LittleBits Star Wars Droid and Swift Playgrounds

On the 1st September 2017, during 'Force Friday', LittleBits launched their new kit Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit an R2D2 shaped robot, though you are encouraged to customise it to form your own designs. It comes a number of tutorials, that take you through building a moving head, a proximity sensor to move away from you, and many others.

So confession time, I am not the target audience for this kit, but I have enjoyed playing with it. The tutorials take you through building and dismantling the kit, doing a range of different activities and in most cases controlling it remotely from an iPad. You can even record your voice and have it played back from the Droid, in my opinion, the wide of sounds is one of the things that lift this from being just a nice kit -  I will get onto the other one soon. Though good fun, I was left with a question can it be programmed?

This was my first time using a LittleBits kit I didn't know what the options were available for programming it, a quick search around online was not initially that helpful it looked like this was not an obvious way forward. 

Now for the good news on the LittleBit site there is a relatively easy solution to this see https://littlebits.cc/littlebits-droid-inventor-kit-swift-playgrounds on an iPad. Swift Playgrounds can be used to program it, you need to download the separate playground after the Swift Playgrounds App (if you haven't already got it) is installed, After that it is follow the tutorials.

 Below is an example part of the code, I tried to make the Droid dance and makes some noises.

Below the video of the code in action.



The combination of Swift Playgrounds and Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit works well, perhaps you can't go wrong with R2D2. I would suggest the text from the website about linking to Swift Playgrounds should be included with the box and it would be nice to see some more commands. Apart from these very minor criticisms the kit and Swift Playgrounds is a nice combination (and the kit even comes with battery included), well worth a look and extending it to a wider age range. 


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

Raspberry Pi geste contrôlé Minecraft X -Wing (revisited )

Translated using Google Translate from http://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/gesture-controlled-minecraft-x-wing.html I apologise if there are any translation issues.

Ce poste se fonde sur deux postes précédents et tente de répondre à certains des commentaires très utiles de personnes qui ont essayé cela. J'espère que cela aide.

Globalement, le projet se fonde sur un projet antérieur pour obtenir d'un simple X -Wing dans Minecraft sur ​​un Raspberry Pi . Le but était obtenir Python pour construire et déplacer le X -Wing . Les détails de ce projet peuvent être trouvés ici .

Révision Principale: Dans ce projet, et le précédent est basé autour de Python 3 exécutant le Raspbian ' Jessie ' Novembre version de l'OS . Aussi les bibliothèques supplémentaires peuvent devoir être ajouter pour obtenir le minecraftstuff (comme ShapeBlock ( ) et MinecraftShape ( ) ) . Détails sur la façon d' obtenir et d'installer ceux-ci peuvent être trouvés à

 http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2013/11/coding-shapes-in-minecraft.html .

Dans ce post, la supplémentaire de Skywriter de Pirmoroni est inclus pour permettre les mouvements d'une main ou un doigt pour permettre à la X -Wing pour le décollage , la terre , aller de l'avant ou vers l'arrière .

Il se fonde sur des idées du livre Adventures in Minecraft sur ​​l'utilisation de Python et Minecraft utilisant un Raspberry Pi .

Le Skywriter  est une HAT Raspberry Pi (voir figure 2 ) qui permet à l'information de position de la main juste au-dessus du bord. Dans ce projet, il détecte films de la main , vers le bas, ou à travers le conseil d'administration afin de déterminer la direction du mouvement

Avant de commencer , utilisez le Skywriter dans le terminal que vous devez ajouter

 curl -sSL get.pimoroni.com/skywriter | bash


Pour commencer nous avons juste placé le X -Wing au-dessus du lecteur en plaçant des blocs en forme ( à peu près ) de la X -Wing basée autour de la méthode MinecraftShape ( voir le chapitre 8 de Adventures in Minecraft ) .

• Pour éviter de construire sur le joueur la position de départ de la X -Wing est défini par:• Trouver la position du joueur ;

o    ajouter 5 à la position x du joueur ;

o    ajouter 10 à la position y du joueur ( Le bit je dois me rappeler est l'axe y est vertical. ) ;

o    ajouter 5 à la position z du joueur;

• L'utilisation de ces valeurs construire en utilisant des blocs de laine , le X -Wing - 0 pour le blanc , et 14 pour les blocs rouges ;

• Si un film commence au sommet de la planche (ou «nord» ) cela déplace le X -Wing vers le sol ;

• Si un film commence au bas de la carte (ou " sud " ) cela déplace le X -Wing verticalement vers le haut ;

• Si un film commence sur la droite de la carte (ou «est» ), le X -Wing se déplace vers l'arrière horizontalement ;

• si un film commence sur la gauche de la carte ( ou « ouest »), le X -Wing se déplace vers l'avant .

