV3 A few days back I released the first version of the MonoBrick EV3 firmware. With the firmware it is possible to program and debug .NET programs on the EV3. The firmware uses the Mono .NET runtime for program execution which means that p rograms can be compiled with both Mono and Microsoft .NET – so programs can be developed on Windows, Linux or Mac OS. With the .NET framework you will have a huge library of functions at your disposal – this combined with all the 3rd party library and SDK's that already exists makes the possibilities endless. You can find more information here .  Here is a small demo video:  : . .

David Gilday, did it again ! A one box cube solver, this time made with the EV3 retail box (31313). for those who want to build the next challenge this is a wonderful model, I had the NXT 2.0 version and was already impressed by that one, but now hold your horses, as this new EV3 model is super fast! it solved complex scrambles in about 98 seconds! For those who want to test, be prepared that although David did a great job, some of the code is and some of the code isn't created with the graphical LEGO EV3-G language and thus the solver code need to be downloaded separately. He did a great job in creating a 115 page building instruction manual (in PDF format). David worked hard on explaining all on his website , and if you want to know more or show your own created version, follow him on the Mindcuber FaceBook site . Enjoy the great 31313, MindCub3r, as a great x-mass present

The NXT STEP wishes every reader a Merry Christmas! As some sort of Christmas surprise, check out this awesome life-size LEGO® car , driven by a pneumatic engine:

Farnell , a british supplier of electronic hardware, informed us about a challenge they are hosting in collaboration with Panasonic and LEGO®: "In collaboration with Panasonic and LEGO, Farnell element14 are giving away a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3. The EV3 is empowered by a Panasonic PAN1325 Classic Bluetooth® Module and we are looking for innovative ideas of how you use the very same Bluetooth Module.  To enter the competition, entrants are asked to share their projects online: a tweet, a blog post, a video on youtube, anything would do. The ideas that have come in so far include anything from automated coffee machines to servo-driven camera shutters.  Details about the competition can be found on uk.farnell.com/panasonic .  The competition is open until 5 January and we also give away 10 vouchers worth £50 each to spend on Farnell.com." So, what would you do with Bluetooth on EV3?

This is a work in progress of a very stable version by Laurens Valk. Based on his earlier work, the anyway and the segway for Aplha-Rex2. See also more information here and here . The education version made by Lee and with software from Danielle. The building instructions are available here , but the code is still part of the paid EV3 education version, and I can not just disclose it , (unfortunately). More information about the education software here And this is a special Java version, with tux as their model, more information here .

Here's some great news, Dexter Industries sensors for MINDSTORMS are now EV3 compliant! Right now EV3 blocks for the dPressure ,  dGPS , dLight and  dIMU are ready to use and the rest of them are quickly becoming available. Visit their website here for status update and setup instruction. Interested in finding out how they did this? Make sure to check out the Open-Source repository here on their github repository .  : . .

Remember Kyle, the Kid with the Timmyton? http://thenxtstep.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-kid-with-timmyton-35.html   Well he managed to get his own EV3 set soon after it launched and he's been pretty active with it since. His latest creation is version 5 of his popular Timmyton robot. Timmyton 5, 
Created by: Builderdude35 He sent me an email to announce he had entered it in the Out Of The Box contest on the MINDSTORMS Community webs site and won! I can see why, this is a very cool looking one kit robot, and has some nice features like a moving fin and jaws. His robot is very well documented and he offers both Building Instructions and a variety of sample programs to bring it to life! For example, Program 4, Timmyton Jaws  This is a simple seeking program, based off of NeXTSTORM's program. It makes the Timmyton 5.0 track down the IR Beacon in an attempt to eat it. All the while, The Timmyton wags his tail and snaps his jaws violently, and plays the famous "Jaws...

Recently the first MINDSTORMS books hit the shelfs, some are written for the Educations ( 45544 ) set and some are for the Retail ( 31313 ) set. It is important to pick the right book, or else you end up with a good book about the EV3, but you cannot recreate any of the models inside. A book by Daniele Benedettelli the creator of guitar bonus model. He is an expert on MINDSTORMS and as MCP he was closely involved in the development process of the EV3. The book starts with explaining the 31313 set details and how to build some good structures. Then with the help of a comic you are guided into the new features of the set, like the IR control, and on-brick programing. in the end you build some amazing robots, and the code how to run your models is nicely explained in the book. It is in Black white, and sometimes this is a bit harder to follow the building instructions, but let not lead you there, this is the BEST EV3 31313 book out now! Here or here is a link if you want one! Bu...

