Popular posts May 2023

• Microbit Remote Control CBiS Car

  I wanted to contol the CBiS micro:Bit Car via gestures whilst holding another micro:Bit (see Figure 1) I went for: - Button A in combinat...
• 

  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 ...
• 

  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...
• 

  Crumblebot - explorer bot?

  In an earlier post I played with 4Tronix's CrumbleBot to make an edge follower robot ( http://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.co.uk/...
• 

  Programming Robots Virtually 4: Preview of Edbot Studio

  In previous post I looked at a few on-line robot simulators (see links below) Programming VEX Code Programming  iRobot Simulator Programming...
• 

  Top read post on Blog in Feb 2020

  Popular Posts Moving Eyes with an Adafruit Adabox kit One of the things I enjoy is a subscription to Adabox from Adafruit, ...
• 

  Batmobile and micropython: first play

  How do you fancy, building and programming a Batmobile? A recently fulfilled Kickstarter project from Circuitmess allows just that  https://...
• 

  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...
• 

  Programming Robots Virtually 1 - VEXcode VR

  For a number of years, I have been playing with robots as a means of developing programming/coding skills with students. The problem is when...
• 

  Robot Software

  In the previous blog posts for this 'series' "It is a good time...."  Post 1  looked at the hardware unpinning some of...

Top locations

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

Batmobile and micropython: first play

How do you fancy, building and programming a Batmobile? A recently fulfilled Kickstarter project from Circuitmess allows just that https://circuitmess.com/products/batmobile;an autonomous 'car' kit, programmable and controlled through a separate controller. It can also be programmed through their  CircuitBlocks environment based on MakeCode and Blockly - this approach is the starting point for this first play.

There is not going to be discussion on the building of the controller and the batmobile, in this post; Circuitmess have provided detailed instructions here: https://circuitmess.com/blogs/resources/batmobile-build-guide 

Below is a video showing it off a bit and some of the functions produced by the manufacturers.

The video largely shows going through the controller to interact with the Batmobile. You can as well start coding through https://code.circuitmess.com/ the Circuitmess coding app mentioned earlier, and choose a sketch. The controller and batmobile can be programmed separately (see examples below) 

Just to start off, I choose a sketch to play with the front lights, back lights and underlights, essentially turning them off and on.

You will need to install micropython, but you get prompted and following the onscreen instructions it is easily done.

Using the Makecode/sketch provided, added a few missing under light (shines under the car) RGB values to enable a quick play. First set of RGB gives a reddy-pink colour and then changes to green. You code in the block code, and it gives the micropython code. Both are shown below.

It starts moving, then turns on the front lights and then off, then the back light on and off, and then the under lights.

Nice kit and there are various optional extras that can going with it - see https://circuitmess.com/products/batmobile and the shop through Buy Now halfway down the webpage. Including extension circuits that plug into the controller. I will explore more.

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

Programming Robots Virtually 4: Preview of Edbot Studio

In previous post I looked at a few on-line robot simulators (see links below)

• Programming VEX Code
• Programming  iRobot Simulator
• Programming Lego EV3 simulator

A recent addition to these is the Edbot Studio Virtual Playground https://studio.ed.bot/;  a preview of simulation technology for Robots in Schools Ltd Edbot robots. 

Two Edbot robots are shown in a gym; you can select actions for the robots to carry out, including Gangam-style dancing and Head Stands.

This is really a preview of the tech, rather than a programming option - at the moment. Robots in Schools Ltd, who make the Edbots, say the Virtual Playground will be part of their Edbot Studio a browser-based Environment to allow both coding in Scratch, Python and JavaScript, of both virtual and real robots.

I am really curious to see the full Edbot Studio in action when it is released, but for the moment getting virtual robots to dance and kick is still really good fun.

The physical robots -EdBot are available from https://ed.bot/

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

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

Hug Avoider 2 - #4tronix #Eggbit

In an earlier post this year ( 4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider) I played with 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). In that one I used a microbit V1.

In this post, I am using a microbit V2 and replicating the idea but with adding a sound; when people get too close as a bit of fun and surprise for relatives at christmas. 

The code written using Makecode for Microbit (https://makecode.microbit.org/) and the extension for it 4Tronix's developed (see https://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=2485 for more details)  is shown below:

Essentially the device goes on; puts a message on the LED display "Hug Avoider 2" and then puts a rainbow on the neopixel syle LEDs and a smile on the small 'mouth' - if the ultrasonic sensor doesn't pick up anyone in front.

If the ultrasonic sensor picks up anyone in front; LEDS change to red, a sped-up version of one of the standard tunes in Makercode is played and the mouth changes to a surprised look.

Good fun, didn't stop anyone and my son made one with the LEDs lighting up as the person got closer.

What I want to look at is the possibility of programming it with Python - something for the new year.

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