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft

from mcpi import block

import mcpi.minecraftstuff as minecraftstuff

import time

import skywriter

import signal

mc=Minecraft.create()

xPos=mc.player.getTilePos()

xPos.x=xPos.x+5

xPos.y=xPos.y+5

xPos.z=xPos.z+5

xWingBlocks=[

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(0,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-1,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-2,0,0,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-3,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(0,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(2,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(2,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,2,-1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,2,1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-1,-1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-1,1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,3,-2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,3,2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-2,-2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-2,2,block.WOOL.id,0)]

xWingShape=minecraftstuff.MinecraftShape(mc,xPos,xWingBlocks)

@skywriter.flick()

def flick(start,finish):

  if start=="south":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(0,1,0)

  if start=="west":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(-1,0,0)

  if start=="east":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(1,0,0)

  if start=="north":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(0,-1,0)

signal.pause()

Pour plus de détails sur Minecraft et Python je suggère d'aller à http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2013/11/coding-shapes-in-minecraft.html~~V en particulier sur la façon de télécharger le logiciel à mettre en œuvre MinecraftShape . Si vous n'utilisez ou modifiez cette s'il vous plaît laisser un commentaire, je serais ravi de voir ce que les autres faire.

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. Translation was done with Google Translate – sorry if it causes any offence this was not intentional.

Northamptonshire Raspberry Jam - 16th April 2016

 PiJam event on Saturday 16th April 2016, in Newton Building, University of Northampton, NN2 6JB.

This is a free event, open to those who either want to found out more about the Raspberry Pi; want to share with others what they have done with the Pi; or just want to talk with others about them. Most of all (I hope) to have some fun.

The event has been supported by the University of Northampton providing the rooms.

Tickets (Free) are available at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/northamptonshire-raspberry-jam-tickets-20886649531

Examples of possible 'show and tell ' items include:

-Minecraft running on a Raspberry Pi with movement controlled with gesture control of an Star Wars styled X-Wing

- Raspberry Pi controlling a 'junk robot'

More updates to follow. 

Tickets (Free) are available at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/northamptonshire-raspberry-jam-tickets-20886649531


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.

Raspberry Pi gesture controlled Minecraft X-Wing (revisited)

figure 1

This post builds on two earlier posts and tries to address some of the very useful comments from people who have tried this. I hope this helps.

Overall the project builds on an earlier project to get a simple X-Wing into Minecraft on a Raspberry Pi.  The goal was get Python to build and move the X-Wing. Details of this project can be found here.

Main revision: In this project and the earlier one is based around Python 3 running the Raspbian 'Jessie' November version OS. Also additional libraries may need to be add to get the minecraftstuff (such as ShapeBlock() and MinecraftShape()). Details on how to obtain and install these can be found at  http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2013/11/coding-shapes-in-minecraft.html .

In this post the additional of Pirmoroni's Skywriter is included to allow movements of a hand or a finger to enable the X-Wing to take-off, land, move forward or backward.

It builds on ideas from the book Adventures in Minecraft on using Python and Minecraft using a Raspberry Pi.

figure 2

The Skywriter  is a Raspberry Pi HAT (see figure 2) that allows positional information of the hand just above the board. In this project it is detecting flicks of the hand up, down, or across the board to determine the direction of motion.

Before you start, to use the Skywriter, in the terminal you need to add curl -sSL get.pimoroni.com/skywriter | bash

To start with we just placed the X-Wing above the player by placing blocks in the shape (roughly) of the X-Wing based around the method MinecraftShape (see Chapter 8 of Adventures in Minecraft ).

figure 3

• Find the position of the player;
• To avoid building on top the player the starting position of the X-Wing is set by:
• add 5 to the x position of the player;
• add 10 to the y position of the player(The bit I have to keep reminding myself is the y-axis is vertical.);
• add 5 to the z position of the player;
• Using these values build using, Wool blocks, the X-Wing - 0 for white, and 14 for red blocks;
• If a flick starts at the top of the board (or "north") this moves the X-Wing down towards the ground;
• If a flick starts at the bottom of the board (or "south") this moves the X-Wing vertically up;
• If a flick starts on the right of the board (or "east") the X-Wing moves backwards horizontally;
• if a flick starts on the left of the board (or "west") the X-Wing moves forward.

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft

from mcpi import block

import mcpi.minecraftstuff as minecraftstuff

import time

import skywriter

import signal

mc=Minecraft.create()

xPos=mc.player.getTilePos()

xPos.x=xPos.x+5

xPos.y=xPos.y+5

xPos.z=xPos.z+5

xWingBlocks=[

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(0,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-1,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-2,0,0,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-3,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(0,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(2,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(2,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,2,-1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,2,1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-1,-1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-1,1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,3,-2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,3,2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-2,-2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-2,2,block.WOOL.id,0)]

xWingShape=minecraftstuff.MinecraftShape(mc,xPos,xWingBlocks)

@skywriter.flick()

def flick(start,finish):

  if start=="south":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(0,1,0)

  if start=="west":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(-1,0,0)

  if start=="east":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(1,0,0)

  if start=="north":

    for count in range(1,10):

      time.sleep(0.1)

      xWingShape.moveBy(0,-1,0)

signal.pause()

For more details on Minecraft and Python I would suggest going to http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2013/11/coding-shapes-in-minecraft.html especially on how to download the software to implement MinecraftShape. 


If you do use or modify this please leave a comment, I would love to see what others do 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.