WeDo
LEGO Education's entry system in two generations: WeDo 1.0 from 2009, whose hub hangs on the end of a USB cable, and WeDo 2.0 from 2016, whose SmartHub answers over Bluetooth. That Bluetooth is the one link in either generation, and it is not the modern one: the 2.0 hub predates LWP 3 and answers on an older service.
Reach
| Capability | State | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Drive motors and read sensors from a computer or tablet | works, untested here | LEGO's own software for each generation: 1.0 over USB, 2.0 over Bluetooth |
| Connect to a 2.0 hub from other software | works, untested here | BrickController2 carries a device class for the older service; lego-blockly lists both generations beside Interface A/B, RCX and LPF2 |
| Find a 2.0 hub with a tool written for modern hubs | out of reach | it answers on a different Bluetooth service, so a client that only knows the LWP 3 hub service finds nothing to talk to |
| Notice something in front of the motion sensor | works, untested here | also sold as a distance sensor: it emits infrared and measures the reflection |
| Reach it from this project | out of reach | nothing in the WeDo system hears light, so reaching it is Bluetooth work rather than optical work |
| Read a heading or a beacon through that sensor | out of reach | proximity and nothing else, with no beacon and no remote behind it, unlike the EV3 sensor's remote mode |
| Read tilt | works, untested here | the tilt sensor is not optical |
| Program a hub by shining light at it | out of reach | the optical part is an input that hands a value to a running program; neither generation has an optical command channel |
| Drive it from Flash Force or the bridge | out of reach | neither speaks the older service, and there is nothing optical to aim at |
What it hears
Bluetooth, both ways, and only in the 2.0 generation. The hub is a peripheral a central connects to, the same shape as a Powered Up hub, but the service and the frames are the older WeDo 2.0 ones rather than LWP 3; the identifier and the byte-level detail for that family sit in LWP (Powered Up BLE). WeDo 1.0 has no radio at all: the hub is on a USB cable and the computer is the controller.
Nothing else reaches either generation. The motion sensor's infrared is light thrown at the room and read back by the sensor itself, not a channel anyone can speak on, and there is no infrared receive mode and no light-programmed mode of any kind. Of the ways in that How the links work lists, a WeDo hub is on exactly one, and it is not an optical one: a Micro Scout can be programmed by light and a WeDo hub cannot.
Reaching it today
LEGO Education's own software is the least effort for either generation, and it is what the sets were sold with. For a 2.0 hub from your own code, BrickController2 is the reference: it has a device class for the older service, and its source is the fullest public collection of hub Bluetooth protocols. In a browser, lego-blockly drives both generations alongside the older interfaces.
Links
- 9580 WeDo 1.0 (Rebrickable) · 45300 WeDo 2.0 Core Set (Rebrickable · LEGO Education).
- Software that reaches a 2.0 hub: BrickController2 · lego-blockly.
- The Bluetooth family, and where the older service is named: LWP (Powered Up BLE).
- Compare: EV3, the same proximity idea with a beacon and a remote behind it · NXT · Powered Up.