Monday 31 May 2021

10 mosts read posts on the Robots and Physical computing Blog - May 2021



  • Quick Play with SonicPi
    I often play with the brilliant Sonic Pi  https://sonic-pi.net/   for a bit of fun, but let's be clear I have no musical ability.

















  • Scratch Robot Arm
    It is not physical but CBiS Education have release a free robot arm simulator for Scratch. 










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
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Saturday 8 May 2021

Quick Play with SonicPi



I often play with the brilliant Sonic Pi https://sonic-pi.net/ for a bit of fun, but let's be clear I have no musical ability.

To get my head around it I tried turning thee one tune I know "Hot Cross Buns" for the recorder into a tune. I found a useful webpage https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/notes.html to turn the notes into the MIDI number (60, etc) . Played with the synthesier sounds and choose tech_saw just because I liked it. The code is below

use_synth :tech_saws
2.times do
  play 71
  sleep 0.5
  play 69
  sleep 0.5
  play 67
  sleep 0.5
end
4.times do
  play 67
  sleep 0.25
end
4.times do
  play 69
  sleep 0.25
end
play 71
sleep 0.5
play 69
sleep 0.5
play 67

Also tried it with changing the synth to prophet

Also tried to make it a bit more mournful (possible slightly aggressive) with minor chords - I used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_chord#:~:text=In%20music%20theory%2C%20a%20minor,is%20called%20a%20minor%20triad. to get the notes in combination with the MIDI notes list (I still think I got it wrong!)
use_synth :prophet
2.times do
  play 71
  play 62
  play 66
  sleep 0.5
  play 69
  play 60
  play 64
  sleep 0.5
  play 67
  play 70
  play 62
  sleep 0.5
end
4.times do
  play 67
  play 70
  play 62
  sleep 0.25
end
4.times do
  play 69
  play 60
  play 64
  sleep 0.25
end
play 71
play 62
play 66
sleep 0.5
play 69
play 60
play 64
sleep 0.5
play 67
play 70
play 62
sleep 0.5


Adding sound effects is great fun - same code as above with a slightly techno sound to it

use_synth :prophet
with_fx :ixi_techno do
  2.times do
    play 71
    play 62
    play 66
    sleep 0.5
    play 69
    play 60
    play 64
    sleep 0.5
    play 67
    play 70
    play 62
    sleep 0.5
  end
  4.times do
    play 67
    play 70
    play 62
    sleep 0.25
  end
  4.times do
    play 69
    play 60
    play 64
    sleep 0.25
  end
  play 71
  play 62
  play 66
  sleep 0.5
  play 69
  play 60
  play 64
  sleep 0.5
  play 67
  play 70
  play 62
  sleep 0.5
end

or alternatively

use_synth :prophet
with_fx :ixi_techno do
  2.times do
    play chord(:b4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.5
    play chord(:a4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.5
    play chord(:g4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.5
  end
  4.times do
    play chord(:g4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.25
  end
  4.times do
    play chord(:a4, :minor7)
    sleep 0.25
  end
  play chord(:b4, :minor7)
  sleep 0.5
  play chord(:a4, :minor7)
  sleep 0.5
  play chord(:g4, :minor7)
  sleep 0.5
end

I am the first to admit I have little musical knowledge but playing with Sonic Pi is still good fun; just changing the sound effects (like changing it to whammy and getting it sounding like aliens) is enjoyable.

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
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Friday 30 April 2021

April 2021 Top 10 most read post on Robots and Physical Computing blog

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
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Thursday 15 April 2021

Eggbot 2- the drawing crumble junkbot.

figure 1

An earlier post   https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/04/junkbots-2-eggbot2.html discussed the start of the development of a two motored Crumble (from Redfern Electronics) based 'junk-bot'; based around controlling vibrating motors  (https://amzn.to/3mtxEy9) to move the bot.


This post focuses on addressing some of the issues raised in the earlier post. The motors are now glued, via a glue gun, onto the plastic egg (figure 2) and four felt-tip pens are also glued on (see figure 1 above) so there is a firm connection to the egg. Setting the pens in the right positions is the trickest part of the process and you are probably best to experiment with tape / sticky tack before finally gluing them in place.

figure 2

figure 3


I like the Crumble for this task because it is designed to control two motors using a simple graphical programming language, without any extra hardware.

figure 4



The program shown in figure 4 is trying out a lot of the possible combinations of direction for the motors. When the program is run it moves in (and draws squiggly lines) mostly, in arcs. There is still some work to be done on controlling it. It is sensitive to wires being touched, perhaps thinner wires connect the Crumble (figure 3) and the motors? The motors are perhaps not strong enough - though it does move, so perhaps stronger motors, upping the percentage power to the motors or upping the voltage (currently 4.5 to 6v and still within the capacities of the motors)?


It is good fun; there is a lot that can be experimented with,  placement and direction of the motors just being one area.





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
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Friday 9 April 2021

Junkbots 2 - eggbot2


A new iteration of the junkbots project or more accurately the Crumble-based eggbot sub-project (https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2017/10/crumble-based-junk-eggbot.html) is underway. 

Previously it has been built around a single vibrating motor, 'controlled' in the loose sense by a Crumble Controller. (https://amzn.to/3dNl09e).The new development is to use smaller vibrating motors but two of them, controlled by the Crumble. This post looks at the early stage of the development and suggests where to go next. 

Currently, two vibrating motors (https://amzn.to/3mtxEy9) have been attached horizontally to half a plastic egg (figure 1), the kind you can find in dispensing machine with plastic toys, but Kinder Egg ones can also be used. A Crumble is used to control the motors separately (figure 2) by changing the motor's direction. Health warning: It is never going to accurate control but that is part of the charm.



