Is there a generic controller app or software for powered up devices?

[jnbspace]

Hi. If this is the wrong question in the wrong place then feel free to direct me to the right place.

I have the top gear rally car model which uses a bluetooth powered up controller app on a phone and that works. What I want to do is to find a generic controller library / software that I could run on a laptop or PC (windows or linux either is acceptable) to use to control the powered up devices without specifically knowing which model it is. What I want to do is to use it as an environment to teach about programming.
 

Yes there may be better educational environments but being lego it will appeal and this is what I have so nice as it would be I am not about to rush out and spend more money on mindstorms or similar. I did find some very basic "generic controller" apps on the apple store but while they were able to drive different models, albeit with the same basic motors none of them seemed to be able to drive the main motor. Steer yes, but not the motor itself, even though the model specific app does work.

Essentially what I would hope for would be a library of routines which really knows nothing more than channel and setting for each of the available channels on any powered up controller brick.

Is there such a thing out there already?

Thanks in advance

 

[Bricktrain]

I believe the powered up app is now customizable to build custom controllers, rather than the control plus app. Unfortunately I haven't gotten it to work on my current phone. 

 

[kbalage]

Currently there's no official computer-based solution to control the Powered Up devices. There are some custom apps being developed but they are not focusing on the coding aspect and cannot be used for educational purposes.

You can use the Powered Up app's free coding canvas on a tablet, it is quite complex but lacks official documentation so you'd need to develop everything yourself for educational use (I made an unofficial block library that can be used freely).

The other approach is to use Spike Prime, that is actually "Powered Up for education". It has a better hub (6 ports, basic graphic interface, sounds, code runs locally) and it is fully prepared for classroom usage. The software is Scratch-based and it can be used on PC/iOS/Android. As I saw online you can use some Powered Up motors with the system but not all of them, since they are 100% compatible on a hardware level it's just a matter of time to have the software updated.

[dr_spock]

If you like coding javascript, you could try this:

https://nathankellenicki.github.io/node-poweredup/

 

[Luca Lothian]

In the early days of the Sphero, you could control it using a generic Bluetooth controller, such as a Playstation remote and also use https://www.resumesplanet.com/ site for resume tasks. These controllers don't have force feedback or rumble, but they tend to be cheaper and more readily available than dedicated gaming hardware.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Luca Lothian

[Evert Bos]

If you really want to make your own code to control the powered up motors Rasberry recently make the Pi Build hat which enabled you to control 4 motors using a rasberry pi. You can program them via their custom python library.

It was also on the robotics forum