Instruction Guide: Data Hubs

In this lesson students explore the use of data hubs and data wires.

Have students work through the "Data Hubs" lesson on the "Advanced" page in "NXT Video Trainer 2.0".

Students should be able to answer all the review questions at the end of each step and end up with a solid command of the purpose and functionality of data wires, as well as the function of each plug on the data hubs of the Move, Random and Sensor Blocks.

As students progress through, have them document their milestones in the Data Hubs Task Assignment Sheet.

Robot Throttle Maze Challenge.

This page contains a copy of this challenge from "NXT Video Trainer 2.0."

Key learning to check for during sign-off includes:

  • Ensure students understand the nature of data hubs and wires:
    • Data is generated on a wire when the block with its output plug attached to the data wire is run (the Random and Sensor Blocks in this lesson)
    • Data on a data wire connected to the input plug on a data hub (the Move Block in this lesson) will over-ride that parameter of the configuration panel settings
    • To continuously update a data wire values, the blocks must be inside a loop that repeats frequently.