LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition tutorial

On this page we teach you how to use Pixy with the LEGO Mindstorms Home Edition software.

In 2021 LEGO discontinued support of the EV3 Home Edition software. If you still wish to use this software, you can download it from the LEGO website. We recommend running version 1.3.1 or later of this program. If you already have it installed, go to the Help menu and select Check for Software Updates to make sure you are running the latest version.

You should be running firmware 1.09H or later. This firmware is available from the LEGO website (you need to scroll down to find it). Download version 1.09H and save it on your PC.

Then you can upgrade the firmware from within the EV3 Home Edition software by going to the Tools menu and selecting Firmware Update. Select Browse in the Firmware Update dialog box to select the firmware file you just downloaded and then click on the Download button in the Firmware Update dialog box to download the new firmware into your brick.

Let's install the Pixy2 EV3 block in the Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition software by performing the following steps:

• Download the latest “LEGO blocks and examples” file from this page.
• This is a zip file, so go ahead and unzip it.
• Open the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition software.
• Open a New Project by selecting File ➜ New Project.
• Select Tools ➜ Block Import and then select Browse.

• Browse to the location where you unzipped the “LEGO blocks and examples” file.
• Choose the “Pixy2-x.y.z.ev3b“ file in the blocks directory.

• Import the Pixy2 EV3 block by clicking on Import.

• Close and restart the LEGO Mindstorms software.

Now you have the right LEGO software and firmware, take the following steps to run a demo program:

• Make sure you teached Pixy2 an object and your Pixy2 is hooked up to your LEGO EV3 Brick.
• Next, turn on your EV3 Brick if you haven't already done so, and hook up a USB cable between your computer and your EV3 Brick. From the LEGO Mindstorms software, go to the File menu and select Open Project.

• Browse to the location where you unzipped the “LEGO blocks and examples file and then to the examples directory. Select “ccc_test.ev3” and click Open.

• You should see something like this (below). This is the ccc_test program. Note the Pixy2 sensor block!

• Run the program! Click on the play icon in the lower right corner of your EV3 software window. If you don't see the play icon, make sure your LEGO brick is powered on, finished booting and connected to your computer via a USB cable.

• Move the object that you taught Pixy2 in front of its camera lens. You should see the object move on your LEGO Brick's LCD screen.

You're done! You've successfully set up Pixy2 on your LEGO Mindstorms system! You are now ready to start building LEGO robot creations that use the powerful sensing capabilities of Pixy2. For more detailed info on the Pixy2 software block, check out this page.