Top 10 viewed posts 2021 on the Robot and Physical Computing Blog

• Speech Recognition in Scratch 3 - turning Hello into Bonjour!

  The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently released a programming activity Alien Language , with support Dale from Machine Learning for Kids , tha...
• 

  PS3 Controller to move a USB Robot Arm

  Guest Blogger Hiren Mistry, Nuffield Research Placement Student working at the University of Northampton. How to use a PS3 Controller to...
• 

  Scratch Robot Arm

  It is not physical but CBiS Education have release a free robot arm simulator for Scratch.  Downloadable from their site  http://w...
• 

  Tinkercad and Microbit: To make a neuron

  The free online CAD (and so much more) package Tinkercad  https://www.tinkercad.com/ under circuits; now has microbits as part of the list ...
• 

  Escape the Maze with a VR robot - Vex VR

  You don't need to buy a robot to get programming a robot, now there are a range of free and relatively simple to start with robot simula...
• 

  Easy, Free and no markers Augmented Reality - location based AR

  For a few years, I have been a fan of Aframe and AR.js - these are fantastic tools for creating web-based Virtual and Augmented Reality.  No...
• 

  Coral Dev Board and Raspberry Pi

  This is the second of a planned occasional series of posts on playing with some of the current AI specific add-on processors for Intenet of ...
• 

  Explaining the Tinkercad microbit Neural network

  In a previous post, I looked at developing a neural network in Tinkercad around the Microbit (details available here ) and the whole model ...
• 

  VR robot in a maze - from Blocks to Python

  Recently I produced a post about playing with Vex Robotics VexCode VR blocks and the Maze Playground. The post finished with me saying I w...
• 

  4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider

  / The ever-brilliant 4tronix have produced Eggbit https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/microbit-accessories/products/eggbit;  a cute, wear...

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

Hug Avoider 4 - micropython, Eggbot and speech

The last of the posts on the Hug avoider and the 4Tronix's Eggbit

4Tronix's Eggbit (in fact I bought three of them https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/bbc-micro-bit/products/eggbit-three-pack-special  :-) recently) is a cute add-on for the microbit. In three previous posts I looked at eggbit using microcode to  produce a hug avoider - warns when people at too close.

• -https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/12/hug-avoider-2-4tronix-eggbit.html
• - 4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider

• Hug Avoider 3 - experiments with Python and 4Tronix Eggbit

In this post using the buttons and adding (via Microbit V2 with its speaker) simple speech

1. Buttons

Pins for the buttons

• pin8 - Green button
• pin12 - Red button
• pin14 - Yellow button
• pin`6 - Blue button

    if pin12.read_digital()==1:

        #Red Button

        blank_it()

    if pin8.read_digital()==1:

        #Green button

        startingMessage()

    if pin14.read_digital()==1:

        #Yellow button

        rainbow()

    if pin16.read_digital()==1:

        #Blue botton

        display.show(Image.ASLEEP)

2. Speech

The basis on the code is take from https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/speech.html

    mess1 = [

    "This is the hug avoide",

    "please keep back",

]

# Take from https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/speech.html

    for line in mess1:

        speech.say(line, speed=120, pitch=100, throat=100, mouth=200)

        sleep(500

The speech is difficult to hear but is fun and there are possibly ways to improve this starting with the information on  https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/speech.html

3. Overall

from microbit import *

from machine import time_pulse_us

import neopixel, speech

sonar =pin15

sonar.write_digital(0)

fireled=neopixel.NeoPixel(pin13,9)

def rainbow():

    fireled[0] = (255, 0, 40)

    fireled[1]=  (255,165,0)

    #block=yellow

    fireled[2] = (255,255,0)

    #block=green

    fireled[3] = (0,255,0)

    #block=blue

    fireled [4] = (0,0,255)

    # block=indigo

    fireled[5] = (75,0,130)

    # block=violet

    fireled[6] = (138,43,178)

    #block=purple

    fireled[7] = (255,0,255)

    fireled.show()

def blank_it():

    for j in range(8):

        fireled[j] = (63, 0, 0)

    fireled.show()

def howfar():

    sonar.write_digital(1)

    sonar.write_digital(0)

    timeus=time_pulse_us(sonar,1)

    echo=timeus/1000000

    dist=(echo/2)*34300

    sleep(100)

    return dist

def startingMessage():

    mess1 = [

    "This is the hug avoide",

    "please keep back",

]

# Take from https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/speech.html

    for line in mess1:

        speech.say(line, speed=120, pitch=100, throat=100, mouth=200)

        sleep(500)

def buttonplay():

    if pin12.read_digital()==1:

        #Red Button

        blank_it()

    if pin8.read_digital()==1:

        #Green button

        startingMessage()

    if pin14.read_digital()==1:

        #Yellow button

        rainbow()

    if pin16.read_digital()==1:

        #Blue botton

        display.show(Image.ASLEEP)

  

while True:

    buttonplay()

    dist=howfar()

    if dist>30:

        pin2.write_digital(1)

        pin0.write_digital(0)

        display.show(Image.HAPPY)

    else:

        pin2.write_digital(1)

        pin0.write_digital(1)

        blank_it()

        speech.say("back away please", speed=120, pitch=100, throat=100, mouth=200)

        display.show(Image.ANGRY)

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

Hug Avoider 3 - experiments with Python and 4Tronix Eggbit

via GIPHY

4Tronix's Eggbit (in fact I bought three of them https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/bbc-micro-bit/products/eggbit-three-pack-special  :-) recently) is a cute add-on for the microbit (see above). In two previous posts I looked at eggbit using microcode to  produce a hug avoider - warns when people at too close.

