Push into new fields of technology using LEGO and Arduino with the projects in this Cookbook. MINDSTORMS EV3 inventions don’t have to be confined to LEGO factory-made sensors. Incorporate a wide range of sensors, displays, LED arrays, actuators, and even a smartphone into your creations.

Add amazing capabilities to your LEGOs by building things such as a metal detector, long-range lidar, audio spectrum analyzer, weather station, and a smartphone. Step-by-step instructions bring these new devices to life. You’ll work with the reliable and inexpensive Arduino UNO to take your projects even further and make them truly smart. Learn to set up and program your Arduino UNO. Then learn data communications protocols (I2C, SPI, and PWM) to link sensors to the Arduino. A variety of data communications techniques are also demonstrated on passing data between the Arduino and the MINDSTORMS EV3 Intelligent Brick.

Equipped with these new tools, LEGO inventors can build vast new capabilities into their designs.

What You'll Learn

• Interface new sensors, devices, and communications with LEGO Mindstorms EV3
• Work with communication protocols of pulse width modulation (PWM), I2c, and SPI
• Convert pulse width modulation to analog voltage with resistor and capacitor components

Who This Book Is For

Tech savvy fans of LEGO projects and hardware hackers. Also coaches or students involved in a school science/technology project or design competition.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The LEGO Arduino Workstation

Chapter 2: Programming the EV3 Intelligent Brick

Chapter 3: Programming the Arduino

Chapter 4: Sensors and Electronics

Chapter 5: The LEGO Metal Detector-12C Sensor with EV3 Analog Interface

Chapter 6: Programmable LEDs-12C Controller with EV3 Analog Interface

Chapter 7: 12C Communication with the EV3 Intelligent Brick

Chapter 8: The LEGO Lidar-PWM Sensor with EV3 12C Interface

Chapter 9: The LEGO Weather Station-SP! Sensor with EV3 12C Interface

Chapter 10: The LEGO Spectrum Analyzer-Arduino Shield with 12C Output to EV3

Chapter 11: Favorite Color Machine-Arduino Shield with 12C Output from EV3

Chapter 12: Connecting MINDSTORMS to a Smartphone

About the Author

Grady Koch emphasizes building things from LEGO that can be applied to practical use in science, engineering, or security. He is the author of LEGO Optics: Projects in Optical and Laser Science with LEGO, High-Tech LEGO: Projects in Science, Engineering, and Spycraft with Technic and Mindstorms EV3, and Secrets of Eli’s LEGO Collection. He also writes for and runs hightechlego.com, which features various LEGO technology projects. His day job since 1987 has been as a research engineer with NASA Langley Research Center. There he works with technology for remote sensing atmospheric phenomena. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering. And he holds three patents in the field of wind measurements with lidar.