Load and start program from the EV3-G software Pro Preview

We will cover three ways to transfer your program from the computer to the robot.

  • #367
  • 04 Feb 2017
  • 1:16

Communication pane

In the lower right corner of the EV3 programming software there is the so-called communication pane.
To the very right of that pane, you see a red text EV3 and three icons shaped as an arrow, a triangle and a triangle in parentheses (round brackets).
Those three icons allow you to send the program to the robot, or in other words, to download the program to the brick.


Options to download the program to the Brick

  • Download (Vertical arrow downwards)

This is the recommended option to use. It will transfer your project and all its programs to the brick.
After the process is finished, you will hear a short sound from the brick.
Then, you must use the brick display and menus to find and start a program from the project.

  • Download and run (triangle icon, resembles play icon)

Be very careful with this one. If your robot is on a table, it might fall down and break. If used carefully, this option eliminates the need to navigate in the menus and manually start the program.
 A limitation of the usage of that option is the length of the cable and that the robot must be positioned at a safe and desired position beforehand.

  • Run selected (triangle icon in round brackets)

 All that you already know for the Download and Run option applies here as well. The difference is that the program will not start from the beginning but from any block you choose and will execute as many blocks as you have selected with the mouse, making a rectangle selection in the software. Hence, the name "Run selected blocks only".
 
 

Best practices

 Usually, students in a class should follow this process:

  • Understand the challenge;
  • Create a program with one or two blocks;
  • Connect the robot and use the Download option;
  • Find and choose the program;
  • Disconnect the robot and go to the starting position for the challenge marked on the floor;
  • Observe results and modify or extend the program (you will learn more about this in the next lesson)

 
This is why we recommend using the Download option.


An extra option to download and run

The green triangle in the very first rounded orange Start block of your program is also a button and is used to download and run that thread of the program to the robot.
Expect details about threads and how to use many threads later in the course.

English

We successfully dragged and dropped the block. We connected the brick to the computer. And you can see that the connection is successful right here

in the lower right corner of the software. And then we use the download and run button. Run selected or just download. So we have three different options to move this program from the EV3 software to the brick. And to tell the robot to execute it. First you can just use the download without running it directly and I advice you to do this because if you're running directly and the robot is on a table, it might fall. But if you are careful, you can use download and run and this will download the program and run it directly. And run selected will run only the selected block. For this simple program I'll just click on download and run.

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This Tutorial is used in the following courses and lessons

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