The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robotics platform has been developed for two different target audiences. There are home users (children and hobbyists) and educational users (students and teachers). LEGO has designed a base set for each group, but what are the differences between these two? There isn’t a clear line between home users and educational users, though. It’s fine to use the Education Core Set at home, and it’s fine to use the Home Edition set at school. This article at Robot Square aims to clarify the differences between the two product lines so you can decide which product works best for you. The article covers the main differences between the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition (#31313) and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Core Set (#45544), as well as other subtle differences you should be aware of when choosing one of these sets.

In his blog , Lauro Ojeda describes how to program the EV3 using C++. In particular, he focuses on mobile robot navigation, developing software that allows a differential drive robot to keep a precise estimation of its pose using the Rotation Sensors embedded in the motors and a gyroscope.  He has released the Robot Navigation software, that allows developing mobile robot applications of different levels of complexity. The current version supports robots based on the the Lego Mindstorms EV3. The web site includes instructions for how to compile and use it in Windows and Linux. In the video, you can see a demo application. Using the arrows on the computer keyboard, the user drives the robot around, and then requests the robot to return to the home position.

On Friday, the World Robot Olympiad 2013 will start in Jakarta on Java (Indonesia), and The NXT STEP will report live on spot! Again, I've been invited to show some new EV3 robot creation, acting as a "LEGO® Robotics Expert"; so stay tuned ! I'm expectíng to blog a lot of images and movies from there while the event takes place.

Microsoft has announced that the company is presently developing an API to control EV3 robots from Windows 8 desktop, Windows Phone 8 or WinRT:   

It's November and cold and rainy weekends come with it - so what's better than building some of the 12 new EV3 Home Edition bonus models? The EV3 projects (including programs and building instructions) are available from here .

A lot of you have been asking about my new book and rumors were spreading fast, but now it’s official! I’m working on a new book about EV3! It’s got everything you loved about the NXT 2.0 Discovery Book, and more. It comes with instructions for 7 completely new EV3 robots, complete hands-on coverage of the EV3 software, and over 100 building and programming challenges. Best of all, the book will be in full color to make building and programming much easier! [ Read more at Robot Square .]

LEGOWORLD , the world's biggest LEGO® Community event, is running in Utrecht since last Thursday, and of course there's also a lot of EV3 MINDSTORMS to be seen there. One of the amazing creations is a gigantic MINDSTORMS packaging line created by Martyn Boogarts, Eric Steenstra and Gerrot Bronsveld:

Here's a pretty well done 43 minutes overview video on LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 , produced by New Planet School :

Recently I got this question a lot: " Can I use my NXT as a Bluetooth remote for the EV3 brick? " The answer is: "Technically it should be possible, practical with the standard firmware not." The main reason for this is that the firmware software developer of the EV3 never thought of making the code backwards compatible as with all the other LEGO bricks is a mandatory giving in order to pass the quality check, so now it is up to the community to start and think about it to make it work. One of the first tries is here from Hans Odenthal at Sioux.NET a group of software developers form the Eindhoven based country that do like MINDSTORMS as their after hours projects. As Hans Explains: The mailbox mechanism is different for the two bricks, the PC application is therefor needed to convert the messages from the NXT format to the EV3 format. By this means, you can send messages (e.g. if you press a button at the NXT) to the EV3 (e.g. to control a motor). A simp...

Damien Kee has written a nice article on the differences between the Home Edition version of the EV3 software and the one of the Education Edition. Read it here .

