Exploring the Hub - Part 1 Connecting the Hub to Your Computer

One of the first things I wanted to do was to connect to the hub and have a dig around. I especially wanted to see what Python modules were on there, to see if there were any that were not documented in the Lego App help screens.

To access the hub (on a Windows 10 PC), follow these steps:

1) Download and install PuTTy  (can be found at:  https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

2) Determine which port the Mindstorms hub is connected to:

    a) Connect your hub to your computer using the USB cable that was in the set. Turn the hub on.

    b) From the search bar at the bottom left of your desktop type “Device Manager”. Click on the app and press enter to open it.

Device Manager

    c) Look for “Ports (COM & LPT) and click on the arrow to the left of it to expand.  If you only had the one connection, as in the screenshot below (USB Serial Device(COM3)), then you know where the hub is.  If you have more that one COM listed, disconnect the USB cable from your hub and see which one disappears. Plug the hub back in and it should come back again. Remember which COM port the hub is connected to.

3) Now open PuTTY.

The PuTTY icon

     a) Select Serial from the radio buttons.

    b) In the Serial line box enter the COM port the hub is connected to.

    c) Leave the speed, or type 9600.

Enter the information in PuTTY

    d) Click the Open button at the bottom.

    e) If you have connected correctly, you should see a window with a black background and lots of scrolling numbers.

Success! Connected to the hub

If not try the above again.

These numbers are the live data being reported from the hub – the built in gyroscope and any connected sensors.  Try moving the hub or putting something near the sensors and notice that the numbers change,

To stop the scrolling press <CTRL> + C on your keyboard.

In part 2 of Exploring the hub, we'll look around to see what information we can find!