Programming Lego Mindstorms

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The official Lego Mindstorms programming software allows you to program a Lego Mindstorm EV3  “brick” using a graphical interface somewhat like Scratch.

The software comes in multiple forms:

Programming Using the Tablet Apps “Gotchas”

Functionality

The tablet apps do not have all the functionality of the desktop versions – they do not support blocks for sensor or data input. However, sensors can still be used for controlling the robot by using them as conditions in the orange flow control blocks. For example in the above picture motor C will turn continuously until the color sensor detects the color blue (denoted by [2]), at which point motor C will stop immediately using the brake.

Portability

You can export your program from the tablet app for use in the Mindstorms software installed on other devices/platforms using these steps:

  1. go to the home/”Lobby” screen and tap the share button (three small circles joined by two lines) at the top of the screen
  2. select “Desktop” or “Tablet” (select “desktop” if sharing the program with the desktop version of the Mindstorm, select “tablet” if sharing with another iOS or Android device)
  3. tap the program you want to share – you will be offered various ways of sharing it such as text message, email or Dropbox, Google Drive (assuming that you have installed the respective apps).

IMPORTANT: while you can share a program from the tablet to the desktop version of the Mindstorm software, you cannot copy a program created on the desktop version of the Mindstorm software to the tablet version. Therefore if you intend to use a combination of tablet and desktop devices when programming the Mindstorms brick, your workflow must start on the tablet(s) and end on the desktop(s).