Last month Rebrick had a contest amongst MCP's. It was simple -- had to be an EV3 robot, could not be one of the bonus models,  public would votes during month of September,  then most likes would wins -- This was not an easy task but 9 prepared MCP's  have managed to treat us with great EV3 creations! With 39 votes at the end of the competition, our winner is LEGO: EV3ized Dolphin Cruiser by –Vuurzoon, Anika Congratulation Anika - your integrations of Friends and Mindstorms is once again fabulous. And congrats also to our runner ups Mike - this was a super video of your winning design Sticker into Flyer bot! Philo - thank you for a great additional bonus model complete with BI's (right?) Check out all the entries below, go click Like on your favorites, who knows,  one days the votes might shift ;)  Don't miss this and many more stories by SmooreSara on the ReBrick blog http://rebrick.lego.com/en-US/BottomMenu/Blog/10042013-dont-walk-to-mordor...

Here's another guest blogger entry by Hans Odenthal who wrote abut Sioux.net on track some time ago:  Hans Odenthal has managed to connect the EV3 to a PC and is now able to send messages back and forth between a hand-written PC Application (C#) and the EV3 using Bluetooth.  Since there is no documentation available on the Internet about the protocol, Hans had to figure out the protocol by reverse engineering the Linux code that is running on the EV3 brick.  More details can be found on his blog about his train automation project.

Simon Burfield, creator of the LEGO® wheelchair  and the LEGO® Segway  has come up with a new human-sized LEGO® MINDSTORMS powered vehicle :

Awesome video by Jason Allemann on his Ultimate LEGO Machine :

At TechnicBRICKs there is also some good information to be found with regards to the EV3. Here is a re-post about WIFI Dongles and EV3: (thanks Fernando) Similarly to what happened with BT dongles for NXT, there is a very limited choice regarding working WiFi dongles for EV3. Until someone changes something in the firmware/VM executable there is only one WiFi dongle that will work with the EV3. It is the NetGear WNA1100 (with USB ID 0846:9030). You can find these dongles at the moment at several sources, and eventually at your local retailer too. USA (19,95 USD) Amazon.com Europe (12,99 euro DE, 13,95 euro NL, 11,90 pound, UK) pixmania.com (select your country) then search for " netgear-wma1100 " USA (39,95 USD) LEGO Education (which charges a premium price for reselling this...) Unfortunately none of the small sized WiFi dongles in the market, or even any other large one like the NetGear dongle, will work! It has to use a specific Atheros chipset (one s...

Are you already using LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 at school? If so, take part in a contest run up by LEGO® Education by posting an image or video to Instagram that shows how EV3 has influenced the classes at your school. From the web site : From 26 August - 27 September, post an Instagram image or video that illustrates how LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 is changing the science, technology, engineering and math classes at your schools! For example, take a photo of video of the Gyroboy model helping a student or conducting an experiment. Get creative! Tag your photos and videos with @legoeducation and the hashtag #LearnWithEV3 and they’ll appear on the contest web page. Feel free to add other hashtags to promote your photos and videos.  Judges will select a winner by 14 October 2013 and announce the best #LearnWithEV3 photos and videos.

Here's a "new twist" in David Gilday 's series of LEGO® MINDSTORMS Rubik's Cube solvers: the LEGO® SudoCuber .

Lauro Ojeda posted this tutorial on how to setup, compile and run programs that run natively on the EV3 Brick. The program prints the classic Hello World! greeting on the console. For the latest news on the native support of the EV3 Brick I/O in C language, check the MINDBOARDS Forum  and check the BRICXCC page periodically.

Many of our readers may already know the popular multimedia NXT tutorial at STEMcentric . The author, Dale Yocum, has created an EV3 version now that features a lot of instructive videos on many aspects of the new MINDSTORMS generation. Check it out!

David Gilday, designer of the NXT Mindcuber bonus model is back with an all new EV3 Rubik’s Cube® solving robot: Mindcub3r. Check out more details and a video [ HERE ].

A Reader of our blog, Tim,  has sent us a link to a video where he combined the Arduino platform with LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT:

Now that the Education EV3 site is on-line for some time, it was retails turn to show their models and content. As of September 1st, the box 31313 is officially on sale in most mayor retail shops. I'm sure that many of our readers already found the new LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 retail website . But did you also know that the older NXT (2.0) site is still on-line? If not then this is your time to download the last FIRMWARE, BONUS MODELS and NXT-G, before the site goes of-line. Don't wait too long.....

