1. Exploring Computer Science Lesson 6-5
Lego EV3“Brick”
Exploring Computer Science
Lesson 6-5

2. Objectives Students will be able to
Distinguish between the parts of the EV3 brick.
Hook up input and output devices correctly.
Use built-­in EV3 Brick programs.

3. Journal
Look at the EV3 brick and write down what you see and what you think it does.

4. EV3 Brick The EV3 Brick is the brains of your robot.
Everything your robot knows or does has to be connected to the brick.
Ports numbered 1-4:
Input ports (input means sensing it’s environment)
Four kinds of sensors: touch sensors (detect touch/obstacles), Gyro (detects motion), color sensor (detects light level and colors), ultrasonic sensor (detects movement and distance to an object).

5. EV3 Brick Ports numbered A-D: PC port
Output ports (output means it’s changing its environment)
You can connect lamps or motors (note: we don’t have Lego lamps)
The other output port is the speaker.
PC port
Allows you to download programs from your computer to the EV3 brick

6. EV3 Brick
USB:
The USB Host Port can be used to add a USB Wi-Fi dongle for connecting to a wireless network, or to connect up to four EV3 Bricks together (daisy chain).
SD port
The SD Card Port increases the available memory for the EV3 Brick with an SD card (maximum 32 GB)

7. EV3 Brick Buttons The dark grey button is On/Enter
The light grey arrow buttons are Navigation (left/right/up/down)
The dark grey button is Clear/Go back.
To turn the robot off, keep pressing this until the “Turn off?” prompt, and then hit the dark grey button.

8. EV3 Brick
Rechargeable battery
Has a power plug and LCD lights.

9. EV3 Screen
EV3 at the top—name of the brick. This can be changed in the software
Battery level top right.

10. Icons on the Screen
There are four icons on the screen.

11. Run Recent
This screen will be blank until you begin to download and run programs. It is the most recently run programs that will be displayed on this screen. The program at the top of the list which is selected by default is the latest program run.

12. File Navigation
This screen is where you will access and manage all the files on your EV3 Brick, including files stored on a SD Card.
Files are organized in project folders, which in addition to the actual program files also contain sounds and images used in each project.

13. Brick Apps
The EV3 Brick comes with five brick applications preinstalled and ready to use. In addition, you can also make your own apps in the EV3 Software. Once downloaded to the EV3 Brick, the homemade apps will be displayed here.

14. Settings
This screen will enable you to see and adjust various general settings on the EV3 Brick.

15. Input/Output
Your robot can’t do anything if there are no input/output connections.
You should have already connected the motors to the B and C ports. That’s our output (plus sound and the screen)

16. Journal Look at these items in the bin:
Draw a quick picture of the sensor and then guess what that sensor would be used for.

17. Sensors
Ultrasonic Sensor: Enables your robot to see and detect objects. Ultrasonic Sensor measures distance in centimeters and in inches. Can measure distance between 3 and 250 cm. The distance is return in 0.1 cm resolution but accuracy is about +/- 1 cm
Color Sensor: Enables your robot to distinguish 7 colors and no color detected. Can also be used to detect

18. Sensors
Touch Sensor: Detects when it is being pressed by something and when it is released again.
Gyro Sensor: Measures the robot’s rotational motion and changes in its orientation. Angle mode measures angles with an accuracy of +/- 3 degrees

19. Connecting the Sensors
The sensors can be connected to any of the ports 1-4. They work in any port but the default is:
Port 1: Touch sensor
Port 2: Gyro Sensor
Port 3: Light Sensor
Port 4: Ultrasonic Sensor

20. Test the Sensors Navigate to the Brick Apps and then Port View menu.
Test each of the sensors and see what the displays do.
Try the motor rotations and motor degrees programs.
As a group complete the word document from the web site.
What kind of data does each of the sensors provide?
How could a robot use this in a program?

21. Create Simple Programs
Port 4: Ultrasonic Sensor
Follow the directions in the LEGO Mindstorms manual on pp
Test the sensor with the code on page 47.

22. Create Simple Programs
Port 2: Gyro Sensor
Follow the directions in the LEGO Mindstorms manual on pp
Test the sensor with the code on page 53.

23. Create Simple Programs
Port 3: Color Sensor
Follow the directions in the LEGO Mindstorms manual on pp
Test the sensor with the code on page 72.

24. Create Simple Programs
Port 3: Color Sensor
Follow the directions in the LEGO Mindstorms manual on pp
Test the sensor with the code on page 76.

25. Create Simple Programs
Port 1: Touch sensor
Follow the directions in the LEGO Mindstorms manual on pp
Test the sensor with the code on page 80.