Robots and Physical Computing: python

Showing posts with label python. Show all posts

Friday 31 December 2021

Sunday 26 December 2021

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.

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

Thursday 23 December 2021

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.

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

Tuesday 29 June 2021

Microbit and Environment Measurement - Using Python

In two recent posts, Makecode was used with the Enviro:bit from Pimoroni to try out a few ideas (https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/06/pimoroni-envirobit.html and https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/06/pimoroni-envirobit-light-and-led.html ). In this post Pyton using the Mu editor was used to try out the Enviro:bit.

As in the makeCode version, Pimoroni has provided both a python library (via Github) but also within the Readme.md useful installation instructions. There is at the time of writing a possible typo; to get the BME280 sensor (temperature, pressure, humidity sensor) to work; you need to add parenthesis in the line bme = bme280.bme280()

After that, it works fine and includes potential altitude measurement which I don't think is in the Makecode version (though I could be wrong); I need to play with it a bit more.

To experiment the code below was used test reading temperature (in Centigrade), humidity (%), and altitude (feet). In the examples, currently provided with the library, I couldn't find a BME280 example but it was fairly easy to adapt the examples included to get something going.

import microbit

import bme280

bme = bme280.bme280()

while True:

reading = bme.temperature()

microbit.display.scroll("temp: ")

microbit.display.scroll(str(reading))

microbit.sleep(3000)

reading = bme.humidity()

microbit.display.scroll("humidity: ")

microbit.display.scroll(str(reading))

microbit.sleep(3000)

reading = bme.altitude()

microbit.display.scroll("Alt: ")

microbit.display.scroll(str(reading))

microbit.sleep(3000)

It is a cool and fun device to play with, though I not sure the precision of the readings shown on the microbit LEDs is really necessary :-)

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

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

Monday 22 February 2021

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 would like to play with Python and do a Python version of it. Well it is actually very easy to do it.

You can do it in two stages from the block code. First click on the <> icon (lighted in the figure above and it gives a further view producing Python code that changes as you change the blocks. The last stage is to convert to a text project (button at the bottom right of the screen.

Example of the code.

myVariable = 0

def when_started1():

    global myVariable

    drivetrain.drive_for(FORWARD, 100, MM)

    while not down_eye.detect(RED):

        drivetrain.drive_for(FORWARD, 5, MM)

        if right_bumper.pressed():

            drivetrain.drive_for(REVERSE, 30, MM)

            drivetrain.turn_for(LEFT, 20, DEGREES)

            drivetrain.drive_for(FORWARD, 20, MM)

        else:

            if left_bumper.pressed():

                drivetrain.drive_for(REVERSE, 30, MM)

                drivetrain.turn_for(LEFT, 120, DEGREES)

                drivetrain.drive_for(FORWARD, 10, MM)

            else:

                drivetrain.turn_for(RIGHT, 10, DEGREES)

                drivetrain.drive_for(FORWARD, 10, MM)

        wait(5, MSEC)

vr_thread(when_started1())

The code in action

This is possibly a nice transition tool going from block-based programming to text-based.

Related posts

https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/02/escape-maze-with-vr-robot-vex-vr.html

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 h any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

Sunday 21 February 2021

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 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

- iRobot 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 for a number of scenarios.

So in this post, I will be discussing playing, or rather starting to play with the robot navigating a 3D maze (see the figure above). A feature I particularly like is you can change the views from an overhead view to an onboard version or one that seems to follow the robot.

So as I starting point I programmed it to essentially bounce along the walls keeping the wall on it's right and stopping when the downward 'eye' detects red on the floor for the end of the maze. The sensors include left and right bumper sensors; along with two sensors for detecting colours one facing forward and one down. The code I use is shown below:

It took 8 minutes to solve the maze - which is slow. I would be interested to see the solutions of others being shared. As a simulated robot programming system this is great fun and challenging, I would recommend having a play iot is free and available at https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexcode-vr. I want to have a go with the Python version to replicate or better the solution above (start it as a text project rather than a blocks project when starting a new project).

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

Saturday 1 September 2018

Build a Disco cube:bit that reacts to music.

In a previous post Micro:bit and Cube:bit 'says' Hello I introduced the start of me playing with the 4tronix Cube:bit. One of the things I want to try is get the cube to react to music, based around the accelerometers in a micro:bit picking up vibrations. Luckily, in an earlier post, I had done something similar for the Proto-Pic Micro:pixel (see Dancing Pixels for more details).

Essentially the idea is the vibrations from the music shake the micro:bit enough to give measurable changes in three axis, and these values are used to change the pixel's colour - in fact five pixels at a time.

The code shown below is all that was needed:
from microbit import *
import neopixel, random

np = neopixel.NeoPixel(pin0, 125)

while True:
for pxl in range (2,125, 5):
rd=int(abs(accelerometer.get_x())/20)
gr=int(abs(accelerometer.get_y())/20)
bl=int(abs(accelerometer.get_z())/20)
np[pxl] = (rd, gr, 0)
np[pxl-1] = (rd, gr, 0)
np[pxl+1] = (0, gr, rd)
np[pxl-2] = (rd, 0, 0)
np[pxl+2] = (0, gr,0)

np.show()

Here it is in action:

The music used in the video is

Please feel free to improve on this.

