There's nothing basic about Lego Mindstorm EV3 Basic

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Let's take two of our favorite teach, and just all around fun, tools, Lego Mindstorm EV3 and Small Basic and combine them into one awesome project!

Ed Price shares EV3 Basic!

Lego Mindstorms EV3 extension for Small Basic - EV3 Basic!!!


Using the EV3 extension for Small Basic 1.2, you can use Small Basic to program your Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots! This is a great next step for teachers and parents looking to lay the groundwork on their kids' futures and careers. Lego Mindstorms is a big step toward engineering and computer development, and programming your robots on Small Basic is an even bigger one!

This awesome extension comes from Reinhard Grafl with a ton of tooling and content support developed by Nigel Ward:


Why is this a perfect combination... a match made in heaven?

  1. Small Basic & the EV3 Basic extension are free! ...
  2. Small Basic is the only educational software that teaches actual text-based programming. ...
  3. Small Basic is in 20 languages! ...
  4. EV3 Basic is the Easiest Installation!! ...
  5. Small Basic teaches you as you type! ...
  6. Small Basic Social Features! ...
  7. Small Basic Graphics Window ...
  8. Small Basic's Sound Object & EV3's Speaker Object ...
  9. Better Handling of Variables ...
  10. Small Basic's Text and TextWindow Objects ...
  11. Built-In Support for I2C Communications and UART
  12. "Easy-In, Ease-Out" Motions for Motors ...
  13. Synchronized Wheel Motions ...
  14. Assert Function ..
  15. Advanced Thread Management ...
  16. Read RGB Values from the Color Sensor ...
  17. Vector Functions ...
  18. Advanced Matrix Functions ...
  19. EV3 Basic Robots Run Faster! ...
  20. EV3 Makes No Changes to the EV3 Brick
  21. Bluetooth & WiFi Support!
  22. No Need to Download Programs to the Brick ...
  23. EV3 Explorer ...
  24. EV3Basic.com ...

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In total, the EV3 Basic extension offers 10 new objects to Small Basic:

  1. Assert
  2. Buttons
  3. EV3
  4. EV3File
  5. LCD
  6. Motor
  7. Sensor
  8. Speaker
  9. Thread
  10. Vector

This is amazing! EV3 Basic with Small Basic is free and great in every possible way! These are tremendous advantages over all the other EV3 options!

So try out the EV3 extension over at...


Think of it as a next step for your students as they graduate from the Mindstorms EV3 software and are ready to start learning a text-based programming language that can help change their lives by opening up future career opportunities!

[Make sure to click through to read Ed's entire post]
EV3 Basic







...EV3 Basic i.e. Microsoft Small Basic with the the EV3 extension. The extension allows Small Basic to interact with the Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot. EV3 Basic is probably the easiest way to learn to program the Lego EV3 robot with a textual programming language, the kind professional programmers use. This site has dozens of sample EV3 Basic programs, several helpful videos, advice on setting up BlueTooth or WiFi connections, a copy of the official EV3 Basic manual and an introduction to the companion program, EV3 Explorer. The EV3 Basic Intellisense documentation and manual are available in English, French, Spanish,German and Russian. EV3 Basic is compatible only with Windows PCs. Furthermore, EV3 Basic is for the EV3, so it won't work with the Lego NXT robot.

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So, wouldn't it be great if the fun of working with the world's easiest-to-learn textual programming language could be combined with the fun of working with Lego Mindstorms robots? Since early 2015, this is now possible, thanks to the free EV3 extension for Small Basic developed by Reinhard Grafl. The extension allows you to write Small Basic programs that can interact with the EV3's motors, sensors, speaker, screen and buttons. Better yet, the programs can be run on the EV3 simply by clicking the 'Run' button in Small Basic, as long as the EV3 is connected to the PC with a USB cable or Bluetooth orWifi. It's not even necessary to download your program into the EV3's memory storage, though you can do that if you want to using the separate 'EV3 Explorer' program and this is fact the recommended way of working if you are using a wireless connection. Another advantage of using EV3 Basic is that it allows you to write programs that could not be made using the standard Lego programming interface, such as the second program on this page. The icing on the cake? EV3 Basic does not require you to prepare a special 'bootable SD card' or to modify the EV3's firmware - it works with the unmodified EV3 brick! Let's be clear: EV3 Basic is probably the easiest way to learn to program the Lego EV3 robot with a textual programming language!

So what does the EV3 Basic graphical user interface look like? Here is a sample program that would make a robot move forwards until the ultrasonic sensor detects that an object is less than 80mm away, then the robot plays a tone and displays a message on its LCD screen for 2 seconds. Notice how simple the interface is, with very few items in the toolbar:



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