This quick start guide assumes you will be running mBlock, the software to program the robot, in a browser. You can also download and install mBlock locally on your computer through Windows. We have a different quick-start guide for that.

When you use mBlock in the browser, you must download and install mLink. mLink is necessary because it acts as a bridge between your web browser and the physical hardware of the mBot robot, bridging the gap between web-based software and physical hardware.

Step 1: Install mLink

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Some school laptops are prevented from installing software. If so, you should contact the people in charge of your school’s IT to address this.

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Here, we will install the mLink for Windows. If you think this has already been done, you can skip to Step 2 and come back as needed.

Using your browser, go to the mBlock download page: https://mblock.cc/pages/downloads
Scroll to the bottom, where you can find mLink for Windows.
Click the link to mLink for Windows to start downloading the installer.
Once the installer has been downloaded, locate it on your computer and start it by double-clicking it.
At the end of the installation process, the installer will try to install a driver. This is needed to communicate with the robot. In the DriverSetup window, click Install. It might happen that this results in an error saying Driver Install Failure. This is most likely because the driver is already installed. You can select Uninstall before reinstalling the driver by clicking Install.

A view of the installer running.

If the driver is already installed, you might see the error above. You can select before clicking again to ensure the driver is installed.

If the driver is already installed, you might see the error above. You can select Uninstall before clicking Install again to ensure the driver is installed.

At the end of the installation process, a window will pop-up offering to install a driver. Click to install the driver.

At the end of the installation process, a window will pop-up offering to install a driver. Click Install to install the driver.

A pop-up showing the driver is uninstalled. Do not forget to re-install the driver if you uninstall it.

Once the driver has been installed, you should see a pop-up confirming this. You can close the driver install window.

Finally, finalize the installation by clicking Finish.

If you selected Run mLink2, the window below will pop up. This shows that mLink was successfully installed. You can simply close this window by clicking the x at the top-right corner of the window.

This window indicates you have succesfully installed mLink. You can simply close it.

Step 2: Resetting the firmware

In this step, we will ensure the robot runs the default firmware. The box below explains why we do this. This step is optional if you are sure the default firmware is running on the robot. However, if you are not sure, we recommend working through this step to ensure the robot is running the correct firmware to run the example program.