Default mBot Program Versions. What is the latest? And a lesser gripe

#1

TL;DR:
-is the latest version of the default program “1.2.103”?
-my robot reports version “06.01.009” is this an old version?
-why isn’t the default code source in the downloads section? or did i miss it?

Hello I just got an mBot for my family. I wanted to Start by making some changes to the default program and was a bit surprised that it didn’t ship with any obvious ways to get the source code. A quick trip to google and I got the source from git and that seems to be the only available way to obtain it. So I unzipped it and looked for the version number within. The 4 year old source code I found has a version string of 1.2.103; however, the mBot itself reports 06.01.009 over serial. Is 06.01.009 an old beta version?

Just a quick gripe: While I understand you are meant to make your own programs and not really play about with the default program but i feel that circuit bending and reverse engineering are good skills to have as a programmer. More often than not i am reading through someone elses code and looking at a schematic than building something from scratch in the real world. I just found it a bit strange that the default source code isn’t part of the downloads section and i had to search off site for it.

Thank you for listening.

#2

Hi!

I don’t work for Makeblock, but I’ll toss out a couple of comments from my experience with the mBot. When Makeblock began to produce the mBot, it’s target audience looked like elementary aged students so mBlock (Scratch) was provided as a way to get them started. While you can certainly program the Arduino Uno-esque board with the Arduino IDE using the Makeblock libraries, I don’t think it was anticipated that older (middle/high school/university) students or adults would be doing so. Perhaps it was a bit naive but that’s likely why the default program was not included but simply made available to be reloaded via the mBlock IDE.

Not sure if you’d be interested, but I published an eBook focused on using mBlock to program the mBot that starts with turning LEDs on and off and finishes with a program that allows the mBot to do maze-solving. I use the proceeds of the book sponsor local kids robotics activities, not for my own projects. If you’re interested, the link to the book is here.

As soon as my son starts being able to drive himself I’ll get back on the second volume that goes into using the Arduino IDE to program the mBot, but that’s a few months away. :frowning:

#3

I really appreciate your response! I agree that my gripe could be out of scope but I really do think that abstraction should be guided. I learned by reverse engineering and in real world practice you will almost always be dealing with OPC/Design. I just really would like to see the latest source code prominently displayed for us to pick apart. The schematic is not super up to date either.

Ill check out your ebooks they sound super cool. thanks for the feeback anyway!

#4

Here we have mBot firmware:


Which released one year ago and its version is V06.01.009.

#5

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