Difference between revisions of "LEGO® WeDo Construction Set"

Revision as of 22:43, 26 May 2015

"Motor" redirects here. For the block category with that name, see Motor Blocks.

A LEGO WeDo robot being used with Scratch.

The LEGO® WeDo™ Construction Kit is a simple robotics tool designed for ages 7–11. It allows users to design their own interactive machines, and then program them using drag-and-drop software like Scratch.

In Scratch 2.0, you can add a LEGO WeDo extension within the "More Blocks" category. Click "Add an Extension" and choose "LEGO WeDo."

LEGO WeDo Parts

WeDo part	What it looks like	What you can use it to do
Motor		Make things turn
Light		These are LEGO Power Function lights that are not included in the WeDo kit, but can still be connected to the WeDo hub and controlled using Scratch.
Distance sensor		Interact by moving closer and further from this sensor
Tilt sensor		Interact by tilting this sensor
Hub		Connect the WeDo parts to your computer

LEGO WeDo with Scratch 2.0

The LEGO WeDo Construction Kit can be used with the online editor of Scratch 2.0 by adding an extension. The LEGO WeDo extension can be added within the "More Blocks" category. Click "Add an Extension" and choose "LEGO WeDo."

You need to install a plug-in to use any hardware extension. When you add the LEGO WeDo extension, the Tips window will open and give the link to the Extensions installation instructions.

Note: Scratch 2 offline editor now supports LEGO WeDo.

LEGO WeDo Extension Blocks

	Turns a specific motor or the lights on for a certain amount of time. There are five options for the block, listed as "motor", "motor A", "motor B", "light" and "everything".
	Turn a specific motor or the lights on indefinitely.
	Turn a specific motor or the lights off.
	This block sets the power of a specific motor or the lights, controlling the speed at which the motor is spinning or the brightness of the lights.
	This block sets the direction that a specific motor should turn with. There are three options for the direction, listed as "this way", "that way", and "reverse". The first two are equivalent to clockwise and counter-clockwise. Reverse switches the direction.
All motor blocks have a menu that allows you to control two WeDo motors and lights separately. If you have only one motor, use the "motor" option, which will control the motor regardless of where it is connected on the WeDo hub. If you have two motors which you want to control separately, you can use "motor A" with one and "motor B" with the other. "light" controls the lights regardless of where they are connected on the WeDo hub. "everything" controls all connected motors and lights.
	This hat block runs a script when the distance becomes less (or greater) than a specified value.
	This hat block runs a script when the tilt value becomes equal (or not equal) to a specified value. The tilt sensor returns 0-4, with 0 indicating not tilted, 1 tilted down, 2 tilted right, 3 tilted up, and 4 tilted to the left.
	It reports the distance sensor value.
	It reports the tilt sensor value.

LEGO WeDo with Scratch 1.4

The Motor blocks in 1.4.

To show the blocks to control the LEGO WeDo motors, click "Show Motor Blocks" in the Edit tab. They can be then found below within the Motion palette. Unlike the LEGO WeDo extension in Scratch 2.0, Motor Blocks cannot control two WeDo motors separately. Running a motor block will affect all the connected motors.

To report the values of the LEGO WeDo sensors, use the sensor value block which can be found in the Sensing palette.

See Also

• Motor Blocks to use LEGO WeDo with Scratch 1.4
• How to Connect to the Physical World

External Links

• LEGO WeDo resources and activities on ScratchEd website
• LEGO® Education WeDo Construction Set