This is something probably everybody knows but me. 

I built a little car - the Hub, two motors, two wheels, small front wheel, that's it. Got it to run almost immediately - run forward for 1 rotation, wait 1 sec, run backward for 1 rotation, wait 1 sec, wash rinse repeat. Simple little car, simple program, and it works. 

If I then unplug the hub from the USB cable, it keeps the program running, as I expected. 

If I then power down the hub, carry it someplace else, and power it back on without the computer, the program is still inside the hub, right? How do I get it to start the program back up without the USB cable attached? And can I stop the program without completely powering off the hub?

I know the buttons are programmable, of course. But if I haven't programmed them to do any specific action, do they have a "default" action when pressed?

The old EV3 had button sequences to do just that. Does the 51515 hub have such button sequences?

A more general question is, Is there a manual or list of instructions somewhere, that details what the "default" button sequences are for the 51515 Hub? Turn on, turn off (I know those two), start program, halt program, etc.?

Thanx all!

When you press the Play button in the app, the program is transferred to one of the program slots in the hub, for example program 1. Then when you disconnect your hub from the USB cable, the left and right buttons will allow you to select the program slot (program number appears on the hub). Pressing the middle button runs the program, and pressing the middle button again stops the program.

Your little car seems a lot like the basic Tricky robot to me. Try going through the Tricky robot missions, hopefully they will help you.

 

Edited December 30, 20204 yr by Coder Shah

Here's the simple robot (see picture below). 

Tried what you said, and found something strange. Pressing the center big button turns the hub on (as I knew). Then when I press the right button, both wheels start turning forward slowly (maybe 25% speed?). Pressing the right button again speeds them up some (50%?). Again, and 75%, again, apparently full speed, further right button presses do nothing more. Press the left button, they slow down somewhat, next left press they slow down more, etc. to Zero. Next press they go slowly in reverse, then more in reverse, etc.

A cute program, except... I never wrote that program. Where'd it come from??? 

First time out of the box, I charged the battery with a USB power cube from an old phone, it took all night before the little light by the USB-C port turned green. Then plugged it into a laptop Windows computer. It made me update the hub and then the motors. And I found (by accident) there was some kind of demo program in there. Could that be it?

 Is there a manual or list of instructions somewhere, that details what the "default" button sequences are for the 51515 Hub? 

 

Well, that took some wrestling to get two leetle pictures into one post. I guess I can't attach more than 96kB into the entire thread? 

Hmm, now I see the system combined two consecutive posts from me with no intervening post from someone else, into one post from me. Guess I can't attach more than 96k into one post, is all.

Live and learn.

Edited December 30, 20204 yr by Roboteer

34 minutes ago, Roboteer said:

 

Tried what you said, and found something strange. Pressing the center big button turns the hub on (as I knew). Then when I press the right button, both wheels start turning forward slowly (maybe 25% speed?). Pressing the right button again speeds them up some (50%?). Again, and 75%, again, apparently full speed, further right button presses do nothing more. Press the left button, they slow down somewhat, next left press they slow down more, etc. to Zero. Next press they go slowly in reverse, then more in reverse, etc.

A cute program, except... I never wrote that program. Where'd it come from??? 

When you press the center button to start up your hub, you'll see a play icon on the LED matrix. Pressing the center button again at this point starts the built-in test program (you'll see the LEDs on the hub light up where you plugged in your motors) and allows you to do simple motor control by pressing the left and right buttons. Press the center button again to exit the built-in test program and press the right button again to access program 0, 1, 2 etc.

The SPIKE Prime hub has a similar program but it uses a heart icon instead. You can see a demo here:

 

 

34 minutes ago, Roboteer said:

First time out of the box, I charged the battery with a USB power cube from an old phone, it took all night before the little light by the USB-C port turned green. Then plugged it into a laptop Windows computer. It made me update the hub and then the motors. And I found (by accident) there was some kind of demo program in there. Could that be it?

Not very likely. The first demo program in the app should be transferred to the hub in the normal way (see the number to the left of the Play button in the app to identify the slot).

34 minutes ago, Roboteer said:

 Is there a manual or list of instructions somewhere, that details what the "default" button sequences are for the 51515 Hub? 

Not that I know of. I know that if the hub is off, pressing the center button turns it on, and holding and pressing the center button when the hub is on turns it off. Pressing the left and right buttons allow you to choose between the built-in test program and the programs you loaded on the hub.

Pressing the center button when the Play icon is displayed on the hub runs the built-in test program, pressing the left and right buttons when the test program is running speeds up and slows down the motors, and pressing the center button again stops the built-in test program.

34 minutes ago, Roboteer said:

Well, that took some wrestling to get two leetle pictures into one post. I guess I can't attach more than 96kB into the entire thread? 

Ideally you'll want to host your pictures on a dedicated hosting service such as Flickr, and post links here. 

Edited December 30, 20204 yr by Coder Shah

A lot of information on the SPIKE hub can also be found at:

https://education.lego.com/en-us/product-resources/spike-prime/teacher-resources/video-tutorials

Edited December 30, 20204 yr by NikosSprocket

Thank you, CoderShah and NikosSprocket! Very useful information!

Where on Earth do you guys get this stuff? Just by asking other knowledgeable people (as I am doing now)? Then where did THEY get it?

Hard to imagine that someone just sat there for hours diddling around with their new Robot Inventors hub, pressing random buttons here and there, and figuring out what the buttons do, what the various numbers on the screen mean, etc. out of the blue sky. Are there ANY coherent list(s) of "51515 Tricks and Tips" style documentation anywhere? I'd love to find some, so I don't have to keep bugging you guys with my incessant questions.

ON EDIT:

Well, may as well ask a few more Q's. 

1.) What's the smaller round button on the hub (in the corner next to Port B) for? Can you read it in a program like you can the large button, right and left etc.?

2.) Is there a way to erase all the programs I put in the hub? And/or, is it possible to reset the hub to original factory condition (except for updates to the hub firmware)? All programs gone except for the default(s) that were in it when I first opened the box?

Edited December 30, 20204 yr by Roboteer

4 hours ago, Roboteer said:

Where on Earth do you guys get this stuff? Just by asking other knowledgeable people (as I am doing now)? Then where did THEY get it?

Sources of information:

1. The tutorials and activities within the app (start with Tricky, that's probably the easiest)
2. Robot Inventor FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindstormsrobotinventor
3. Primelessons https://primelessons.org/en/
4. Googling '51515 Robot Inventor'

4 hours ago, Roboteer said:

1.) What's the smaller round button on the hub (in the corner next to Port B) for? Can you read it in a program like you can the large button, right and left etc.?

That button makes the hub discoverable so the app can connect to it over Bluetooth.

4 hours ago, Roboteer said:

2.) Is there a way to erase all the programs I put in the hub? And/or, is it possible to reset the hub to original factory condition (except for updates to the hub firmware)? All programs gone except for the default(s) that were in it when I first opened the box?

Clicking the hub icon in the app shows a screen that allows you to delete the programs within the hub. I'm not sure about the factory reset though, but since you can only put in 20 programs in total it's not that hard to erase all your programs.

On 12/30/2020 at 6:15 AM, Roboteer said:

Guess I can't attach more than 96k into one post, is all.

Read the forum guidlines on how to post images, photos, videos.

100K is only for your avatar image.