ROBOTC for EV3 Beta 1: Available Now!

It’s here!  The first beta of ROBOTC for EV3 has arrived!

It took a bit longer than we’d hoped for but the wait is over.  You can now program your EV3 with ROBOTC.  This is the first public beta and as with all betas, there will be some missing features and bugs.  The basic functionality is mostly all there:

• General Motor Support (unregulated movements)
• PID Motor Support (regulated movements)
• Encoder Support (reading encoders + moving to encoder targets)
• Full EV3 Sensor Support
• Limited NXT Device Support (basic sensors + motors)
• EV3 LED Support
• Normal ROBOTC features – Debugger, Multitasking, Variables, Debug Stream, etc.

There are things that haven’t been implemented fully or tested properly:

• Multiple Datasets for certain EV3 sensors (like Rate/Heading for Gyro)
• I2C / External Controller (TETRIX, MATRIX) Support
• LCD support (drawing/printing text)
• EV3 specific features (buttons, sounds)
• Bluetooth/Wifi specific commands
• Daisy Chaining EV3’s together and using daisy chained motors/sensors
• Downloading via Bluetooth/WiFi

The beta comes with several example programs to get your started.  The documentation is a work in progress and the APIs are subject to change as they’re being implemented.  I will also be working on porting the Driver Suite to ROBOTC 4.x for both NXT and EV3.  I’ve already got everything compiling, but nothing has been tested yet.

You can find the original announcement on the ROBOTC forums here: [LINK].  It also includes some links to get getting started documentation, known issues and a function reference.  These are “live documents” and will be updated as the beta program progresses.  You can expect a new beta build every 1 to 2 weeks, depending on the number of bugs that get found.  I will post about them on this blog.

So, rather than wasting any more time reading this article, why not download it and start playing with it?