Tag: Lego

  • Tech Item : Lego EV3 WiFi Setup with Netgear WMA1100 dongle

    The Lego EV3 brick is supposed to be “WiFi enabled”.
    What this actually means is that the Linux kernel in the brick supports exactly 1 Wifi-chipset, the one in the Nethear WMA1100.

    Lego sells this part for $40 + shipping, but is in fact the Netgear WMA1100, that can be had for far far less than this.

    20131208-001910.jpg

    I bought one here in The Netherlands for €20, including shipping, and if you have time, you can get it for far less than that, but I didn’t. Because I had this brand new EV3 sitting on my desk, with a handful of Bluetooth dongles, and the bloody thing was as reluctant as the NXT to talk to my laptop! Lego. Go shame yourself!!!!

    So the first thing I did was Google till I found the answer, and here is a resume of what I discovered:
    – if you insert the dongle when it’s on, it won’t work!!!!

    – get a Netgear WMA1100
    – shutdown EV3
    – insert the dongle IN THE EV3, not your PC or Mac!!!!
    – this is because the EV3 doesn’t have Wifi! it needs the dongle to get on the air!
    – boot the EV3
    – go into the EV3 wifi menu
    – enable the adapter
    – connect it to your wifi network
    – (wma2 enabled probably)
    – the led on the dongle will start flashing happily!!!
    – the Mindstorm software will now see the Brick
    – AND IT WILL FINALLY CONNECT

    Wow, that was three freakin’ years of NXT-Bluetooth frustration written of of me 🙂

    I’ll try to complete this with pictures and AD-HOC wifi,

    Thanks for your attention, enjoy Lego!

    Lars