Now when the first EV3 education sets are released on the market and the software is downloaded we have something nice to look for. "The SPACE Challenge set". Form the education website: The Space Challenge is for all educators that want to teach STEM through hands-on problem solving. No matter if this is your first experience using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® or robotics or not, this learning program has been developed to support you and to make the materials suitable for your teaching environment. In the Space Challenge Activity Pack, there are seven Challenge Missions, nine Learning Missions and one Learning to Gear project. Each Mission and project presents a fun STEM learning opportunity. Student and teacher materials are provided in a multimedia content environment with the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Content Editor featuring all the tools the students needs for documenting and presenting their findings and results as they progress through the material. Three Research P...

One of the most interesting challenges in robotics is the finding a solution to the question "Where am I?". Aswin Bouwmeester , the creator of the holonomic NXT robot Agilis , has published a robot that solves that challenge by using a set of external beacons ("stars", one might almost say) for localization. Find an explanation on his blog how this is done using the triangulation features built-in already in leJOS , the Java platform for MINDSTORMS.

Over the past few days I’ve seen stories regarding the LEGO Education EV3 Battery Pack circulating on the various forums and FB groups. Yesterday LEGO Education released a statement to customers and partners who are affected by this issue, confirming the problem. I’ve put a small excerpt of the statement below. You can download the full text here (zip file with two PDFs): [ LINK ]. Dear Customer , The LEGO Group prides itself in delivering high quality products and regrets to inform customers of an issue related to the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3rechargeable battery . LEGO Education has identified a circuit error in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 rechargeable battery . The error does not in any way relate to, or impact the EV3 programmable brick or the charger/transformer. The majority of the batteries that have been distributed do not have this error, but every battery in stock is now being retested to ensure it charges properly before shipping to customers, and n...

Back in February when I was at FIRST I met with lots of bright kids at the MINDSTORMS booth but they where mostly asking me questions about upcoming EV3 and my WALL-E robots. The Next day I decided to drive my robot around and visit surrounding FLL teams booth this is when I came across the Radical Robotix Team 10147 member Kyle Markland who talked to me about his personal robot he was bulding, the Timmyton!  He said he would send me more details and a few days ago, he did! Hello... we met at the World Festival. I was the one who told you about my NXT robot, the Timmyton 3.5. I wanted to inform you that I finished an upgraded version, the Timmyton 4.0. It has similar functions as the last model, but the mechanics are very different and all of the last model’s flaws have been resolved.  I attached some pictures of the 4.0 above. If you want all of the details, you can find a complete rundown of both the Timmyton 3.5 and 4.0 on my NXT Log page. Just type in Bu...

Damien Kee has produced a nice timelapse video on the new EV3 Home Edition, from unboxing to set to building, programming and running the flagship model EV3RSTORM:

Here's a guest blog post to The NXT STEP by Joshua "NXTesla" who's done some interesting stuff with illuminating the NXT brick: LEDs make everything cooler, right? Even LEGO MINDSTORMS? LEDs look pretty cool on the new EV3, so why not put them on an NXT? I had some nice, bright LEDs lying around, so I thought I’d try it. Here’s what the finished product looks like. If you would like to see more pictures go take a look at my Imgur album:  http://imgur.com/a/ 2ogda I uploaded the schematic so everyone can see how it works. My original plan was to solder the two power wires to the battery terminals located next to ports 1 and A. It was a good plan, but let me just say that the plastic case melts a lot easier than the solder does. Yes, the one corner of the case right next to the negative battery terminal is melted. Luckily, the white part of the case covers that part. Proceeding with caution, I found that it was nearly impossible to melt the solder, an...

There's a new and quite positive review of the Education edition of LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3  on GeekDad . Have a look! 

today HiTechnic announced on their Facebook site: HiTechnic Sensors supported on EV3 The complete range of HiTechnic sensors and accessories are now fully supported by the new LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. The new EV3 HiTechnic software blocks expose the features of each sensor allowing EV3 programs to incorporate the extensive functionality available with the HiTechnic product range. HiTechnic sensors can now be used on both the MINDSTORMS NXT and EV3. Programming blocks will be available for download later next month. More information at their facebook site . and at their own website; hitechnic.com .

