Connection to external equipment

USB Connection

LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick is connectable to PC or another EV3 with USB. With USB, the connection speed and stability is better than any other way including Bluetooth.

LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick has 2 USB ports.

Name	port shape	use
PC port	USB mini B	connection to PC, connection to another LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick sold separately
USB port	USB A	connection to Wi-Fi Dongle sold separately. Connection to another LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3.

Connecting LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick to PC

You can program and log with EV3 SW educational edition by connecting PC port on LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick to PC.

Connection between LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick

Daisy Chain enables main-LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick to control sensors or motors connecting to sub-LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick. EV3 Intelligent Bricks connect each other via USB cable.

• More than one LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick, sensors, motors are needed to use Daisy Chain.
• Daisy Chain enables connection between up to 4 LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick.
• Up to 16 external ports and the same number of internal ports are controllable from main-LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick.
• Daisy Chain may not function when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are connecting.

How to do Daisy Chain

Check “Daisy Chain Mode” in project detailed setting.
When Daisy Chain Mode is available, an item to select EV3 Intelligent Brick appears on the left of port setting, upper right of programming icon.
In Daisy Chain Mode, you can identify sensors and motors with selecting both EV3 Intelligent Brick and ports. EV3 Intelligent Brick is 1 to 4 numbering from PC side.

Followings are programming icons that point EV3 Intelligent Brick in Daisy Chain Mode. Other programming icons than in this table, is executed by the first EV3 Intelligent Brick.

Action	Medium Motor
	Large Motor
	Move Steering
	Move Tank
Sensor	Color Sensor
	Gyro Sensor
	Infrared Sensor
	Ultrasonic Sensor
	Motor Rotation
	Touch Sensor
	Temperature Sensor
	Energy Meter
	NXT Sound Sensor

 

Connection via Bluetooth

Bluetooth enables LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick to connect to PC, another LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick, smart phone, etc. Bluetooth is the best way to wirelessly connect more than one targets in short distance.

We confirmed that Bluetooth functions up to 25 meters.

Connection between LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick and PC

You should use Bluetooth Dongle by LEGO. Please note that a generic Bluetooth belong to PC may not function well.

Connection between more than one LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick via Bluetooth

One Master EV3 Brick can connect to up to seven Slave EV3 Bricks. The Master EV3 Brick can send messages to each Slave EV3 Brick. The Slave EV3 Bricks, however, can only send messages back to the Master EV3 Brick. Slave EV3 Bricks cannot send messages directly to other Slave EV3 Bricks.

Bluetooth Connection between EV3s

LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 has Bluetooth communication function and wireless communication is possible between LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3s.

To communicate via Bluetooth, you need to validate Bluetooth function of each LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick.

1. Open Setup Tab

2. Select Bluetooth and push the center button

3. Check boxes of Visibility and Bluetooth

4. Confirm that Bluetooth mark and “<” mark show on the upper left side.
5. Follow the mentioned procedure for both first and second Bricks.

Then connect LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Bricks.

1. Decide which the master Brick is.
   Select Connections of Bluetooth from Setup tab of the master Brick, and execute “Search.”

2. Near devices with the states of Visibility and available Bluetooth is detected.
   Select EV3 you want to connect and push the center button.

3. An image to input the pass key appears on the master Brick. At the same time, the input image of the pass key appears on the slave Brick. For each Brick, click “Enter.”

Image to input pass key for master Brick

Image to input pass ley for slave Brick


4. If the correct communication way is established, upper left icon becomes “<>.”

If you power off the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick, the communication way is shut down and you need to do the connection process again.

Make sending program and receiving program.

Sending program come to end 3 seconds after “Hello” letters sent to abc mail box on LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick named EV3, when Touch Sensor is pushed.
Receiving program waits until receiving “Hello” letters in abc mail box, and when it receives “Hello” letters, it shows these letters on liquid-crystal display and comes to end after 10 seconds.

Execute the program

1. Executer each program of LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Intelligent Brick.
2. Push Touch Censor of sending side.
3. “Hello” appears on the display of receiving side.

Connection via Wi-Fi

Longer distance communication is possible by connecting Wi-Fi Dongle to the USB port on EV3 brick.

• To use Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Dongle and Access Point is specially needed.
• Wi-Fi on EV3 brick functions under infrastructure mode. Please note that ad hoc mode is not supported.

Connection to iPhone

The connection to iPhone via Bluetooth will become available.

Connection to Android

The connection to Android via Bluetooth will become available.
We will release our update as soon as we can confirm the operation.