Lego Port Devices Driver

Posted By admin On 20.04.21

For many reasons, it has been quite a long time since I last played with the NXT. At one point I was actually trying to sell mine as well as someone elses, because I just don't have too much time these days. However, because I once said I would write a library in C#.NET I had a bit of a look to see how far I'd actually gotten with it for old times sake. I tried to get all the software up and running, but because I was running Windows 7 RC x64 I had all sorts of problems. Hopefully this guide will help others using Windows 7 (or even Vista x64) in the future.

Lego Port Devices Drivers
Lego Port Devices Driver Updater
Lego Port Devices Driver
Lego Port Devices Driver Windows 7

In this guide I will basically run through the steps of how to get the LEGO NXT software installed and how to connect the NXT brick to a PC running a 64 bit version of Windows 7. I will run through both getting the USB cable working as well as communicating through Bluetooth. A Bluetooth connection will basically appear as a number of Serial COM ports in the Bluetooth device settings. I can't give you support for other libraries and toolkits such as Microsoft Robotics Studio, leJOS, RobotC, etc... I simply haven't used them before!

0. My test system
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 build 7100
NIMBUS USB Bluetooth Dongle

In most cases an Ethernet port that is configured as an EtherCAT device will not transport general IP packets. For this reason and in cases where an EL6601 or similar devices are used it is useful to specify a fixed IP address for this port via the “Internet Protocol TCP/IP” driver setting and to disable DHCP. According to what I have read, the Lego IR USB tower has drivers that will work under XP, or Windows 7 32 bit, but not 64 bit. The serial tower will work in Windows 7 64 bit, but since most computers don't have serial ports, you still need the adapter. I recommend the serial tower and serial adapter I mentioned in the last step. We want to let you know that we are placing cookies on your device that remember your choices on lego.com, e.g your home country, high-score and your LEGO ID. We also place cookies that performs statistics on our website and cookies that help us run the website. Update the device driver In the search box on the taskbar, enter device manager, then select Device Manager. Select a category to see names of devices, then right-click (or press and hold) the one you’d like to update. Select Search automatically for updated driver software.

LEGO NXT with USB cable

1. Delete any existing LEGO NXT Software, Drivers and Language Packs

Go to your Programs and Features in your Control Panel and remove any existing LEGO NXT software, NXT drivers and language packs. At this stage you shouldn't have Bluetooth or USB connected to your PC.

2. Prepare Software
First of all we will get all the files that we need in order to get everything working.
The first thing you will need are some 64 bit drivers for the NXT USB cable. Go to the RobotC download website at http://www.robotc.net/content/lego_down/lego_down.html and download the 'NXT - 64 bit operating system' zip file called 'NXT_64bit_driver.zip'.
The other thing you will need is a copy of the LEGO NXT CD. If you only want to get the USB cable working but you do not want to use the NXT-G Software that comes with the NXT you do not need the CD.

3. Install the NXT 64 bit Driver
Open up the 'NXT_64bit_driver.zip' file you just downloaded and run the 'LegoMindstormsNXTdriver64.msi' that is inside it. Follow the prompts with default settings and default installation path.
If you now turn on your NXT brick and plug the USB cable into it and into the PC you should see Windows 7 trying to install the correct drivers. Once completed you should get the following message:
If you have a look in the Device Manager (in Control Panel > System) you should see the newly installed LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT item.

Make sure that the NXT is actually turned ON, because it does tend to switch itself off automatically without you noticing.

If this did not work for you then all I can suggest is that you make sure all previous drivers and anything you have done up to this point is deleted and you start again. Note that the driver I am using here is only for 64 bit systems. The RobotC website also has a 32 bit driver you can try if needed if your system is a 32 bit system.

4. Install the LEGO NXT Software

You now obviously want to try to use the software that comes with the NXT to develop some programs or maybe you only need it to update the firmware and then you will use some other 3rd party library. In any case this is what you need to do to get it going.
From experience I noticed that you can't just stick in the CD and run the auto launch setup, because it will appear to load but in reality it will only install the NXT Driver (which doesn't work anyway). You can see in the picture below that only the driver is in the list to be installed so something is definitely fishy!
Cancel out of any setup programs that may have already started. We do not want to take the standard route.
To get things going we will install two things manually, which would normally be taken care of by the autorun installer:

NXT Software (the actual development tool that will let you build NXT apps)
LEGO Mindstorms Language Pack

Open up the CD and go into BinLEGO MINDSTORMS NXT SoftwareNXT_LEGO_MS. Run the 'Mindstorms.msi' file to being setup. Just follow the prompts and install the files to the default location. At the end of the setup process you may get an error message as follows:

As long as you have flash installed you should be fine. Just click OK and the installer will finish.