The first EV3 Education sets are shipped, and like with the NXT, also now you can update the Firmware. Until the community created their own firmware versions and other update programs becomes available, we have to use the LEGO software with their build-in solution. FIRMWARE UPDATE STEPS: start the Home (retail) or Education software select "new project" from the menu bar then select the "tools" menu and in there "firmware update" have brick connected over USB select a firmware in the available firmware list (by clicking it) press the "download" button after successful progress press "close" button The HELP does refer to a troubleshooting section in the printed User Guide for help on resetting the brick, but when the download fails, (you accidentally unplugged the USB cable) it is possible to reset the Brick as follow (see image). Then follow the steps again to update the firmware. There are 2 versions of firmware: ...

Anika Vuurzoon has published another one of her fantastic MINDSTORMS movies: this time it's the Friends set #41015 that has been upgraded by EV3 components and some dolphins.

Leon Overweel , the creator of the robot that is handing out flyers , has come up with a new nice machine: a NXT-driven rig for panning and tilting a mobile phone's camera that can be remotelly controlled: Programming and building instructions can be found on his blog .

Finally I've found time to create a small movie on our community MINDSTORMS booth at Fana'Briques 2013 that took place end of June in Rosheim (Alsace, France): Fana'Briques is one of the largest annual LEGO community events in Central Europe, with more than 8000 visitors on two days this year.

NOW is the time!!!  The best ever LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics platform starts to conquer the world!  August 1st, was the official release date of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Core set , while the EV3 consumer robotics platform , will hit retailers’ shelves on September 1st, 2013 .   Lee Magpili , lead designer of the  LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 set , talks about the new models and the joy of building and designing with the new EV3 platform.  For more information on the  LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 set, check the  Product Overview  at the official LEGO Education site. Meanwhile, e njoy both parts of his interview:

Mike Brandl from Austria has created a very cool EV3-based machine that sorts stickers into flyers:

The day before yesterday, LEGO announced that the Home Edition of EV3 will be available at 1st of September for purchase in the stores. Also the 12 bonus models created by members of the community have been revealed; each of these models can be built with one single Home edition set and building instructions for them will be published by LEGO for free download: By courtesy of Marc-Andre Bazergui

Last night at precise 0:00 Xander shared the source code of the EV3 firmware on his blog [ botbench ]. After a great presentation by Steven Canvin at OHM2013 [ link ], were he shared with the audience how LEGO decided to work with the community when creating the NXT and EV3 Mindstorms series. Many great examples of HACKs that were converted into products were shown. At the same time various Education and Retail models were present so the audience could have a hands-on experience and when requested explanation on both software and models was given. Xander joined the stage and called out to the community to help improve and change the product. He talked to a large group of "hackers and makers" that were eager to get their own hands dirty and work with the EV3 bricks brought especially for this occasion. So if you want and have some experience with coding, join the group and have fun.

July 15, 2013 - Changchun Landing to Changchun , China. Woohoo! However my luggage -including what's important …my EV3 robots- are still missing somewhere in Beijing (don't ask, my fault apparently).  A warm welcome from Eric Steenstra and LEGO Education’s territory manager at the airport and everything feels much better! July 16, 2013 We have to prepare the setup in Changchun. My robots are still in Beijing and news are not so optimistic.  We decide to proceed to plan-B: Build and program a new set of robots within the next 12 hours. I, Eric and the guys from LEGO Education we start working hard ...well we're not really stressed because we can do it! Late at night my robots arrive in Changchun!!! Everything looks cool now!  July 17, 2013 The campus of the Changchun university is huge and superb, full of kids of all ages and thousands of Chinese teachers. The national robotic competition ( FLL ) is held at the Sport and Culture center of t...

I love how this robot moves. It is from the RobertaLAB and it's design was influenced by nature. Apparently this is how the Tabacha spider moves (although I couldn't find any info on the real spider).  Could be a lot of fun to recreate.

A new article over at Robot Square explains the difference and compatibility between LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 and NXT. This video demonstrates the compatibility between the two LEGO MINDSTORMS systems: