Platform-agnostic Mindstorm EV3

For now, this page just holds some notes and links, while I'm preparing for the Mindstorm project.

Initial goal is to get a graphical programming environment up and running on linux with an EV3 set running regular firmware.

Communication Protocols

• The C sources on github
• how to establish a wifi connection
• USB. Is this HID (as NXT appears to be), or serial?

Programming Language (and environment)

For now, I will be looking at integrating this with scratch. Maybe I can get extensions to work without the developer account requirement by installing it locally. Maybe I should just spend time on figuring out how to get a developer account.

• Zaluum looks good, but is geared towards data processing, not directive languages.
• How about Blockly? Comes with a lot less bagage than Scratch. No flash, which is a plus.

Architecture

• scratch javascript to wifi? Since this is initiated through UDP, this may require a proxy service to run.
  • note to self: creating an (http-) portal/proxy service to "all visible EV3 devices" may be useful all by itself. In the end, I just want to xmlrpc to the brick.
• scratch to USB serial or HID should work, but requires a cable.
• Direct execution (from the scratch environment) vs. program-and-run.

Firmware alternatives

Although not currently investigated, communications may be a lot easier if the smart brick runs a custom firmware.

• LeJOS (Java)
• MonoBrick, for .NET languages
• and of course, the original firmware is available as open source.