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

Monday 20 August 2018

Getting Crabby with EduBlock for Microbit

This is really pulling together two recent posts, one when I started playing with Edublocks for the microbit and one about playing with BinaryBots Crab .

The BinaryBots Totem Crab is available at https://www.binarybots.co.uk/crab.aspx

Here I going to use Edublocks (https://microbit.edublocks.org/) by @all_about_code to control the claw of the Crab to close when button A is pressed (and display a C on the LEDs) and open the claw when button B is pressed. For a discussion on the Crab and what the pins are, etc goto http://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/08/crabby-but-fun.html for more details.

The timing of the opening and closing is controlled by how long the C or O takes to scroll across the LEDs. As an aside, but I found it interesting (it appeals to my geekiness), if you save the blocks, using the Save button; it stores it as an XML file, an example extract is shown below:

Now I want to explore a little the Python editor in Edublocks; to see if it can be used to expand the range of activities. The code as it stands now:

Using some code developed by CBiS Education/ BinaryBots I have added some code to read the Crab's temperature sensor and display "Warm" or "Cold" depending on this. The code uses the struct module to convert between strings of bytes (see https://pymotw.com/2/struct/) and native Python data types. to work with the I2C bus which the Crab sensors use (more details on the bus can be found https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/i2c.html ). The code below was then download as a hex file to the microbit as before.

The Crab's reads in the temperature and displays either message "Warm" or "Cold" - currently repeatedly "Warm". The open and closing of the claws still works.

So this was a double win, I had a chance to explore whether the Edublocks Python works as advertised and it does and an opportunity to play with the Crab a bit more; a definite win-win.

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Chris Burgess and the team at Binary Bots/CBiS Education for sending me a copy of the Python code for accessing the sensors on the Crab.

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

Speech with EduBlocks on BBC microbit

The microbit is a great piece of kit, not least of which because of the range of programming languages and tools that can be used with it - officially JavaScript and Python and but there is also a range of third-party ones. A useful place to look for what languages/tools are available is http://microbit.org/code-alternative-editors/; listing both official and third-party tools (there was a few I wasn't aware of ). One I was aware and meaning to play with, is the brilliant Edublocks by Josh Lowe (@all_about_code) or more specifically in this post Edublocks for BBC Micro:bit (https://microbit.edublocks.org/).

Edublocks for the microbit (and Edublocks in general) allows graphical blocks of code, in a similar way to languages such as Scratch, to be dragged and dropped into places. That in itself would be great, but the really useful thing here is though, whilst doing it you are actually producing a Python program (technically in the microbit case micropython)- a good way (as others have said before e.g https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/coding-the-bbc-microbit-with-edublocks ) of bridging the gap between block based programming tand text-based programming language (ie. Python). Added to this is the support for Python on the microbit and the things like speech, access the pins and neopixels you have a really useful and fun tool.

Talk is cheap (sort of!)
The project shown here is getting the microbit to 'talk' using speech. I have attached a microbit to Pimoroni's noise bit for convenience (https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/noise-bit) but equally, alligator wires and headphones could be used (https://www.microbit.co.uk/blocks/lessons/hack-your-headphones/activity ). The routine below allows when button A on the microbit is pressed the Microbit (through a speaker) to say Hello, B say Good bye and when both pressed Now what ? Simple but fun.

The equivalent Python code

They are essentially the same.

Here is a video of it in action:

Thoughts.

As you might have gathered I think this Edublocks for the microbit is a fantastic tool. I am planning my new experiments with it now- coming soon to this blog. Edublocks for the microbit is not all Edublocks can do, the project itself can be found at https://edublocks.org/ is well worth a look. For playing with the microbit for the first time with Python I would recommend Edublocks for the microbit https://microbit.edublocks.org/

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

Robots and Physical Computing

Friday 31 December 2021

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

Speech Recognition in Scratch 3 - turning Hello into Bonjour!

PS3 Controller to move a USB Robot Arm

Scratch Robot Arm

Tinkercad and Microbit: To make a neuron

Escape the Maze with a VR robot - Vex VR

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

Coral Dev Board and Raspberry Pi

Explaining the Tinkercad microbit Neural network

VR robot in a maze - from Blocks to Python

4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider

Sunday 26 December 2021

Hug Avoider 4 - micropython, Eggbot and speech

Hug Avoider 3 - experiments with Python and 4Tronix Eggbit

Thursday 23 December 2021

Hug Avoider 3 - experiments with Python and 4Tronix Eggbit

Tuesday 29 June 2021

Microbit and Environment Measurement - Using Python

Sunday 14 March 2021

Initial experiments with Code Bug Connect

Monday 22 February 2021

VR robot in a maze - from Blocks to Python

Sunday 21 February 2021

Escape the Maze with a VR robot - Vex VR

Saturday 1 September 2018

Build a Disco cube:bit that reacts to music.

Monday 20 August 2018

Getting Crabby with EduBlock for Microbit

Speech with EduBlocks on BBC microbit

Top posts on this blog in March 2024

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