Hello and welcome to this video. Maybe you own a LEGO Technic Control+ vehicle and you always wanted to use it with a physical remote because you don't want to use touch controls.
Or you always hesitated to buy a control+ vehicle because you never could use a physical remote,
you always had to use a smartphone to control it. But that's not anymore!
Now, it's possible to control vehicles and builds in general directly with the powered up remote.
You don't need any other device after the setup. It's possible with all of the powered up devices including control+. However there is a limit.
I can only make programs for the vehicles that I have. Don't panic. You have to upload a program to the hub.
I made programs so that you don't have to write your own one. But it only works for the
models that I have because I can't write/test a program for a model that I don't have. This uses pybricks.
For everyone who hasn't heard of it yet: it's possible to upload small python programs to the hubs. Then you can run them
locally without any other device after you uploaded them once. Since now,
it's possible to connect the hub directly to the powered up remote. You can connect the remote to a hub
that runs a python program locally. All of that might sound a bit technical but we will
follow the instructions step by step. I will also link an official guide by the
pybricks development team in the description. But this video should give you enough information to do this.
You can always write a comment if something doesn't work. Please write a timestamp and please write what you wanted to do and what the problem was so that I can help you.
For the installation, you'll need a BLE Bluetooth low energy compatible device that can use google chrome.
For the installation, you'll need a BLE Bluetooth low energy compatible device that can install the google chrome browser.
You can use your android smartphone or you can use your computer with windows
or linux or stuff like that. But now let's get to the actual uploading of the program.
Here we are again. I will use the edge browser from microsoft in this video but you can use
whatever browser you want as long as it's based on chrome. You can use
google chrome on android or windows or cromium... whatever you'd like to use. This is the website.
I will link this site and all the other ones in the description. Now, I will show all of the
steps that we will do. Step per step until the model can be remote controlled. First of all,
we can go into the settings. Here we can hide the documentation. It's this window on the right side.
It only takes space. We don't need the documentation because we won't
program in this video. We can hide it. Next, we will have to get the code for the set that we want to use. For that, you can go to this site. It has a list of sets that I made layouts for by the set number.
If you don't know the number, you can find it on the instructions or on the box or
you can go to the lego website and search for the model. In my case I can go to shop, sets by theme. I want to control the
control+ offroader so I can go to technic.
And I can go to the offroader. Now I can find the item number here.
It's 42099. Now I can go back to this site and open the code for 42099. Now here is a bit of text.
We can simply select it and copy it. We don't need to program anything ourselves, we only need to copy the
finished code for this model and paste it into the editor. Here we can paste it. Now we have to enable another feature.
We want to download the program to the hub. For that, we have to include it into
a firmware update. We can go to the settings, to firmware and then we can
select "include current program". This way, the code that's in this editor, will be included in the
the next firmware that we download to the hub. We will change the hub firmware so you won't be able to connect it to the powered up app or to the
control+ app anymore. But at the end of the video, I'll show you how to undo that. For now,
we can put the hub into the update mode. You can do that by pressing and holding the green button on the hub
until the lights blink purple. On the 2 port city hub, you might have to disconnect all of the devices
that are connected to the hub via cable. For the technic control+ hub, it's enough to press the green button
until the light blinks purple. Now we can go to this button "install pybricks firmware",
we can select lego bootloader and select pairing. Now it will start. Hold the green button until you see this simbol;
until it stats to upload the firmware. Then you can stop to press the green button. This will take a while.
I will make a cut and we will see us again when the firmware is uploaded to the hub.
This icon changed so the firmware update is completed. Now,
the program for the remote control is stored on the hub itself. We won't need the browser anymore.
We will switch back to the model. Here we are again. Now we can turn the device on. First we have to press the green button on the hub. Then it will turn on and it will detect
the motors. That can take a while so you have to wait a few seconds. Then you can press both at the same time,
the green button on the remote and the green button on the hub again. That will start the program
and start the motor calibration sequence. After the sequence you should be able to control your model. You can turn the
buttons around if the control is reversed.
To stop the program, you can press the green button on the hub. That will stop the program and then you can
press and hold the green button on the hub again to turn it off. It will be off if the blue LED
of the hub stops to blink. Now to the last part: how to get back to the original lego firmware to use the powered up app or the other apps again.
I will use the powered up app because that's compatible with most of the lego hubs. That will make it easier to download the update.
Or to download the original firmware. Now I have to go back into the update mode.
Keep in mind to disconnect the cables from the 2 port city hub. I don't have to do that here because
this is the control+ hub. Now I can press and hold this button until the light starts to blink in purple again. I can go into any layout and connect the hub.
That will start the update process. That was it for this video. Keep in mind that I'm always
open for suggestions and for problems that you had. Feel free to tell them in the comments. Also, you can make your own layouts if you can program a bit.
Please send me programs for models that aren't listed on the repo. I'd love to add them.
For now thanks for watching, see you in the next video and bye.