LEGO SPIKE Essential kit motor directions

[Jevan Lenox]

Hi there, I was working ahead and prepping for lesson #5 where the team members build the Arctic Ride sled - it looks like the 2 motors with wheels that our kit has do not spin in the same direction meaning the sled just spins in circles instead of moving forward. It looks like LEGO Spike Prime allows for individual programming of individual motors, but LEGO Spike Essential does not. Has anyone else come across this issue? Wondering if we have a defective kit or whether I am missing a way to re-program one of the motors, etc.

Jevan

[Dave Koslow]

Hi Jevan,

Any chance you could share a screenshot of the program you're using? Would be helpful to see the exact code blocks. FWIW one mistake I made early was using blue blocks AKA "Motor Blocks" when I should have been using the pink "Movement Blocks" which are specifically built for coordinating movements in a two-motor setup (i.e. they provide for explic turn instructions that coordinate the actions of both motors).

Best,

Dave Koslow

On Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 1:02 PM Jevan Lenox <jeva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi there, I was working ahead and prepping for lesson #5 where the team members build the Arctic Ride sled - it looks like the 2 motors with wheels that our kit has do not spin in the same direction meaning the sled just spins in circles instead of moving forward. It looks like LEGO Spike Prime allows for individual programming of individual motors, but LEGO Spike Essential does not. Has anyone else come across this issue? Wondering if we have a defective kit or whether I am missing a way to re-program one of the motors, etc.

Jevan

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[Deepak Gupta]

You have put the motors in wrong direction.

Also you can just select both motors at same time even in essential kit 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 17, 2025, at 1:02 PM, Jevan Lenox <jeva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi there, I was working ahead and prepping for lesson #5 where the team members build the Arctic Ride sled - it looks like the 2 motors with wheels that our kit has do not spin in the same direction meaning the sled just spins in circles instead of moving forward. It looks like LEGO Spike Prime allows for individual programming of individual motors, but LEGO Spike Essential does not. Has anyone else come across this issue? Wondering if we have a defective kit or whether I am missing a way to re-program one of the motors, etc.

Jevan

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[Meeti]

both motors need to be programmed in opposite directions at same time to move forward 

Meeti

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/norcalflljr/619AB173-F724-457F-8EB5-0C8D920CB417%40newagecoders.com.

[Deepak Gupta]

Means one of the motor has been put in wrong direction .

D

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 17, 2025, at 5:07 PM, Meeti <che...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Chandan Naik]

I suggest looking at Dave's feedback first, that's the right way to go about this and rule out any programming errors. Here's an example of the code you should try (note the pink color). 

Link to where you can find details on Movement Blocks

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/norcalflljr/7F79B8B4-EAAF-4D61-938D-3120BD87E273%40newagecoders.com.

[Matthew Drake]

This is where the pink "Movement Blocks" Dave mentioned are much more useful than the Motor Blocks - if you have two motors facing opposite directions with the same wheel size then the Movement Blocks *just work* with the opposite direction driving handled automatically.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/norcalflljr/7F79B8B4-EAAF-4D61-938D-3120BD87E273%40newagecoders.com.

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Matthew Drake

[Jevan Lenox]

Thanks Dave & Chandan! I knew the physical motors were installed correctly - coding with pink movement blocks was indeed the fix. 

For anyone else who runs into this issue, the pink movement blocks were not standard and I wasn't able to find them until going through the link that Chandan sent