One of my friends found a Lego Mindstorms robot in her basement that she was gifted as a child. Because she didn't know what to do with it and knows I like robots and electronics, she gave it to me. (Shoutout to Nicola <3 ) After searching the internet and finding out you can run linux on them, I decided to strip it of its sensors and motors and do exactly that.

Linux

ev3dev is a debian distribution that is not Lego-official but runs on ev3 robots. To install it, you have to flash an SD Card, insert it into what Lego calls the "P-Brick" and boot the robot, as explained here. After that, you can connect the "P-Brick" to a computer with a USB cable and connect to it via SSH.

Programming

Now, I was able to use the "P-Brick" as a normal linux device via this terminal. Obviously, the hardware is not great but it is definitively good enough to run code. Since it is a linux distribution, I was able to write some C code right away.

Power Supply

Since the batteries kept running out, I had to power it in some other way. The official power supplies for Lego Mindstorms Robots are, like all the other parts, very expensive and not easily available. So I decided to put it together myself.

Comments

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