Lego EV3 Bluetooth

How to connect (or fix) Lego Mindstorms EV3 Bluetooth connection

The Bluetooth connection feature is very useful, but can also be frustrating when it fails. Here are my instructions, step by step to always fix a failed Blutooth connection.

  1. Turn off the EV3 bot. (Wait several seconds for it to turn off completely.)
  2. Run the EV3 software on the PC (if not already running) and press the Bluetooth Scan feauture. The scan should now find no bots listed as being connected.  If it still shows the EV3 bot, press Scan again repeatedly until no bots are shown.
  3. Close the EV3 software on the PC.
  4. Go to the Windows Devices and Printers screen, find the EV3 bot device, right click, and remove the device.
  5. Restart the PC. The shutdown process may complain that a process is hung that can't be stopped.  This is the misbehaving bluetooth driver.
  6. Now turn on the EV3 bot.
  7. After the PC restarts, go to the Windows Devices and Printers screen, and click Add device.
  8. The EV3 should show up as a found device that can be added.  Go ahead and Add it.
  9. A messsage now appears on the EV3 bot thats asks if you want to trust the PC and accept 1234 as the password.  Yes is the answer to both.
  10. The PC will now pop up a message asking for the password. Enter 1234 and press Enter.
  11. Now in the Task Tray area of the PC, there will be an icon showing "installing driver".  This may take a good 2 or 3 minutes to finish.  Don't open the EV3 PC software until the driver reports it has finished installing.
  12. Now open the EV3 software and Scan for Bluetooth connections.  The EV3 bot will show up, and you should be able to connect to it and program it.

Page last updated April 17, 2020