Lesson 73: Part 4: EV3 Downloading, Batteries, Memory, and More)

When your EV3 brick is connected to the computer, the EV3 software will display a window at the bottom right corner of the screenand at the top right of this window will be the word EV3 highlighted in red. This small window which will enable you to do various thing. If the brick is disconnected to the computer, this word EV3 will revert to black color.

Below that red word EV3 are 3 buttons
1st button: download program from computer to EV3 brick
2nd button: download program from computer and execute
3rd button: download programs

IMPORTANT: Avoid using 2nd and 3rd button. Reason, robot may start moving and drag laptop computer off the table

Lesson 72: (Part 3: Mindstorms EV3 software, Writing Long Programs)

When we are writing long programs, we may need to move blocks around.
One way is to use pan. Click the PAN icon (picture of a hand) at the top right corner , then click on screen, drag around.
It is like the screen is very much bigger than what we see, and we drag the hand icon around, it is like dragging the whole screen to a position we want.

Another way is to first click the SELECT icon at the top right corner click and drag the cursor to highlight a series of blocks, then click the group of icons to a more convenient place on the screen.

Note that the screen is rectangular, not long and shallow to accommodate a really long series of blocks. There would be big empty space above or below the long series of block and you can actually make use of "programming wire" to connect programming blocks instead of connecting them by placing them together in long horizontal connected series

Lesson 67: MORE DISPLAY (Part 3: Simple Animations)

Animation example, rising water level.
LEGO has lots of images at
Display block > Images > Progressions > images saved by LEGO > select water level 0
So add a PLAY block, connect a DISPLAY block picking first water level 0
Add a WAIT block, make it wait, say, half second
Repeat above a 3 times selecting in sequence, selecting water level 1, then 2 then 3

First step:

Lesson 68: MORE DISPLAY (Part 4: Displaying Text)

This lesson explain how to display 2 lines of text simultaneously

While we can specify the start of the text in pixels
We can also also use GRID MODE. For displaying text, easier to use grid mode
lEGO ev3 divides the screen grid into
22 columns horizontally (x-axis) starting from 0 to 21
12 rows vertically (y-axis) starting from 0 to 11
Each row can display 1 row of text

Lesson 65: Display Block, Making your own pictures

This lesson, to show how you can create your own images for EV3 DISPLAY block, is optional.

To create your own EV3 pictures go to File in the menu bar, hover over TOOLS and select IMAGE EDITOR

On clicking IMAGE EDITOR, the EV3 Image Editor window will pop up. In this editor, you can draw lines, circles, rectangles, write text, etc and create your own picture for use in EV3. Remember to save picture after you have created it. Now the image you saved will be available to use in your EV3 software

Lesson 58: More pitfalls

Created project named ABC xyz
Added program Sound block "okie dokey"
Added program Display block "thumbs up" (Lego > Image > Information)

Now download project into EV3 brick and execute program
Hear only "Okie dokey" but didn't see "thumbs up" sign? This is because sign displayed for fraction of a second, too fast for human eye to notice, then project cleans up by shutting off speaker and clear screen IMMEDIATELY.

Different blocks takes different amount of time to execute

The Sound block: Default is for sound block to finish playing sound before moving on to next block

PROGRAMS SAVED ON YOUR COMPUTER; PROGRAMS SAVED ON YOUR EV3

Programs saved on computer and on EV3 brick different. EV3 version is compiled version

Programs in EV3 brick is saved automatically, but not so for computer
Remember to save Project on computer

Learn more by viewing video at Prof. Jennifer's lesson PROGRAMS SAVED ON YOUR COMPUTER; PROGRAMS SAVED ON YOUR EV3

OPENING & SAVING (Part 3: Opening Additonal Programs and Saving Projects)

In this post, 2 items will be discussed
1. How to add additional programs to a project
2. How to save the project

1. Go to FILE menu on menu bar and click ADD PROJECT

or
Open project, click + next to project name and click NEW PROGRAM

For more details, view Prof. Jennifer's video at OPENING & SAVING (Part 3: Opening Additonal Programs and Saving Projects)

OPENING & SAVING (Part 1: Opening Programs - Educational Version)

How to open a previously saved project with educational version of EV3 software:
The easiest is to click the software File Menu , then click RECENT PROJECTS, then click OPEN

A better way is to click the FILE menu at the top left of the software, then OPEN PROJECT

For more details, view Prof. Jennifer's video at OPENING & SAVING (Part 1: Opening Programs - Educational Version)

PROGRAM (Part 5: "Good Morning" Program)

