Etiqueta: BLE

Smoke generator for LEGO Powered Up Train

This post is part 1 of 2 of  Gatto Negro

A few months ago I have made my own version of Holger Matthes’ BR80. It was not a full replica because I didn’t have all the pieces required so I had to improvise. I also opted for an all-black version instead of a black+red combination.

I decided I needed a steam engine after some experiments with a MINDSTORMS EV3 setup with a train turntable, two rail switches and a pseudo train with SBrick and RFID:

After I added a mechanism to disengage the train engine from the cargo wagon I decided I needed a steam engine since modern trains don’t need the turntable to operate.

As the SBrick had 4 outputs and I was only using 2 for the motor and the lights I wonder what else could I add to it. Choosed two extra functions that would look good on a LUG exhibition:

  • a smoke engine
  • a horn

The initial project was dismantled but I’m now returning to it with a MILS-based layout to use in larger dioramas with other PLUG fellows:

Currently the turntable and the rail switches are still manually operated but at least I now have a steam engine. With real smoke:

This is ‘Gatto Negro’. It means ‘Black Catt’, I’m using the extra ‘T’ because in Bluetooth Low Energy jargon ‘GATT’ means ‘General Attributes’ and I’ve been using a lot the linux command ‘gatttool’ to quickly test my BLE devices.

Of course ‘Gatto Negro’ is also BLE – it uses the new LEGO Powered Up hub and the PUP version of the LEGO Medium motor instead of the Power Functions IR Receiver, LiPo battery and M motor.

Unfortunately with the current firmware of the PUP Hub using a M motor isn’t the best option: the remote BLE Handset doesn’t hold the speed setting so we have to control the train with short or long button presses, always at full speed. Same happens with current LEGO App because LEGO programmers decided that only a train motor should be used for trains (each PUP device has an unique AutoID and the App was made to use train motors with train controls and non-train motors with car controls).

So I made my own ‘Gatto Negro’ aplication, with MIT AI2.

Next posts I’ll write about the smoke generator and the App.

Making an Android app for LEGO Powered Up

The new LEGO trains are now Powered Up based.

Like WeDo 2 and BOOST, this is a Bluetooth 4 Low Energy (BLE) device that uses the new type of 6-pin plug that LEGO announced a couple of years ago with the WeDo 2. At that time this new design was referenced as Power Functions 2 or PF2 but the final name is now Powered Up.

Unlike BOOST, the new smart hub included with the trains doesn’t include motors. LEGO found a way to arrange 6 AAA batteries inside it in such a compact way that the final size is exactly the same of the Power Functions LiPo or AAA batteries… with all the new electronics included:

Others like Sariel and Hispabrick already reviewed this device so I’ll just show how to to use it.

This new hub announces itself as “HUB NO.4”.  It will probably have a much better name but for now I will call it this way.

A good thing with “HUB NO.4” is that it  provides the same UUID services as BOOST. So most of the examples I wrote for BOOST work with Powered Up with just a few modifications.

For instance, the LEGO WeDo 2 motors can be used the same way as with BOOST:

gatttool -b 90:84:2B:06:AB:5D --char-write-req --handle 0x0e --value 0800810011510060

The handle (“0Eh”) is the same. The payload is also simillar, with the same 3 initial bytes (“080081”, hexadecimal) followed by a fourth byte that selects the output port (“00” = port A, “01” = port B), followed by the same 3 bytes (“115100”) and finally the last byte is the duty cycle (or speed) applied to the motor (“60h” = 100d = 100%).

Since I already had an Android app made with MIT App Inventor 2 for the  Vernie model of the BOOST set I made just a few modifications to make it work with “HUB NO.4”:

  • removed the blocks that controlled the head and cannon trigger
  • removed the blocks that sensed the colors
  • added the BT address of my “HUB NO.4” to the list of devices to pick
  • changed the motor commands used by BOOST (simultaneous control of pair A+B) by the motor commands of two WeDo 2 motors

That’s it!

This the Designer view:

and this is the Blocks view:

If you’re interested, I exported the project as an “.aia” file. It’s not polished (for instance the blocks still make references to Vernie) but you get a good base to start.

In my next article I try to explain how this App was created.

Controlling WeDo 2.0 motor from Linux

LEGO Education released the WeDO 2.0 some months ago and I bought a kit. I returned to LEGO thanks to WeDO 1.0 and since I’m already using BLE with the SBrick, using the WeDo 2.0 seemed natural.

But LEGO Education made the Android app very restrictive and only a few Android devices are allowed to install it – I have two different BLE enabled Android phones and none complies with LEGO Education definitions. Although LEGO Education promised a SDK for the new WeDO 2.0, there’s still nothing available and since I don’t own a Windows computer or an Apple device, my WeDO 2.0 kit was rusting on the shelf, waiting for better days.

Then yesterday I found a Microsoft guy’ with some bluetooth code samples with references for the WeDO 2.0 – how ironic!

So it took me only a few hours to achieve what I think is a world premiere: a linux system controlling a LEGO WeDO 2.0 motor. And what better linux system than a LEGO Mindstorms EV3?

Next post will I’ll give more details.