Hi,
Following a recent post, I opted for the purchase of a makerbloc starter with IR, as my initial starting project. The mechanical assembly was fine, however, in my naivity, I was expecting an almost plug and play for the controller side, unfortunately, this was not the case.
having assembled all the boards and plugged in the leads (assembly instructions not that great), I powered the unit up. The relevant LED’s on the board lit up, but I had no movement. Yes, I had put a battery in the IR 
. I checked the leads and they all seemed good and in correct places.
A quick look at the makebloc forum indicated a motor problem. I verified the motors by applying a 6v supply direct to the motors and they both functioned and turned easily.
Following further advice from the forum, I reinstalled drivers, downloaded the mbloc graphical programming software, and downloaded the control.sb2 project.
I then use the “File Load” and loaded control.sb2. This loaded the project file into the 3rd area of the mbloc program screen, but I have no idea if it loaded into the robots boards. The project program only appeared to have a small amount of info in it, which just appears to allocate a fwd and reverse speed and assign each value to the arrow keys, it has no info about the IR or detection.
If I depress the IR hand controller, then the blue light on the module lights up.
Questions are: please
Do I have the full project programm, if not, where can I get it from?
How do I check that a project has been “uploaded” onto the board from the Mblock graphical programmer, as I have not seen an upload or download button.
Unfortunately, I have asked a few times on makerblaoc website forum and had no response.
I wish to continue with some further projects, but the “simple” communication issues I am having is not bodeing well for future projects.
many thanks for any assistance/advice anybody can give.
Regards
Paul.
Paul,
First thing to do would be to install the Arduino IDE software and once it’s all installed you can add the MakeBlock libraries and use the Basic Examples.
Those steps are all available on the MakeBlock website HERE.
Once that’s installed, you will be able to open the “IR_Control” example.
Let us know if that do not solve your problem
Hi,
I have downloaded the examples, hoewever the examples are all .ino files and the mblock program only allows opening or loading of project files of .sb or .sb2.
I believe the file I have downloaded for the control is not complete.
Is there anywhere I can download the complete control file for the IR starter robot.
I hope to move onto the arduino board, but need to get this simple one working first.
Am I right in presuming that once ypu have laoded the project into mbot program arena, it is also loaded onto the board.
Thanks for assistance and any further advice.
Regards
Paul.
The mBlock was designed for the mBot but should be compatible with other kits.
We suggest using the Arduino IDE and tutorial made especially for the starter kit.