Showing posts with label physical computing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label physical computing. Show all posts

Sunday 26 June 2016

CodeBug at code club




These little devices provide something different to a code. To see the coding interface go to http://www.codebug.org.uk/ (or see figures 1 and 2) and click on create.



Last two weeks
Week 1 
The code clubbers initially shared machines, playing with the CodeBug environment, practice downloading to the bug, writing a routine to scroll their short message. The challenge was then to develop a routine to have a smiley face and a grumpy face scroll across the screen.


Week 2
All have access to the simulation and code generation on codebug.org.uk but this time they don’t have the CodeBug each, they have complete a challenge and run it on the simulation before get a CodeBug to try it. This week's challenge was to get the smiley and grumpy face from week 1 to be selected via the buttons (A and B) - so it involved a loop and conditional statements. Most of them picked it up very quickly.

Two version were built - I reconstructed the ideas in figures 1 and 2 (the code clubbers often did a better version than mine shown here!).

Figure 1: Simple Scroll
The one shown in Figure 1 works by pressing A -scrolls :-) and B - scrolls :-( . Some spotted that the the 'nose' wasn't quite in the place. Some went and found the build sprite block and used that instead.
Figure 2 - Using the build sprite.




Lessons learnt
  • Give them all access individually to the CodeBug website but not to the physical CodeBug straight away
    • They are often a limited resources
    • There is a great temptation from the code clubbers to focus on download to the actual device when the seem to get more done if the spend more time with website and its simulator first;
    • When they have something interesting to put on the ‘bug’; then they can borrow a bug and try it out.
  • They should do a bit of show and tell.

Related posts
Basic Motor Control using CodeBug
messing around with Codebug




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.

Friday 24 June 2016

Playing with Smurf the Robot

Experimenting with an Aldebaran NAO robot - nicknamed Smurf - to get the robot to deliver a short welcome. The video below show the robot being simulated using the code in figure 1 and then shows the 'Smurf' actually carrying out the routine (the bottom video show this bit without the simulator). The only difference in the code on the simulator and the one running on the actual robot was an extra command was added at the start of the one on the robot to only start when the top of the head is tapped.



figure 1. Choregraphe program for the routine.






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.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Drone at Code Club





Recently i have been taking a Parrot minedrone and the Tickle App (https://tickleapp.com/en-us/) to Code Club session, as an extra activity.

For those there actually programmed something that flies and it is quite engaging - having something you are controlling being able to move in all directions.


I wish the mini-drone had a little bit more battery time (I would suggest getting an extra battery). Combining with the drone and the Tickle App does add something to the experience, rather than just control it directly (though that is fun). The noise is also not to everyone's taste so it has to be used carefully in that context, but also from a safety point of view.



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.

Thursday 25 February 2016

MakeyMakey at Beavers


Recent had a great time playing with a MakeyMakey board (see an example below taken from an Amazon site) with some Beaver Scouts. 

The basis of the activity was a very simple scratch program; where the 'space' key (banana number one) played one recording and 'left key' (better know as banana number two) played another recording. 



Started with a few drum sounds, but when the session really took off was when they started recording their own sounds. Lots of shouts, shrieks and names but it engaged them…and left me with two very smashed up bananas.

Details of the MakeyMakey boards can be found at: http://www.makeymakey.com/

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.

Saturday 12 December 2015

Experience at Raspberry Pi Cademy 7-8th December 2015

I was fortunate to get a place at Picademy (#picademy) this week. It was a fantastic opportunity and great fun, especially as most of it was about Physical computing.





In the screenshot above I was playing SonicPi (http://sonic-pi.net/) programming music (or trying to create music in my case). If you haven't had a go at throughly recommend it. It is great that SonicPi is available on the Mac and PC as well. 

Playing with connecting Python and Minecraft is very engaging and fun, but programming LEDs and Motors through either the the GPIO or using an HAT (see the images below) is just what I enjoy the most.


In the above image was my attempt at a simple 'Dalek' - essentially a cup and straw, with a wheeled motor inside. Controlled using python,  Pi through an ExplorerHat. It essentially moved in a circle either clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Rise of Rabbitsapien - A team of us put together a project of a robot with a rabbit (no other soft toys were available) with a Passive IR sensor in its belly; that carries out a set routine when movement is detected.




It was also great to come away with some many resources both physical and activities. Thank you to the Pi Foundation for such a good experience.




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.

ChatGPT, Data Scientist - fitting it a bit

This is a second post about using ChatGPT to do some data analysis. In the first looked at using it to some basic statistics  https://robots...