How to reset Alvik robot to factory settings

Official Hardware Education Alvik
1

I have bought an Alvik robot. Out of the box programs were available. I wanted to experiment with mBlock (without results). Now, I try to at least reinstall the three out of the box programs. I have tried to use the Arduino Alvik Updater for this. But, despite the fact that the update seems to work perfectly, I still don't have the out of the box programs back.

Can you help ?

2

I have used the Python IDE to look inside the Alvik robot. The out of the box programs are still there. And I can use it from the IDE. But they do not start when setting the robot on when the robot is disconnected from the PC.

I suspect that some trigger is missing on the robot, to start the python program automatically. How to restore this ?

3

I have understood what happens. The mBlock app replaces the main.py file on the robot by its own program. To restore the original demo, you have to edit the main.py file and replace the code by "import demo".

To edit main.py, use the app "Arduino lab for MicroPython".

4

Can you explain better the step to do for resetting Alvik to factory default settings? How do I edit the main.py file and where canI find "import demo"? Thanks!

5

You first have to install the app ”Arduino lab for MicroPython" on your Windows PC.

Then, using this app and linking it to the Alvik, you will have access to the sketches installed on the Alvik. One of those sketches is "main.py".

Using the editor, you have to replace the code in main.py by "import demo".

6

I got this issue today and it's a fact there is not a lot of documentation about how to reset.
My kids tried Alvik with mBlock to do some project and now I want him to look at micropython because MBlock is limited for what he wanted to do.

So I installed Arduino Lab and I got this error message when I tried to connect Alvik :
"could not connect to the board, reset and try again"
I saw that mblock or arduino IDE could have romove the Micropython support from the board. Which can be the root cause of this error.
So here is the step to restore micro python and connect the board in Arduino LAB :

  1. install micro python installer Laboratoires Arduino
  2. plug Alvik to your computeur
  3. lunch Micro python : it should detect Arduino nano ESP32 board (ALVIK)
  4. click "install micropython"
  5. when done push the reset button of your Alvik board (white little button on the top)
  6. then try again to connect with arduino lab

If it doesn't work you may check if Python is installed on the computer as well as mpremote