PoweredUP/Control+/Mindstorms Help

[The_Tinkerer]

I have several questions regarding PoweredUP/Control+ and Mindstorms, and as the Mindstorms help topic went down with the ship, I think I'll start a new one. Do all PoweredUP and Control+ motors work with the Mindstorms hubs, and vice versa? Further, do people use the 51515/45678 Mindstorms hub instead of the PoweredUP/Control+ hubs for the size and additional outputs? I realize the Mindstorms hubs are more expensive but they're still comparable to a Buwizz with additional ports and programmability. 

[howitzer]

22 minutes ago, The_Tinkerer said:

I have several questions regarding PoweredUP/Control+ and Mindstorms, and as the Mindstorms help topic went down with the ship, I think I'll start a new one. Do all PoweredUP and Control+ motors work with the Mindstorms hubs, and vice versa? Further, do people use the 51515/45678 Mindstorms hub instead of the PoweredUP/Control+ hubs for the size and additional outputs? I realize the Mindstorms hubs are more expensive but they're still comparable to a Buwizz with additional ports and programmability. 

Yes, the PU motors work fully with 51515 hub. And yeah, 51515 hub is also perfectly usable in place of the PU/C+ hub. I really don't see much reason to use the PU hub if you have/can afford the 51515 hub.

[gyenesvi]

3 minutes ago, howitzer said:

I really don't see much reason to use the PU hub if you have/can afford the 51515 hub.

While I believe that the hardware is fully compatible, I think the bottleneck is the software (which is sad). I bought the Mindstorms set with big hopes for that hub (and also for the motors and other sensors), but when I tried (a while ago) I was disappointed that Mindstorms hub was not supported by the Powered Up app. I learned that they use different Bluetooth technology: the Technic Hub uses Bluetooth Low Energy, while the Mindstorms hub uses Classic Bluetooth, so they require quite different software to connect. I am not sure if there was any progress in merging them (or if ever will be). I have only seen one technic MOC with the Mindstorms hub running with PU motors, but that was also controlled with the Mindstroms app (I guess for the same reason). But it may be worth giving the Mindstorms app another try (at the time my phone was not able to run it), and also as far as I remember it should be possible to connect a physical controller to it. I'd be interested if anybody has experience with that!

[howitzer]

10 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

While I believe that the hardware is fully compatible, I think the bottleneck is the software (which is sad). I bought the Mindstorms set with big hopes for that hub (and also for the motors and other sensors), but when I tried (a while ago) I was disappointed that Mindstorms hub was not supported by the Powered Up app. I learned that they use different Bluetooth technology: the Technic Hub uses Bluetooth Low Energy, while the Mindstorms hub uses Classic Bluetooth, so they require quite different software to connect. I am not sure if there was any progress in merging them (or if ever will be). I have only seen one technic MOC with the Mindstorms hub running with PU motors, but that was also controlled with the Mindstroms app (I guess for the same reason). But it may be worth giving the Mindstorms app another try (at the time my phone was not able to run it), and also as far as I remember it should be possible to connect a physical controller to it. I'd be interested if anybody has experience with that!

Well, I've done a bit of experimenting with this stuff and never used the PU app for anything, just the Mindstorms app, and all the motors work fine. Does the PU app offer some advantage over Mindstorms app or is there any reason why the latter couldn't be used except maybe the phone problem you mentioned?

[gyenesvi]

47 minutes ago, howitzer said:

Does the PU app offer some advantage over Mindstorms app

That's an interesting question, don't know, the Mindstorms app's programming interface seemed much more well designed. Wonder if it's possible to program simple servo steering, or a gearbox though. Have you tried something like that? The PU app has some predefined blocks, for example for servo steering.

Also, I have read somewhere that the Mindstorms app may have some lag when used for remote control, because the whole system was mainly designed for programs running on the hub itself, not for fast communication (though I don't remember if this was in relation to a physical remote controller, or for phone control as well).

[howitzer]

8 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

That's an interesting question, don't know, the Mindstorms app's programming interface seemed much more well designed. Wonder if it's possible to program simple servo steering, or a gearbox though. Have you tried something like that? The PU app has some predefined blocks, for example for servo steering.

Also, I have read somewhere that the Mindstorms app may have some lag when used for remote control, because the whole system was mainly designed for programs running on the hub itself, not for fast communication (though I don't remember if this was in relation to a physical remote controller, or for phone control as well).

No, I haven't tried those, would be interesting to do some testing. Also the possible lag aspect may be significant and warrants investigation. Too bad I don't have time for that at the moment :(