Writing a program

After we attach the cables, we will be ready to write a program to make the motor spin. Connect the motor to port D on your EV3 brick. Turn on your EV3 brick by pressing the dark gray button in the center of the brick.

After you start up the EV3 software, navigate to File | New Project | Program. This will start up a new program. You could easily start one of the many LEGO tutorials at this point. We will start with a blank sheet. The startup menu you see in the following screenshot is the main difference between the Home Edition version of the software and the Educational Edition. Additionally, the Home Edition does not allow you to do experiments.

You will see several icons at the bottom of the screen on the green Action tab of the Programming Palette. Drag a Large Motor block (encircled in red in the following screenshot) onto the Programming Canvas and place it next to the Start block.

Although not required, you can add a Stop block at the end of the program. You can find the Stop block on the dark blue Advanced tab of the Programming Palette, as added in the following screenshot:

We will now set up the Large Motor block:

The motors have built-in shaft encoders that can tell how far the motors have rotated.

Your EV3 brick should be powered on. Make sure your robot is connected to your computer via the USB cable. Next, click on the Download and Run button. Your large gear will make two complete rotations, and the small gear will make six complete rotations. You can also run it by clicking on the Start block.