mBot upgrade with Auriga

#1

I have mBot (mCore). And I want to upgrade it.
Recently I bought Auriga board and some tracks.
And now, I have some questions…

1) IR related
On mBot it was easy to use remote control to drive robot in different directions. In Scratch, here was hexagon “IR remote __ pressed”. So, for going forward I used this simple code:

But when I select Auriga board, there is round edged shape “infrared receiver PORT”.
What does it mean? There is no built-in infrared receiver on Auriga board?
I must buy it separately?
Even if I buy IR receiver, how can I check if arrow-up is pressed?

2) Bluetooth related
I downloaded “Makeblock” application to my smartphone. And created simple program.
But smartphone application can not detect any Bluetooth device in the area.
Do I need to configure sometting on Auriga board?

3) Button related
On mBot there was easy to use button. For example, I want my robot wait until I press button, than go forward:

But on Auriga, there is no such possibility. It seems I need to buy additional module with buttons?

For what is used button in a midle of circle of LEDs?

#2

The round shape indicates a reporter block. The port number would be where the device is plugged in.

Here are the NEC codes (from MeInfraredReceiver.h):

/* NEC Code table */
#define IR_BUTTON_POWER     (0x45)
#define IR_BUTTON_A         (0x45)
#define IR_BUTTON_B         (0x46)
#define IR_BUTTON_MENU      (0x47)
#define IR_BUTTON_C         (0x47)
#define IR_BUTTON_TEST      (0x44)
#define IR_BUTTON_D         (0x44)
#define IR_BUTTON_PLUS      (0x40)
#define IR_BUTTON_UP        (0x40)
#define IR_BUTTON_RETURN    (0x43)
#define IR_BUTTON_E         (0x43)
#define IR_BUTTON_PREVIOUS  (0x07)
#define IR_BUTTON_LEFT      (0x07)
#define IR_BUTTON_PLAY      (0x15)
#define IR_BUTTON_SETTING   (0x15)
#define IR_BUTTON_NEXT      (0x09)
#define IR_BUTTON_RIGHT     (0x09)
#define IR_BUTTON_MINUS     (0x19)
#define IR_BUTTON_DOWN      (0x19)
#define IR_BUTTON_CLR       (0x0D)
#define IR_BUTTON_F     (0x0D)
#define IR_BUTTON_0     (0x16)
#define IR_BUTTON_1     (0x0C)
#define IR_BUTTON_2     (0x18)
#define IR_BUTTON_3     (0x5E)
#define IR_BUTTON_4     (0x08)
#define IR_BUTTON_5     (0x1C)
#define IR_BUTTON_6     (0x5A)
#define IR_BUTTON_7     (0x42)
#define IR_BUTTON_8     (0x52)
#define IR_BUTTON_9     (0x4A)

These are hexadecimal values that you will likely need to convert to decimal values for Scratch. Not sure if you know hexadecimal, but in essence it is a base sixteen numbering system using 0-9 for those values an A-F for the values 10-15. Converting to decimal would require multiplying the first number by 16 and then adding the second number. An example would be:

#define IR_BUTTON_3    (0x5E)

Discard the 0x, it merely denotes that the number is hexadecimal.
Multiply 5 times 16 and add 14 (the value for E)

    5 * 16 + 14 = 80 + 14 = 94

Not sure what’s going on with the Bluetooth. Make sure that your phone is not paired to another device and see if that fixes it.

The Auriga does not have an onboard button per se. The one in the LED ring controls power per the description (link). You would need to purchase the Me4Button module (link) and connect it to the Auriga.

Hope this helps. You can also include @tec_support on information requests like this. :slight_smile:

Regards,

Chuck

#3

I bought modules with IR receiver and 4 buttons.
And it works now.
We had a lot of fun yesterday…

@chuckmcknight Thank you for support!

#4

I have another question about Auriga.
What for is used port number 5?

Do you have any example?
Is it accessible from Scratch?

#5

The learn site (link) says it is a hardware serial port. I’m not sure whether or not it is accessible from Scratch. It might be from the Arduino extensions. @tec_support might be better able to answer this, but they’re out for Chinese New Year’s celebrations that started today and will go on for a bit.

#6

Yes,

The Port 5 is hardware serial port, it is not accessible from scratch directly.

#7