Mblock vs. Scratchbot

#1

I’m on a mac running Mac OSX.9

I initially tried to get the Makeblock robots working at the end of March to no success. At that time, I downloaded the Scratchbot program. I retried everything yesterday, and there is a new version (Mblock) now out for the Mac operating system.

It seems to be working fine.

One question I have is that once you connect via the usb cable, there is an option to install arduino drivers. When you use that option, it takes me to Github and the drivers there are all dated from 2012. They are older than the arduino drivers you get when you click on “Install Arduino drivers” on the makeblock.cc site under downloads and drivers. So I’m ignoring this feature for now. Has anyone tried this?

Thanks,
Tom

#2

When I saw your other post, I downloaded (for Windows) Mblock. The installer told me I had another version already (2.0.23) and gave me some options about installing the one I downloaded (2.1.5). However, I do not have Mblock; I do have Scratchbot. “Mblock vs. Scratchbot” leads to to believe these are two different programs, I am not sure there are two different programs, unless one is the name used on windows and the other is the name used on Macs.

Or maybe if I installed 2.1.5 it would be called Mblock?

#3

I think Mblock is the more recent version of Scratchbot.

#4

Also, the install Arduino drivers option (within Mblock) seems to be to install drivers for the serial port for Orion/Arduino. The more recent drivers elsewhere on this site are more recent than the ones that mblock points to, so I’m thinking this option should be ignored (or makeblock.cc should update it).

#5

Makes sense; thanks. As long as I have my starter tank robot working, and as long as I can upload test sketches with the Arduino IDE and then get the BT controlled tank working again, I am not going to risk an “update.” Well, maybe when I get tired of driving the tank around a few minutes before bed!!

#6

I’m new to the forum, sorry for jumping in. I am running a Mac 10.7.5. I’m trying to play around with the Makeblock Inventor kit - the Orion board. I downloaded mBlock (the panda), and I’ve had Arduino 1.0.5 loaded. I’ve had limited success. mBlock works ok. It will open a newer version of Arduino 1.6 something that I believe came in the mBlock package. I can’t get it to upload to the Orion board. I can’t get Arduino 1.0.5 to load either. It doesn’t have the Orion board as a choice under boards. I’ve loaded everything I could find… maybe that was the problem. Any suggestions?
I was able to load script from mBlock (not Arduino IDE) successfully, but I want it all to work.
Any help appreciated.

#7