Lego Port Devices Drivers

Now navigate to BinProductsLEGO MINDSTORMS - EnglishLEGO_Eng on the CD. Run the 'MidstormsEng.msi' file to start the installer. On the first screen click Next. I'm not sure what you will see now, but I can see that it is trying to install the files into G: drive:
This is wrong so we need to change this to the correct path. Click on Browse and navigate to 'C:Program Files (x86)LEGO Software'. Your path should now point to the given directory:

You can now click Next and follow the remaining prompts to finish the installation.
There is actually one more thing that you could install, but it is not necessary. The Meta Uninstaller program is simply a program that allows you to uninstall the LEGO software more easily and all at once. You can however just uninstall LEGO software at a later stage without having to use this program.
If everything was successful you should have the Minstorms logo on your desktop and in your start menu folder. The Programs and Features in the Control Panel should have these programs listed:

You can now launch the LEGO software by clicking on the Mindstorms shortcut on the desktop or start menu. If your installation was successful the Mindstorms software will start with no issues.
5. Test your USB Driver
To check that the USB cable driver that you installed earlier works fine you can either try to update the NXT Brick with the latest 1.05 firmware (available on the LEGO support website) or make a small sample program and try to load it. These steps will not be outline here as there is sufficient documentation and help available from LEGO.

6. Test Bluetooth

The final step in this guide is to ensure that Bluetooth is working as expected. When you plug in a USB Bluetooth dongle or use built in Bluetooth you should already have some icons showing up in your Device Manager. You should see something like this:

Make sure that your NXT Brick is powered up and Bluetooth has been enabled. In the Bluetooth menu you can use the search menu to scan for computers. Assuming your PC's Bluetooth adapter is up and running your NXT Brick should be able to locate it. If at any stage your NXT Brick/PC asks for a PIN just enter 1234 as a default in both the NXT Brick and the PC.

If the NXT Brick was successfully detected and installed as a device you should be able to see it in the Bluetooth devices window of your PC. Something similar to below:

Looking at the properties of the device and clicking on the Hardware tab should give you two serial ports. These are the serial ports (COM Ports) that you will be able to connect to using your own custom software. They are literally just seen as standard serial ports and will automatically transfer over Bluetooth. As follows:

The only difference is that your port numbers may not be exactly the same.

7. Final Remarks

Hopefully you should now have USB capabilities to be able to load your software onto the NXT Brick using the Mindstorms development software. If you wish to use a custom programming language or library you can also make use of the Bluetooth serial ports.

If you ever wish to uninstall the LEGO software it is a simple matter of going into your Programs and Features section of the Control Panel and uninstalling all LEGO NXT items.

Download issues

If you’re having trouble getting your code onto the EV3 Brick, try these steps to see if you can fix the problem.

Check your EV3 firmware

MakeCode needs a firmware version of 1.10E or higher installed on your brick.

Firmware is the software that runs all the basic operations on your EV3 Brick. Your programs and the firmware work together to make the EV3 Brick do all things you want it to. Your EV3 Brick comes with firmware pre-installed, but it may need to be updated to work properly with MakeCode.

To check the the firmware version on your EV3 Brick:

Go to the Settings menu (it’s under the wrench tool symbol)
Select Brick Info and press ENTER

Check the version number under Brick FW:

If you can’t find the Brick Info or you see that the version is less than 1.10E, you need to upgrade your firmware.

Upgrade your EV3

If your a firmware version level is less than 1.10E, you need to install an upgraded version. You can upgrade the firmware with the EV3 Lab or EV3 Programming software. Also, you can do a manual upgrade by downloading the firmware install file. See the Firmware Update support page to learn about the upgrade process.

Can I see the EV3 drive on my computer?

When your EV3 Brick is connected to your computer, you should see a new drive called EV3 attached.

Lego Port Devices Driver Updater

On Windows, it looks like this in Explorer:

If you don’t see the EV3 drive, make sure your brick is powered on and check that your USB connection is good.

The display on the EV3 Brick is blank

Make sure your EV3 Brick is charged and powered on. If your it doesn’t turn on, find the charger and plug it into wall power, then connect it to your EV3 Brick. Does it turn on and start up?

I still can’t see my EV3 drive

Make sure that one end of your USB cable is firmly inserted into a USB port on the computer and the other end is connected to the EV3 Brick. If you still can’t see the EV3 drive, try a different port on the computer. If that doesn’t work then maybe your cable is faulty or you need to reset the EV3 Brick.

Why can’t I delete my program (*.uf2) files from the Brick?

There’s a bug in the firmware which prevents you from deleting the programs (*.uf2 files) from your EV3 Brick. There isn’t a firmware update to fix this yet.

We have prepared a special program that lets you delete UF2 files from the brick.Download these PDF instructions and drop the PDF on the brick drive.This will present you with an menu for deleting files.

For other common questions, try the FAQ page https://makecode.mindstorms.com/faq.

How do I reset my EV3 Brick?

If you think your USB connection is good and you still can’t see your EV3 drive, try giving the EV3 Brick a reset. You can follow these steps to reset:

Using a finger from one hand, press the Back button. Keep holding it.
With your other hand, use two fingers to hold down both the Left button and the Center button. You hold these at the same time while you’re still pressing the Back button.
Now, release your finger from the Back button.
When the EV3 Brick says “Starting..” you can let go of the Left and Enter buttons.

You can also watch this How to Reset video.

LEGO Support

If you’ve checked everything here and can’t get the EV3 drive to show up on your computer, you can’t make the EV3 Brick reset, or your program just won’t download, then try the Troubleshooting Walkthrough.

Lego Port Devices Driver

You can also find more help at LEGO Support.

Lego Port Devices Driver Windows 7

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