Pybricks brings Python-like coding to programmable LEGO bricks, and transforms remote-controlled smart hubs into truly autonomous robots.
Pybricks builds on MicroPython, which is an efficient
Python implementation that runs on microcontrollers. Pybricks expands
MicroPython with new powerful drivers for LEGO devices
including motors and sensors. It also adds the pybricks package, which makes
it easy for end-users to access those devices and all the features of the smart
hubs.
Are you a beginning user?
Start by visiting our website and the documentation.
Are you a developer or just super curious?
Read on!
- LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3: You can get the community-supported 2.0 beta version as part of the latest ev3dev snapshot. The docs reveal tons of exciting new features. LEGO Education has also tested and approved version 1.0, which is available through their website.
- LEGO BOOST Move Hub (
MoveHub): Although not all hub features are supported yet, this firmware already works very well. We're just working on getting the PC app ready too, so you can start writing code. - LEGO Technic Control+ Hub (
CPlusHub): This hub works just as well as theMoveHub, but we haven't finished implementing Bluetooth support yet, which means that it's not ready for everyday users yet. - LEGO City Train Hub / Powered Up (
CityHub): Same progress asCPlusHub.
- LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Hub (
PrimeHub): This hub is even more powerful than the other new hubs listed above. If we support it, we will first focus on functionality shared with the others, like motors and sensors. Other SPIKE-specific functionality like the light matrix or Bluetooth classic will be saved for later. We recommend that beginning users start with the official LEGO apps. Read more about the differences here.
We hope that LEGO continues to develop new smart hubs. As long as its firmware can be upgraded, there's a good chance that Pybricks will support that hub in the near future.
Most Pybricks users will not need to do anything with this source code. We provide pre-built firmware files with every release on our site, pybricks.com.
But since you're reading this, you might be interested in building the code yourself, or start tweaking and hacking. We don't have step-by-step guides for installing all the developer tools just yet.
We are actively contributing to upstream MicroPython instead of forking it into a whole new project.
To streamline development and releases, we do maintain a fork of micropython
here. It essentially just adds the repository that you
are reading right now, as a git submodule. It also adds a few minor patches.
Every once in a while, that repository gets updated with all the latest and
greatest that upstream micropython has to offer.
Summing up:
pybricks/micropython: fork of upstream MicroPython that is included as a submodule in the mainpybricks/micropythonrepository.pybricks/pybricks-micropython: Main repo for all Pybricks firmware. This has a continuous master branch that never breaks.
This project uses submodules. However we don't recommend using the
--recursive option of git since it will clone unnecessary dependencies.
Instead, the required submodules will be automatically cloned the first time
you run make.
git clone https://github.com/pybricks/pybricks-micropython
Pybricks includes not just firmware for each LEGO hub, but also various tools, documentation, and fun projects. Here's an overview of the other repositories:
pybricks-api: This is the Pybricks user API. It documents thepybrickspackage that comes preinstalled in our firmware. This repository doesn't contain any real code. The real package is written in C and baked into the firmware. This repo just helps us design and document the user Python API without getting into too much implementation details. Don't want to build it? View the web version here.pybricks-projects: This is a broad collection of end-user MicroPython scripts that you can run! This includes example snippets and projects for official LEGO models and custom made ones.
Like MicroPython, Pybricks can run on just about every device that lets
you update the firmware. And we could not resist doing just that, so there's
more than just the bricks above. But getting to a point where it is easy to
use for everyday users takes quite a bit more work,
so not all bricks in /bricks will be supported officially for now.
We agree, and that's why we do not fork, but expand and help improve MicroPython. Check out the development section to see what this means in terms of source code.
This section instead aims to clarify the differences with other LEGO-compatible MicroPython variants.
Combined, these aspects make Pybricks truly unique:
- Pybricks can run on all upgradeable bricks and smart hubs.
- Pybricks has the same end-user API across all platforms.
- Pybricks user scripts run autonomously on all hubs, instead of being remote-controlled by an external device. This is about 100x faster.
- Pybricks device drivers are written in C and built into the MicroPython firmware, instead of being written in Python user-space. This makes them memory efficient and much faster.
- Pybricks comes with precise motor control and drive base synchronization tools, and easy ways to use them.
- Pybricks makes sensors and motors cross-platform compatible. If the cable fits, then it should just work.
The following sections go into some more detail of other solutions for various platforms.
This one's easy, because it's the same: The official LEGO Education EV3 MicroPython solution uses the Pybricks library running on ev3dev.
LEGO Education has tested and approved version 1.0, to make sure it works well for teachers, students, and hobbyists. We hope that version 2.0 will eventually also be approved. It is currently in community beta.
ev3dev is based on Debian Linux, which lets you access LEGO motors and sensors by reading from and writing to system files. This has spurred many developers to create language-specific libraries that do this for you.
The main differences between these implementations compared to Pybricks are points 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 listed above. However, they let you use the EV3 with other programming languages, notably including Python 3 using ev3dev lang Python. This can be beneficial if your project requires libraries that MicroPython does not have.
We think it's super exciting that LEGO is also working on MicroPython.
A Pybricks version for SPIKE Prime is under consideration as well. It would work just like our other Pybricks firmwares. Notable differences with the official firmware would be points 1, 2, and 6 listed above. At the same time, this means that not all SPIKE Prime features will initially be supported.
We recommend that especially teachers and students start with the official apps and MicroPython solutions provided by LEGO. Anyone who wants to take the next step is welcome to try Pybricks.
If you've got an EV3 Brick, the best way to help right now is to try out the new 2.0 community beta. Much of its code is shared with the other hubs. So if you share your findings or issues, we can fix them for all hubs at once, including for the ones that are not released yet!