In the earlier post/video, we programmed the robot to say "Morning"
Now drag another sound block and insert between PLAY block and "Morning" block
Change the sound to "Good"
Download this program into brick and play, you should hear robot say "Good" followed by "morning"

For more details, view Prof. Jennifer's video at PROGRAM (Part 5: "Good Morning" Program)

YOUR FIRST PROGRAM (Part 4: "Good" Program)

After starting a New Project, you would have the START icon in the Project area
Below are different colored bars which are "folders" for the program blocks
The first bar is GREEN and is the ACTION "folder"

We want program to start by saying GOOD MORNING by grabbing the SOUND block and hook it to the START block

Now click on the green bar at the top to add sound

To change program name, double-click
To change project name, SAVE AS then give your initial as Project file name followed by a number

To transfer to brick, connect USB cable and download

For more details, view Prof. Jennifer's video at YOUR FIRST PROGRAM (Part 4: "Good" Program)

YOUR FIRST PROGRAM (Part 2: Starting Software - Educational Version)

Open Mindstorm EV3 Educational software
Click the + icon (ADD PROJECT) (This method is recommended)

Another way to ADD PROJECT is to go to FILE > NEW PROJECT

For more details, watch Prof. Jennifer's video at YOUR FIRST PROGRAM (Part 2: Starting Software - Educational Version)

YOUR FIRST PROGRAM (Part 1: Introduction)

Important to make sure Sound Volume is turned on.
When you first turn on EV3 brick, make sure you can hear STARTUP tone
If not, you need to set it to 80% or other levels

For more details, go to Prof. Jennifer's video at YOUR FIRST PROGRAM (Part 1: Introduction)

EV3 Brick Settings

Turn EV3 brick fully on till FOLDERS screen appears
Select last folder to access SETTINGS
Use SETTINGS to set
1) Volume (how loud or soft) from 100% to whatever you wish
2) Auto shutoff time from 30 minutes to whatever you wish

For more details, go to Prof. Jennifer's EV3 BUTTONS (Part 3: Exploring the Buttons)

EV3 Brick: Files and Folders

Files (programs) are stored in Folders in EV3 Brick
When brick is fully turned on, this tiny window will display showing the folders

1) First folder store recently used files/programs
2) Second folder store all files/programs
3) Third folder store programs by LEGO
4) Fourth folder are brick SETTINGS

Navigation:
Use UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT buttons to move between folders and files,
CENTER button to select
TOP LEFT button to go back 1 level
TOP LEFT button is also the STOP button

For more details, view Prof. Jennifer's video at

EV3: More about the EV3 Brick

The EV3 brick center button serves different function depending on status of brick
1) As "ON" button when EV3 brick is turned off
2) As "YES" when brick is asking a question
3) As "SELECT" when brick is on

For more details, view Prof. Jennifer's video at More about EV3 Brick Buttons

EV3 Brick. Turning Brick Off

EV3 brick has 6 buttons (see diagram 1 below)

To turn on EV3 brick, press (2) middle button

The buttons
(1) Back button
(2) Enter button (also to turn brick on)
(3) Up, Down, Left, Right buttons

Diagram 1

The EV3 automatically turn itself off when left alone for some time.
To turn it off yourself, press the buttons labelled (1) (2) (3) in seqence as labelled in diagram 2 below:

Diagram 2

(1) Press corner button till shutdown screen appears
(2) Press right button one time to select check mark
(3) Press center button to turn off

If after pressing corner button (1), shut down screen not visible, keep pressing till shut down screen eventually appears, then follow the above sequence.

Source: Education Robots for Absolute Beginners - EV3 by Prof. Jennifer Kay.

Watch Prof. Jennifer Kay's video below for greater details

3.1 EV3 BUTTONS (Part 1: Brick Buttons Overview)

EV3 brick has 6 buttons (see diagram 1 below)

To turn on EV3 brick, press (2) middle button

The buttons
(1) Back button
(2) Enter button (also to turn brick on)
(3) Up, Down, Left, Right buttons

Diagram 1

Click on diagram to make it bigger:

The EV3 automatically turn itself off when left alone for some time.
To turn it off yourself, press the buttons labelled (1) (2) (3) in seqence as labelled in diagram 2 below:

Diagram 2

Click on diagram to make it bigger:

(1) Press corner button till shutdown screen appears
(2) Press right button one time to select check mark
(3) Press center button to turn off

If after pressing corner button (1), shut down screen not visible, keep pressing till shut down screen eventually appears, then follow the above sequence.

Source: Education Robots for Absolute Beginners - EV3 by Prof. Jennifer Kay.

Watch Prof. Jennifer Kay's video for greater details