S2Bot and Sphero SPRK+

bmarlin

New Member
Hi. Has anyone been successful in getting the Sphero SPRK+ to work with S2Bot and the BLED112 adapter?

On OSX 10.11 with the native S2Bot app, I see the BLED112 serial port listed correctly as /dev/tty.usbmodem1 and have selected it as the "BLED112 Serial Port." When I select "Sphero" in the "Target" drop down menu and click "Connect", S2Bot indicates the connection is successful. However, none of the tests work and no lights on the SPRK+ come on. When I load sphero_template.sb2 in Scratch 2 after S2Bot indicates a successful connection, the extension blocks appear, and the Sphero extension connection indicator is showing green in the Scratch 2 More Blocks panel. However, none of the extension blocks work.

I believe the SPRK+ is actually identical to the BB8 and Ollie in terms of the communications protocol. Not surprisingly, the SPRK+ is not detected when selecting either BB8 or Ollie from the target menu.
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
The current Sphero option has been tested with the original Sphero and Sphero 2.0 and SPRK, which use 'traditional' bluetooth.

It appears SPRK+ uses BLE (like Ollie and BB8). We don't currently have one, so have not updated the app. If somebody wants to lend us one for a couple of weeks for testing we could probably support it.
 

stevesmythe

Senior Member
If I lent you an SBrick+ would you be able to add support for that to S2Bot? At present S2Bot only supports the output devices for SBrick.
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
We've added these devices to the new S2Bot release:

LEGO Boost
Sphero SPRK+
Vengit sBrick+ (option for 2 sensors on ports C and D)

Note that when using Sbrick or Sbrick+ you must now make sure they have the latest firmware (v18 or later) running.

www.picaxe.com/s2bot
 

stevesmythe

Senior Member
We've added these devices to the new S2Bot release:

LEGO Boost
Sphero SPRK+
Vengit sBrick+ (option for 2 sensors on ports C and D)

Note that when using Sbrick or Sbrick+ you must now make sure they have the latest firmware (v18 or later) running.

www.picaxe.com/s2bot
Brilliant! Thanks Technical. Unfortunately I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks so won't be able to try it till I get back.
 

stevesmythe

Senior Member
SBrick+ not detected

OK, back from holiday and I've tried the SBrick+ with S2Bot v8.0 Chrome App and can't get it to detect the SBrick+. For what it's worth, I couldn't get S2Bot 0.7.4 Chrome App to work either.

When I run S2Bot (with the BLED dongle inserted), I click "Scan for devices" and get the screenshot below.
2017-09-05.png

I have tested this on 3 PCs - one is Windows 7 and the other two are Windows 10. I have tested the SBrick+ using Vengit's iOS app, have updated the firmware to 18 and can control the SBrick+.

I have tried two different BLED dongles (both bought from RevEd).

Using the native Windows S2Bot, I can detect the SBrick+ and control output devices (but obviously not the inputs).

I don't know what else to try. As I said, I think the problem with the Chrome App started with 0.7.4 (possibly earlier) but I didn't follow it up because I preferred using native Windows app.

[Edit: I don't know if it's relevant but none of my 3 PCs has Bluetooth low-energy support]
[Edit2: I have now tried a 4th PC, this time with built-in BLE (but using BLED->COM3) and still have the same problem. I am now wondering whether there is some pre-requisite that RevEd has on their PCs that mine don't?]
 
Last edited:

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
The app is running fine, its just not 'seeing' the sbrick.

Have you updated the firmware on BOTH the sBrick and sBrick+ using the iOS app and then disconnected power from the brick (to reset it).
Update the sBrick as well and then make sure the vengit app is closed (in ios double tap home and drag app upwards off screen). If you leave it running in background sbrick may connect to iOS rather than the bled112.

Internal BLE support in the computer is irrelevant - its not used and has no use with S2Bot (but naturally the Sbrick must not be connected to any other device such as the iPad or computer internal bluetooth - sbricks can only communicate with one device at a time, and for s2bot that must be the BLED112 dongle).
 
Last edited:

stevesmythe

Senior Member
Firmware was already v18 but I re-updated it using the iOS app. I then restarted the SBrick+, quit the iOS app and turned off iOS Bluetooth so the SBrick+ isn't connected to anything. Then inserted BLED112 into PC and ran the S2Bot Chrome app and I still have the same problem. Then I tested the SBrick+ again using the iOS app and it works fine. Also tested SBrick+ using S2Bot Windows app and it works fine (outputs only)

So the problem, as you say, is that the S2Bot Chrome app is not seeing the SBrick+, whereas the S2Bot and the iOS apps are seeing it. Is there anything else I can do to test it with the S2Bot Chrome app?
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
Please email support at picaxe dot com and we will send you a debug build to see if we can see where it is going wrong.
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Your email was received (last week) and passed on to the appropriate people who are investigating and will report back when they have any further information on the issue.
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
For anyone else with this issue please make sure the sbrick is using the default name 'SBrick' (upper case S and B) rather than a custom name.
 

fellowbx

Member
S2Bot and Sphero mini

Hi. Has anyone been successful in getting the Sphero mini to work with S2Bot and the BLED112 adapter?

On Windows 10 with the S2Bot App v0.8.5, I see the BLED112 serial port listed correctly as COM3 and have selected it as the "Bluegiga Bluetooth Low Energy" When I select "Sphero mini/SPRK+" in the "Target" drop down menu and click "Scan for devices", But S2Bot App not responsed with "Scannning for Sphero...".

What should I check?
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
We don't have a mini here for testing but we believe it should work the same as SPRK+
 

fellowbx

Member
Thank you for your response.

Unfortunately I could not connect to my "sphero mini".

My BLED112 was working correctly, because the connection with my "micro: bit" succeeded.

Is the matter compatibility with firmware?
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
It's probably just not recognising your mini's name, so it then doesn't appear in the valid list of devices. Are you UK based?
 

fellowbx

Member
No, I have Japan based model.

The S2bot only recognizing the UK model by any chance?

if so, can I add my shpero mini name into the valid list of devices?
 

fellowbx

Member
This is great.
www.picaxe.com/s2bot

Identifiers are separated for each robot. Like "Sphero mini", "Sphero BB9", so very simple.

Moreover, How wonderful. API ver.2.
(snip)
0.8.6 Updated Sphero mini, BB9E, R2D2, R2Q5 to APIv2

This recognised my mini,and this worked correctly. I manipurated my Sphero mini on scratch.

S2bot 0.8.6 is super awesome app.

Thank you very much!
 

fellowbx

Member
S2Bot 0.8.6(Windows 10) is good condition.

Do you have a schedule for release cross-platform S2Bot(0.8.6)?

I have been having iMac(High Sierra) & raspberry pi 3+, but I can not start working on those platform.

I would highly appreciate if you could answer the presence or absence of a schedule.
 
Top