EV3 Platform - High level description of how things work please!

[nicommunityusername]

Hello,

I am an FLL coach for 3 teams that use the EV3 Mindstorms software to program their EV3s.  The software is great but almost too great.

One of the issues I find is team members can program their EV3 robots but have zero idea what is going on behind the scenes.

I think it would be very helpful if they had some insight into this process so they can appreciate the awesome GUI that isolates them from all the hard work.

I tried contacting NI engineers via customer support but was informed that a) the EV3/Labview products isn't staffed until January? b) if they were available they wouldn't provide anything like this because it would somehow give our team an unfair advantage and c) try the discussion forums.

About a):

Obviously LabView has support staff throughout the year that could tackle this topic

About b):

Anything that was placed on the Internet would be available to all teams that have access to the Internet.  I asked for the information to be posted somewhere such that anyone could find it if they wanted it.  I doubt knowing the behind the screnes processes would give anyone an advantage at an FLL tournament.  I am certain this information would help to show future engineers that what they were doing when programming wasn't powered by magic : )

About c):

I am posting my request on the discussion form to see if anything positive will come of it.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light on what is really happening when kids click and drag a motor icon to the screen and set it to run forever, and what happens when the click the download button, and the Run button, etc. 

Best regards,

Scott

[kkravetz]

You could download a trial version of LabVIEW and open up some of the examples to look at their block diagrams.  LabVIEW would be a huge step up from what goes on in the EV3 platform, so your students might think it is really cool.