Dec 28, 2021

Lego 51515 on Fedora

My 13 years old son Vítek just got LEGO 51515 (a.k.a. Robot Inventor) for Christmas. He assessed the Scratch programming in the Android app as "limiting" after playing with it for a couple of hours and he uttered a wish to try Python. Unfortunately, Lego does not provide any tools for Linux, the the main OS used within our family. So we started to look for workarounds.

All steps mentioned here were done on Fedora 34.

First we tried LEGO Hub Toolkit by Steven M. Robbins which worked for us only through USB but not via Bluetooth.

Peter Staev’s LEGO SPIKE Prime / MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor VS Code Extension offered the best experience so far.

How to install LEGO SPIKE Prime / MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor VS Code Extension

Of course you need VS Code first.

Install VS Code

If you want the newest version, getting the 64 bit .tar.gz flavor from VS Code downloads page might be the safest choice.

Unpack it, once you have downloaded it to ~/Downloads:

$ cd ~/bin
$ tar xfz ~/Downloads/code-stable-x64-*.tar.gz

Add the code executable to PATH environment variable so that you can open any folder using code .

Open the ~/.bashrc file with kwrite or any other text editor

$ kwrite ~/.bashrc

and add the following line somewhere around the beginning of the file

export PATH="$HOME/bin/VSCode-linux-x64/bin:$PATH"

Save and close the ~/.bashrc file.

Then create a new directory for your Python experiments and open VS Code in that directory:

$ mkdir -p ~/code/python
$ cd ~/code/python
$ code .

Install the LEGO SPIKE Prime / MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor Extension

In VS Code, open the Extensions view by hitting CTRL+SHIFT+x. Then type lego spike in the search field, select the found LEGO SPIKE Prime / MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor Extension and click the blue Install button to install it.

Connect via USB

First let’s try connecting via USB.

For this to work on my Fedora 34, I had to add the current user to dialout group. Otherwise I was getting the Permission denied: '/dev/ttyACM0' error when connecting.

$ sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

You’ll possibly need to restart VS Code or even re-login for the new group membership to get effective.

Then you can connect the USB cable - one end to the Lego HUB and the other end to your computer.

At the bottom of the VS Code window, click the blue LEGO Hub: Disconnected area

LEGO Hub: Disconnected

This should let you select the device you want to connect:

Select device

Select /dev/ttyACM0 for USB.

Once the connection succeeds, a couple of new buttons should appear at the top of the VS Code window:

Lego Hub Extension buttons

These allow you to

  • Start an already uploaded program

  • Stop the currently running program

  • Upload the current file (in VS Code) to the Hub

  • Show the Hub’s terminal where you can i.a. see the error messages if something goes wrong with your little program

Hello world!

Let’s try to write some simple program to make sure that the connection really works.

Create a new file named test.py in the ~/code/python folder and paste the following into the editor:

# LEGO type:standard slot:5 autostart
import hub
hub.sound.beep(800, 2000, 0)

The first line is specific to the extension and its meaning is documented in the extension’s README.

Once you have saved the file, you can hit the ⭮ button to upload and autostart it to the hub.

You should hear a two seconds beep if everything works correctly.

Bluetooth

To test the Bluetooth connection, first disconnect the USB by clicking the blue LEGO Hub: Connected area at the bottom of the VS Code window. Then unplug the USB cable.

Make sure Bluetooth is on on your PC e.g. by clicking the Blueman applet icon in the system tray. If it shows an option "Turn Bluetooth Off", then your Bluetooth is apparently on :-)

Bluetooth is on

Then pair the hub:

  • Click the Blueman applet icon in the system tray and click "Devices"

    Blueman → Devices

  • Make sure the Lego Hub is on and press the Bluetooth button on the Hub. The Bluetooth button on the Hub should start flashing blue and you should hear some beeping.

  • Then start scanning for BT devices by pressing "Search" in the Blueman Devices window

    Blueman Devices → Search

  • After a while a device named "LEGO Hub <Mac address>" should appear in the list of devices:

    Lego hub found

  • Open its context menu by right-clicking it and click "Pair"

    Pair the device

Initial serial connection

Once the device is paired, create a an initial serial connection with the device using Blueman that we will disconnect right away. I am not quite sure why this is necessary. I guess it creates the /dev/rfcomm0 device that persists after disconnecting and which the VS Code extension is not able to do itself for some reason.

  • Right-click the Hub in Devices window and click "Connect to: Serial Port"

    Connect to serial port

  • Once the connection succeeds the Bluetooth button on the Hub should stop flashing and should start shining blue without interruptions.

  • Make sure the the rfcomm device was created:

    $ ps -Af | grep /dev/rfcom
ppalaga     4852    3657  0 14:27 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/libexec/blueman-rfcomm-watcher /dev/rfcomm0

  • Note the index of the device - it is rfcomm0 in our case, but it could be rfcomm1 or something else in your case.

  • Disconnect the serial port via Blueman applet menu:

    Disconnect the serial connection

These initial serial connection steps need to be performed after every restart of the computer.

Connect via Bluetooth from VS Code

  • Get back to VS Code and click the blue LEGO Hub: Disconnected area

    LEGO Hub: Disconnected

  • This should let you select the device to connect to.

  • If you are lucky, you see /dev/rfcomm0 with the exact index returned by ps -Af | grep /dev/rfcomm above.

  • If your device is not there in the list, just type it manually.

    Select /dev/rfcomm0

  • After that, the connection should succeed and the Bluetooth button on the Hub should start shining blue.

Upload and run a test program

To test, whether it works, you can do some change in the test.py program, e.g. prolong the duration of the beep from 2000 to 5000 milliseconds:

# LEGO type:standard slot:5 autostart
import hub
hub.sound.beep(800, 5000, 0)

After saving the file, you can hit the ⭮ button to upload and autostart it to the Hub.

You should hear a five seconds beep if everything works correctly.

That’s it for making the Hub work on Fedora. I hope I was able to save you some time.

I am looking forward to your feedback via Twitter!

Further reading

For the actual programming you may find the following resources helpful:

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