Why BRIX₂?

In our everyday life we are surrounded by digital systems which are capable of sensing our presence and actions and process these information for a variety of purposes. However, for most people the underlying processes are hidden behind a wall of blinking lights and polished aluminum covers. Our goal is to tear down this wall to open up a world of opportunities and new ways of handling complex technology in an easy way. Express yourself without artificial borders and get guidance to solve tasks your way. BRIX₂ will help you to do the first steps towards your very own interactive sensor applications.

Based on technology and knowledge from the Arduino community, BRIX₂ also follows the vision of open source and easy to access technology. Instead of starting from scratch, you can learn to build upon the work of this community and achieve fantastic things in the blink of an eye. With BRIX₂ you can contribute to this community and be assured that there will always be help if you need it.

Learning with BRIX₂ allows you to demystify the black boxes we all carry around and work with every day. And as your knowledge and ambition grows, BRIX₂ will still suit your needs because of it's extensible design. When you reach the point where no sensor module can help you anymore, we are pretty sure you are already capable enough to build your own and we will be happy that you made it that far.

Where can I get BRIX₂?

For the time being you have to contact us to get your hands on some Base Modules and Extensions.

1. Get the Arduino IDE

Download the current stable Arduino IDE for your operating system. If you use OSX or Linux there is no installation required for the Arduino IDE to work. Windows user should make sure to install the serial driver as described here.

2. Get LiBRIX2

Download our LiBRIX2. Fire up the IDE and go for Sketch→Import Library→Add Library and navigate to the download location of LiBRIX2.zip, select it, hit Choose and you are done. Alternatively, you can unzip LiBRIX2.zip and move the contained folder to

•  My Documents\Arduino\libraries
• &  Documents/Arduino/libraries

3. Connect your BRIX₂

Connect the module to your computer's USB port using a MicroUSB cable (that's the one you charge your smartphone with.) and turn it on. In the Arduino IDE, go to Tools->Serial Port and tell the IDE where the BRIX₂ module is connected. Depending on your os this port could be similar to

•  COM4
•  /dev/ttyACM0
•  /dev/tty.usbmodem1421

4. Select the Board type

Now we have to tell the Arduino IDE which kind of Arduino it's dealing with. Go to Tools→Board and choose Arduino Leonardo since this is the core that also drives BRIX₂.

5. Try it out

Now lets test! Go to File→Examples→LiBRIX2→Examples→Basics and open BlinkLED. A sketchbook will open and you can just hit the upload button to transfer that sketch to your BRIX₂. If everything went right, the IDE should confirm the successful upload and your BRIX₂ module should look like this:

Weee, you did it! You compiled and uploaded your first BRIX₂ sketch.

What could possible go wrong...

I cannot find the LiBRIX2 folder in the Example folder.

This occurs when the library was not installed right. Have a look in your library folder (see installation step). If there is no LiBRIX2 folder, redo the library installation or just copy the unzipped LiBRIX2 folder there.

I get weird errors when uploading the code.

Check if you have chosen the right board in Tools. It should be set to Arduino Leonardo . If that looks alright, check the port again and also check if your BRIX₂ is switched on.

Some library can not be found when I compile an example.

Restart your IDE and try that example again. If you'd like to know why this error occurs, check the User Guide under Known Errors.

OSX opens a keyboard configuration wizard when I connect the BRIX₂ module. What to do?

It is save to just ignore/cancel the wizard. When plugged into your computer, the BRIX₂ Base Module tells the operating system that it has HID (Human Interface Device) capabilities which means it can imitate mouse and keyboard signals.

The RGB lights up when I use an Extension Module.

Some Extension Modules like the Vibration Module use the same pins on the BRIX₂ controller as the RGB-LED. So you will always light up the corresponding color channel of the RGB-LED when using that pin. This should not cause any trouble except blinky lights.

My wireless sketch does not send/receive any messages.

Make sure that you use the right serial ports. Serial1 (ONE!) communicates with the wireless transceiver, Serial communicates with USB. Example: if you send something from your computer to the wireless world, your sketch receives this on Serial and passes it on to Serial1.