Figure 1

Figure 2




The Crumble code (https://redfernelectronics.co.uk/crumble-software/) used to test the system is shown below.




It moves and changing the direction of the motors does seem to have an effect.


What needs to be done?
  • There is a need for the motors more securely and the same with the wires to the motors. At the moment the motors falling off and wires disconnecting are the biggest problems. 
  • Trying out the new model with pens to get it to draw is part of the next iteration. 
  • Investigating the effect of directions and speed of the motors also needs to be investigated.






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
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Friday 2 April 2021

Most read posts on the Robots and Physical computing Blog - March 2021


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Make yourself a virtual gallery

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- September 11, 2016
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Scratch Robot Arm

- July 23, 2015
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- October 30, 2017
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Full details at http://bit.ly/2yZ3dZT There was three inspirations for this project ·       Eggbot - http://www.instructables.com/id/Plastic-Egg-Bot/?utm_content=buffer9b065&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer ·   Femi Owolade supported by Nic Hughes ran a session at Mozilla Festival 2016 using the Crumble’s to make a wheeled robot. ·   The junkbot project https://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ Kit ·       Kinder Egg (without the Chocolate and toy) ·       Crumble ·       4x Crocodile clips and leads ·       Battery pack and 3xAA ·       Vibrating motor ·       Tape (lots of) . Sticky-tack of some form. ·       Pens ·       Paper ·       Scissors ·       Glue and Gluegun (optional) Stage 1: Fix the vibrating motor into the Egg. Stick (sticky-tack is a good temporary method) the vibrating motor into the Egg with the motor electrical connections sticking out the bottom l
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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 simulators to play with. Three examples are listed below: - Make code for Lego EV3  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/05/programming-robots-virtually-3-lego-ev3.html   - i Robot simulator  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/04/programming-robots-virtually-2-irobot.html - Vex robotics Vexcode VR   https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/04/programming-robots-virtually-1-vexcode.html   It is the last one of these ( https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexcode-vr ) that is the focus of this post and return to hit, after an earlier discussion in  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2020/04/programming-robots-virtually-1-vexcode.html   .  Two of the nice things about the package, apart from being free, are it uses a Scratch-like programming language and it provides a 3D environment and models - playgrounds
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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
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Sunday 14 March 2021

Initial experiments with Code Bug Connect




Code Bug has been around for a while, and it is incredibly cute, When it first came, it was a very interesting piece of kit - and it is still is and fun to play with. It spec means it is still a very useful piece of kit.

  • 5x5 Red LED display
  • 2 buttons
  • 6 touch sensitive I/O pads (4 input/output, power and ground)
  • Micro USB socket
  • CR2032 battery holder
  • Expansion port for I2C, SPI and UART
  • Blockly-based online programming interface
  • CodeBug emulator for checking code before downloading

In 2020 Code Bug launched and successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/codebug/codebug-connect-cute-colourful-and-programmable-iot-wearable ) for a new version the Code Bug - CodeBug Connect with a serious upgrade.(and the name Connect is highly appropriate with USB tethering and Wifi capability in this version. The technical specification (taken from their site https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/codebug/codebug-connect-cute-colourful-and-programmable-iot-wearable ) shows how much of an upgrade this is:

  • 5x5 RGB LEDs with dedicated hardware driver/buffer
  • Two 5 way navigation joysticks
  • Onboard Accelerometer
  • 4 GPIO legs, including high impedance sensing for detecting touch (think  MaKey MaKey TM)
  • 6 Sewable/croc-clip-able loops. 4 I/O including analogue 1 power and ground
  • 6 pin GPIO 0.1" header (configurable for UART/I2C/SPI, I2S or analogue audio out)
  • QuadCore -- four heterogeneous processors
  • 4MB Flash Storage
  • 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11 b/n/g, Station and Soft AP (simultaneous)
  • Experimental long range wireless 0.8km to another CodeBug Connect
  • UART terminal access over USB
  • High efficiency SMPS Boost convertor for battery (JST PH connector)
  • High efficiency SMPS Buck convertor from 5V USB


Recently the early version of the Connects have been arriving and it is cool (IMHO). 


The getting going guide  https://cbc.docs.codebug.org.uk/gettingstarted/quickstart.html lives it up to its name and does a better explanation of doing this than I can provide here.



First I played with the USB and the blockly style programming tool https://www.codebug.org.uk/newide/ (see above) essentially producing a very slightly modified version of their starter code. You can perhaps see the Python style coming in with the while True coming in. Works well and it showed one of the different between this version and the older one; the LEDs are now colourful instead of red only. Programming it, while using the laptops USB to power it does lead to pulling the cable in and out to get the code to run - but that is fine and is clearly explained in the guide

You can connect it via wifi to a phone or a laptop so tried it with a phone. The getting started guide explains it well and the online editor allows you to program in micropython and example is shown below


import cbc

from color import Color

import time


while True:

  cbc.display.scroll_text(str(" Bug 1"), fg=Color('#f0ff20'))

  time.sleep(1)

 


They have even thought about security. I set my system to connect via wifi through my phone; but when I want to connect through my laptop I had to go through  the adoption process to try it on my phone and a laptop - sounds scary but it is well explained in the getting going guide and is relatively simple to do.


Looking forward to exploring the device a lot more, the guide also includes a number of code examples to play with and explore. A feature I particularly liked was seeing the block code rendered as python when using the editor on the phone.



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
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