I'm working on a project using the ev3 brick and sensors. However I would like to try out some of the newer spike prime sensors without replacing the engine yet. Does anyone know if it's possible to buy or build something that would allow me to attach a spike prime sensor as a custom sensor to my ev3 brick? My options could include using a raspberry Pi as a translator if necessary, but obviously I would prefer a simple cable adapter. For now I'm not super concerned with bulkiness.. mostly just want to test stuff. Thanks in advance for your help.

Edited March 10, 20213 yr by benwiley4000

Kind of. EV3 has 5V on pin 4 whereas Powered Up has 3.3V on pin 4. So you would need to be sure that this won't damage the sensor (LEGO education has some technical specs on the sensors that might give some insight). Also, the Powered Up sensors have expanded the UART sensor protocol, so EV3 won't be able to do things like enable multi-mode on the sensors. Also, sensors with lights need battery power on pin 1. The EV3 is technically capable of doing this, but existing software only enables this feature for NXT I2C sensors, not UART sensors.

So I said "sensor" but actually I'm particularly interested in using is the medium angular motor, so not a sensor. Although I want to use it to detect rotation, so as a sensor. Would this work ok do you think? (assuming the voltage is ok)

On Powered Up, pins 5 and 6 on motors with position feedback are UART like EV3 sensors rather than EV3 motors. So to detect rotation, these pins would have to be connected to an input port on the EV3 rather than an output port. If you want to drive the motor with the EV3, pins 1 and 2 would have to be connected to an output port on the EV3. Also, the comment about 5V vs. 3.3V on pin 4 still applies. On EV3, pins 3 and 4 on both input and output ports are the same.

I also don't know how the motors would respond to EV3 sensor mode requests since on Powered Up they are used exclusively in multi-mode to get speed, position and absolute position all at the same time. EV3 would only be able to read one of these at a time. Theoretically it should work, but I doubt that part of the motor firmware was ever tested much.

Thanks for all the info!