• -https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/12/hug-avoider-2-4tronix-eggbit.html
• - 4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider

This post replicates some of this, but this time using Python and shows the stages of the build

• Get the ultrasound to find the distance;
• Produce smile and surprise on the eggbit's 'mouth';
• Produce rainbow on the neopixels or all the pixels turning red;
• Bring it all together so if the person is too close, less than 30cm it reacts.

 

1. Ultrasonic detection

Probably the most challenging bit of this was getting the ultrasonic distance measrement working. It actually is not that difficult; especially using code from  https://firialabs.com/blogs/lab-notes/ultrasonic-distance-sensor-with-python-and-the-micro-bit as the basis of the solution and pin15 does both triggering and receiving. Code sends a pulse out, picked up  and processed to get the distance from the delay. The code is shown below:

from microbit import *

from machine import time_pulse_us

sonar =pin15

sonar.write_digital(0)

while True:

    sonar.write_digital(1)

    sonar.write_digital(0)

    

    timeus=time_pulse_us(sonar,1)

    echo=timeus/1000000

    dist=(echo/2)*34300

    sleep(100)

    display.scroll(str(dist))

2. LEDs

To get a greater understanding of how 4Tronix's makecode extension (used in the previou posts) for the Eggbit controls the various pins the best resource was to reverse engineering the code  from https://github.com/4tronix/EggBit/blob/main/eggbit.ts in their github respository for the Eggbit. 

This gave the colours and the correct pin for the LEDs the code is shown below. Producing a rainbow method and a method to set the LEDs/neopixels to red. 

import neopixel

fireled=neopixel.NeoPixel(pin13,9)

def rainbow():

    fireled[0] = (255, 0, 40)

    fireled[1]=  (255,165,0)

    #block=yellow

    fireled[2] = (255,255,0)

    #block=green

    fireled[3] = (0,255,0)

    #block=blue

    fireled [4] = (0,0,255)

    # block=indigo

    fireled[5] = (75,0,130)

    # block=violet

    fireled[6] = (138,43,178)

    #block=purple

    fireled[7] = (255,0,255)

    fireled.show()

    

def blank_it():

    for j in range(8):

        fireled[j] = (63, 0, 0)

    fireled.show()

3. 'Face'

Eggbit has set of LEDs that represent a mouth, controlled via three pins. Only two of those are used in this example

'Smile' is pin2.write_digital(1) the 'lower' part of the mouth and turn off upper part of the mouth pin0.write_digital(0)

'Surprise' uses both parts 

pin2.write_digital(1)

pin0.write_digital(1)

4. Overall

So putting this altogether 

from microbit import *

from machine import time_pulse_us

import neopixel

sonar =pin15

sonar.write_digital(0)

fireled=neopixel.NeoPixel(pin13,9)

def rainbow():

    fireled[0] = (255, 0, 40)

    fireled[1]=  (255,165,0)

    #block=yellow

    fireled[2] = (255,255,0)

    #block=green

    fireled[3] = (0,255,0)

    #block=blue

    fireled [4] = (0,0,255)

    # block=indigo

    fireled[5] = (75,0,130)

    # block=violet

    fireled[6] = (138,43,178)

    #block=purple

    fireled[7] = (255,0,255)

    fireled.show()

    

def blank_it():

    for j in range(8):

        fireled[j] = (63, 0, 0)

    fireled.show()

def howfar():

    sonar.write_digital(1)

    sonar.write_digital(0)

    

    timeus=time_pulse_us(sonar,1)

    echo=timeus/1000000

    dist=(echo/2)*34300

    sleep(100)

    return dist

while True:

    dist=howfar()

    if dist>30:

        pin2.write_digital(1)

        pin0.write_digital(0)

        rainbow()

        display.show(Image.HAPPY)

    else:

        pin2.write_digital(1)

        pin0.write_digital(1)

        blank_it()

        display.show(Image.ANGRY)

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider

/

The ever-brilliant 4tronix have produced Eggbit https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/microbit-accessories/products/eggbit; a cute, wearable device, with ultrasonic sensors, buttons and LEDs for the microbit - I couldn't resist.

Programming is through Makecode and an extension is available, to download and install. To use the extension, at the time of writing this, go through the add extension option and use the search box to add it  from https://github.com/4tronix/EggBit

So what to do with it? Inspired by social distancing  (or not being a 'hugger')  created it so that when people get too close the RGB LEDs go out - simple but fun. The distance is set at 20cm for testing. The code is shown below.

It was fun to do and perhaps swapping the settings around so the lights come on when people at too close might be more fun or using sound. This is a lovely device to play with and the look encourages play - just look how cute it is! The price is reasonable and the look means it has the potential to encourage a wide range of people to experiment with it.

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon