Using App to control the lego mindstorms EV3 by bluetooth

The Lego mindstorms EV3 is more than a toy, it is a complete system that has a lot of things you need to build, and program thousands of robotic inventions. Lego Mindstorms EV3 (evolution 3) is the third generation robotics kit in Lego's Mindstorms line. It is the successor to the Lego Mindstorms NXT. 

The basic model 31313 set includes 1 EV3 brick or brain with usb and bluetooth connection, 3 servomotors (2 large an 1 medium), 1 color sensor, 1 ultrasonic sensor, 1 touch sensor and 585 technic pieces to create. This model was released in 2013, however today it is still widely used for its great versatility, a new invention can be created every day, so it stays alive and is widely used in schools for construction, programming and teaching robotics, and there are many competitions using this set. Among them are the First Lego League and the World Robot Olympiad.

With a Lego common, construction is part of the fun, but when the construction is finished it is when the new fun begins. A programmable lego goes further, allowing more impressive interactions, and deciding events such as: what will happen, when it will happen, and why it will happen.

For this reason there are as many programming languages ​​for lego as: LeJOS, BricxCC, Next Byte Codes, Not eXactly C, CoderZ, ROBOTC, Python, JAVA, ev3dev among others. However, programming in any of these requires deciding which one to use and specialize, which can ultimately lead to stimulating the great possibilities of robotics or disinterest by the user for the level of specialization required.

CONNECTION OF LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 WITH AN APPLICATION

Among the possibilities of this programmable lego, is the bluetooth connection that allows you to connect to any Android or IOS device. Therefore, a wide variety of applications have emerged that allow this feature in the Google Play market. However, I realized that they are a bit limited, so I was interested in creating something more complete and dynamic that allows pseudoprogramming through an application, without the complications and complexities of administering a programming language but maintaining the structure Programming logic to create actions, interactions, events and instantly enjoy the robot with little chance of error and expanding the possibilities of interaction.

EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

This application allows you:
* Control 4 motors on the lego EV3 brick: can use Ev3 or NXT motors
* Create additional actions when the motors move, such as: changing control panel color led ,creating a sound, or a spoken message.
* Read the values of your color sensor, ultrasound sensor, touch sensor or infrared sensor.
* Create additional actions when the color sensor, ultrasonic sensor, touch sensor or infrared sensor is activated.
* Use the robot outside your viewing area as a spy, using another cell phone as a camera on the robot as an IP camera, and see where your robot is going. For this you need a third-party application on the cell phone that is on your robot (like DroidCam or IPWebCam) and WIFI.

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application  LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total

EV3 MOTORS CONTROL

There are 3 controls for the 4 motors. The BC Motor set allows you to manage the direction of the robot, up, down, right and left, it has a slider that allows you to define the power of this motor. Motor Control A allows controlling the additional motor connected to port A. Motor Control D allows controlling the additional motor connected to port D

1.For the control of the BC motor, the following additional actions are taken for each direction:

• Turn on the control panel LED with the desired color RED, ORANGE or GREEN.
• Generate a sound frequency between 250-10000 Hz for the desired time in milliseconds.
• Create a voice sound through written text.

The action must be checked for application. Otherwise simply will move the motor with the power chosen on the main screen.

To exemplify the use of this application I will use the following ROBOT: it has 3 lego mindstorms EV3 motors, 1 lego mindstorms NXT motor, 1 EV3 infrared sensor, 1 EV3 contact sensor and 1 EV3 color sensor.

The following video shows this driving function:

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application  LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total

2.- When the motor control button A or D is pressed, a screen appears that allows the following additional actions to be placed for each direction:

• Define motor A power and motor D power.
• Turn on the LED of the control panel with the desired color RED, ORANGE or GREEN, in addition you can select the LED pattern from STATIC, PULSE or FLASH.
• Generate a sound frequency between 250-10000 hz for the desired time in milliseconds.
• Create a voice sound through written text.

The following video shows this function for motor A (port A):

The following video shows this function for motor D (port D):

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total

EV3 COLOR SENSOR CONTROL

Pressing the COLOR button will display the previous screen. You can select actions for 4 colors recognized by the color sensor: blue (blue), green (green), yellow (yellow) and red (red). The black and brown colors are very unstable therefore they were not considered.

When there is an object near the color sensor with one of these colors, the robot will perform the selected actions. The actions include:

Voice Sound (Speech): What is placed in this field will be heard on the phone when the color is detected.

Action on motor A: by clicking on the tab, selection options for motor A will appear: forward (forward) or backward (backward), you select one of them and next you can place the amount in degrees that are engine A will move.

Action on the BC engine: clicking on the tab will leave selection options for the BC engine, forward (forward), backward (backward), right (right) or left (left), you select one of them and next You can place the amount in degrees that the BC motor assembly will move.

Sound: this action allows you to place a sound frequency in Hz between 250 and 10000hz which are audible frequencies for a certain time in milliseconds.

The following video shows this color sensor function:

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application  LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total

EV3 ULTRASOUND AND INFRARED SENSOR CONTROL

Pressing the ultrasound button will bring up the previous screen, which allows actions to be created when the ultrasound or infrared sensor detects an obstacle within, below or outside the parameters set in the TOP (maximum) and bottom (minimum) range. The sensor must be connected to port 4. The values ​​are placed in centimeters (cm), this allows values ​​between approximately 5cm and 200cm for the ultrasound sensor and between 5cm and 80cm for the infrared sensor.

You can create WITHIN (inside), ABOVE (outside) and BELOW (below) range actions.

For example, if the range is TOP = 100 and BOTTOM = 40, a value greater than 100 is considered to activate the ABOVE actions, a value between 99 and 41 activates the WITHIN actions, and a value below 40 activates the BELOW actions. The ultrasound sensor is very accurate. The infrared sensor works proximity sensor, actions can be chosen in the same way as with ultrasound, however the infrared is a bit unstable and works better with natural light (gives very irregular values ​​at night with artificial light).

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application  LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total

EV3 CONTACT SENSOR CONTROL

Pressing the TOUCH (contact) button will bring up the previous screen, which allows actions to be created when the contact sensor is pressed. In addition to the actions shown above, it also allows you to activate the desired song inside the phone when the sensor is pressed. Pressing the SELECT MUSIC button opens the phone directory to select the song. The actions will be generated if the checkbox is checked.


The following video shows this touch sensor function:

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application  LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total


EV3 CONTROL AS A SPY WITH AN ADDITIONAL CAMERA. IP CAMERA CONTROL

Pressing the SPY ROBOT button will bring up the previous screen, which allows the A, BC and D motors to be operated, while observing on the screen what a camera placed in front of the robot is displaying. This camera can be another cell phone with a camera which must have a third-party application such as DroidCam or IPWbCam installed, or an IP camera without a password. The address generated by this application must be placed in the URL camera field and the GO IP button is pressed. With your phone connected to the same Wi-Fi you can see on the screen what your robot has in front even if the robot is out of our sight, and thus control it to do what you want.


The following video shows this SPY robot function:

If you want to download this application for LEGO EV3, press the following link:

LEGO EV3 CONTROL TOTAL

If you want to download the application  LEGO NXT version, press the following link:

       download NXT Control Total