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LEGO Mindstorms EV3 BLE

    • 87 posts
    December 4, 2014 10:34 PM CET

    Yes, that's the spirit :)

    But...

    Although an EV3 block is quite possible, it will require EV3 support for Bluetooth 4.0 BLE. And since EV3 internally only has Bluetooth 2 it's necessary to add an external (USB? I2C? Wi-Fi?) Bluetooth 4.0 device. LEGO firmware has no support for that, I don't know if it is possible to add new devices to it but I suppose it will need LEGO (TLG) involvment. So, until there is a strong lobbying to include BT 4.0 and SBrick support on LEGO firmware the best (only?) solution is to use ev3dev. LeJOS is also a good candidate but as far as I know it still lacks BT 4.0 support.

    So you better start learning some python like I am :)

    • 2 posts
    December 4, 2014 8:29 PM CET

    This would also be useful for controlling trains.  You could read sensors with the EV3 and have it send actions to the sbrick in the train.  An EV3 block would be great!

    • 87 posts
    October 14, 2014 1:22 PM CEST

    Yeahhhh!!!  I knew it! My LUG Mindstorms mates will love to know that.

    Sensor Tag temperature was easy even for me, it was just copy some Raspberry Pi examples.

    An EV3 brick looking like an SBrick sounds interesting although for now I cannot see a practical use unless SBrick client app support some kind of extensions or plugins so one can expose extra features to the app.

    Now if my beta SBrick would just arrive...

    • 178 posts
    October 14, 2014 1:03 PM CEST

    Oh, yes, I know that app, that's pretty cool.

    If you could get EV3 to speak the binary language of temperature sensors ;) than you could definitely control an SBrick from EV3, or even make an EV3 brick look like an SBrick :D

    • 87 posts
    September 18, 2014 1:36 PM CEST

    Yeap!

    SensorTag also has gyroscope, magnetometer and accelerometer so in theory one might create a LEGO Mindstorms robot with two modules: an EV3 brick (static, powered with a DC regulator, acting as «the brain») and car (with PF battery, PF motors, SBrick and SensorTag, acting as «the body»). The brain could read/infere position, orientation and speed from the body.

    There is also a thermometer, a barometer and 2 press buttons...

    • 340 posts
    September 18, 2014 1:12 PM CEST

    Wow, sounds so cool! :)

    • 87 posts
    September 17, 2014 2:26 PM CEST

    Hi.

    During the kickstarter campaign I asked if SBrick would work with LEGO Mindstorms. Since Bluetooth is not 4.0 I was told that it is not possible...

    Well, I can announce that an EV3 brick running (latest) ev3dev can use a BT 4.0 USB dongle to talk BLE.

    I can now read ambient temperature through a Texas Instruments SensorTag.

    Can't wait to get my SBrick.