For a description of the Application Programming Interface, i.e. how to code with this library, see:
Makeblock mBot uses standard RJ25 cables to attach sensors and motors to the controller.
Since LEGO Mindstorms NXT, LEGO also uses customized RJ25 cables to attach sensors and motors to the controller "brick". Those cables are similiar to those used by Makeblock with 2 crucial differences.
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Both the standard RJ25 cables and the customized LEGO cables have a plastic tab to provide a latching mechanism that secures the physical connection. On standard RJ25 cable plugs this tab is centered, where on LEGO cables this tab is on the left side of the plug.
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The pins of the plugs are used differently.
The sensors cables of both vendors provide wires for
- analog input
- ground (GND)
- power supply, aka Voltage common collector (VCC)
- I2C serial communication bus (SCL/SDA)
The table below maps the pinout of LEGO Mindstorms cables to the pinout ouf Makeblock mBot cables.
| Pin | Color | LEGO | Makeblock |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | white | analog input | analog input 1 |
| 2 | black | GND | analog input 2 |
| 3 | red | GND | VCC |
| 4 | green | VCC | GND |
| 5 | yellow | SCL | SDA |
| 6 | blue | SDA | SCL |
Therefore to use LEGO Mindstorms sensors and motors on Makeblock mBot we have to produce adapter cables.
We do this by replacing one plug of a LEGO Mindstorms cable by a standard RJ25 plug, using a standard RJ25 crimp tool. To match the different pinouts we twist each color pair once so the order of the colors in our standard plug becomes:
| Pin | Color |
|---|---|
| 1 | black |
| 2 | white |
| 3 | green |
| 4 | red |
| 5 | blue |
| 6 | yellow |