You can connect your computer to your robot in two ways:

• You can set it up in 'WiFi' mode to connect to an existing WiFi network.
• You can also set it up in 'Access point' mode so that it broadcasts its own WiFi signal and then you can connect your computer to the robot's WiFi.

Most users will probably want to connect it in 'WiFi' mode if they have an existing network. This is the most flexible as you'll still be able to access the internet on your computer so you can access Invent! resources like the online programming system and the tutorials.

However, in environments without internet access, the 'Access point' mode might be useful. We've designed the programming system to also work offline and we've also got offline versions of the tutorials that can be downloaded onto individual user's computers.

Actually, there's a third way you can connect your robot using the USB cable that you would normally use for charging the robot, but we don't recommend this as having a robot that's connected with a short cable makes it a bit tricky to move very far!

To use Invent! in WiFi mode, you'll first need to configure it with your WiFi details. For this, you first need to put Invent! in setup mode.

Hold down the button shown, whilst you turn on the robot by pushing the slide switch to the 'On' position.

Your robot should say the words 'WiFi', then 'Access', and then 'Setup'. As soon as you've heard it say 'Setup', release the button.

N.B. This process works with other Invent! devices like the remote control, but it doesn't have a speaker. Instead, pay close attention to the colour of the lights; WiFi mode is red, Access point mode is blue, and Setup mode is yellow, so you'll need to release the button as soon as the light turns yellow. (It will then actually turn blue shortly after you release the button).

Your robot will now act as an access point, and be broadcasting a WiFi name 'InventXXXXXX' where the characters at the end will be the same as the bold characters on the label in the picture. You will need to connect your computer to this access point before proceeding.

Start a web browser and enter the address '192.168.4.1' into the address bar at the very top of the screen as shown.

If you are connected to the robot's WiFi and have typed in the correct address you should get a screen that looks like this.

Enter your WiFi name (SSID) and password and press the 'Save' button. You should get a message asking you to restart the robot. Do this by turning it off and on again (without holding any buttons in this time).

N.B. Be careful you have typed the details correctly, paying close attention to any uppercase/lowercase characters and special symbols.

If you are successful, then the LED next to the button should briefly go red and then turn green. This indicates it is connected. If it stays red, you have not entered the correct SSID or password - you will need to repeat these steps again.

Your robot should remember your WiFi details and reconnect to your WiFi each time it is turned on.

Look closely at the label on your robot. It has two 6-character codes. You'll need to enter the bottom code (the one in bold) in the next step. It doesn't matter whether you type it in uppercase or lowercase. The characters will only consist of the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters a to f. (So if you see a '0' it will be the zero digit not a letter 'O').

For our robot, we'll need to use the code 'B79E04' in the next step.

Go to the website http://code.inventblocks.com/ui/ and click on the WiFi icon shown.

Enter the bold code from the label in the 'Address' box and then click the 'Network' button as shown.

After a few seconds the connect icon shown should go solid blue and look like the cables are connected. If it looks like the screen shown, your robot has connected. If it stays black and looks disconnected, there has been a problem. In this case, you should:

• Check your robot has connected to the WiFi (the green light is on)
• Check your computer is connected to the same WiFi network
• Check you have entered the robot's code correctly in the previous step

If your robot connected properly, you can now jump forward to the 'Test code' step below. If not, read on ...

Your computer might be connected to a wired 'ethernet' connection that is physically connected to your WiFi point (as might be typical if you're using a desktop PC but there is also a connected WiFi system available in the same room). In this case, your computer might not be able to find your robot just using the 6-character code.

You instead will need to connect it using it's IP address. This is a series of four numbers with dots in between them which is used on all computer networks. When your robot connects to WiFi it will get it's own IP address.

To get this address, you'll need to turn the robot off and on again, whilst holding down the button as before, but this time you will release the button when the light turns red and the robot says 'Wifi'. After a few seconds, the robot will connect to the Wifi network as before (and the light should go green), but this time, it will speak its IP address and say something like '192.168.1.1'. This is an alternate code you can type in the 'Address' box when you are connecting.

Now we're going to run a simple test program to make the robot move.

Click on the 'Invent!' menu on the left to access the blocks we'll need to control our robot, and drag a 'Move 5cm wait' block to the right where there is some empty space.

Now press the play button shown. Your robot should now move forward 5cm and stop!

Congratulations! You're now up and running and programming your robot in 'WiFi' mode! You can stop this tutorial here unless you want to see how to connect in 'Access point' mode instead ...

If you instead want to use Invent! in access point mode, you'll need to connect your computer to the WiFi point that the robot will create.

This means you won't have access to the internet, so we'd recommend you either:

• Bring up the coding website (http://code.inventblocks.com/ui/) in a tab on your browser before you do this, or ...
• Download the offline version of inventblocks onto your computer (please contact us and we'll send you a copy)

Likewise, you'll probably want to make sure you've got any instructions you want to use available locally on your computer. To do this you can:

• Bring up any tutorial pages as separate tabs on your web browser before proceeding to the next step, or :
• Save an offline version of the instructions to your computer (You should be able to right-click pages like this one and save them to your computer to access later).

To go into access point mode, the process is very similar.

Hold down the button whilst you turn the robot on. This time, only release the button when the robot says 'Access' (or the light turns blue if you're doing this on a no-speaker device like the remote control).

The robot should be broadcasting a WiFi signal just like earlier when you were in setup mode, but this time you'll be able to directly connect to this new network and start coding (see the next step). It will also remember to go into access point mode every time you turn it on.

N.B. If you've put Invent! in this access point mode by mistake and want to go back to WiFi mode, just repeat the process, but this time release the button when the robot says 'WiFi'. It should connect back to the WiFi network you previously setup. You don't need to repeat the setup procedure where you entered the WiFi name and password again as it will remember them from last time.

Look closely at the label on your robot. It has two 6-character codes. You'll need to enter the bottom code (the one in bold) in the next step. It doesn't matter whether you type it in uppercase or lowercase. The characters will only consist of the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters a to f. (So if you see a '0' it will be the zero digit not a letter 'O').

For our robot, we'll need to use the code 'B79E04' in the next step.

Go to the website http://code.inventblocks.com/ui/ and click on the WiFi icon shown.

Make sure that the 'Address' box is empty, and then click the 'Network' button.

N.B. We're not entering an address here as we're connected to the WiFi network the robot itself has created, so there's only one robot that it's possible to connect to.

After a few seconds the connect icon shown should go solid blue and look like the cables are connected. If it looks like the screen shown, your robot has connected. If it stays black and looks disconnected, there has been a problem. In this case, you should:

• Check your robot has created it's own WiFi network (the blue light is on)
• Check your computer is connected to that same WiFi network (it will be identified by your robot's code)
• Check the 'Address' box was left empty in the previous step

If your robot connected properly, you can now test it out ...

Now we're going to run a simple test program to make the robot move.

Click on the 'Invent!' menu on the left to access the blocks we'll need to control our robot, and drag a 'Move 5cm wait' block to the right where there is some empty space.

Now press the play button shown. Your robot should now move forward 5cm and stop!

Congratulations! You're now up and running and programming your robot in 'Access point' mode!