Minecraft, jam and history in the making

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/minecraft-jam-and-history-in-the-making/

History was made on Saturday as the University of Northampton hosted Northamptonshire’s first-ever Raspberry Jam.

Raspberry Jams see those with an interest in the affordable – and tiny –Raspberry Pi computer get together to share knowledge, learn new things and meet other enthusiasts.

More than 30 people of all ages attended the county’s inaugural Jam at Avenue Campus, which was organised by the University’s Associate Professor in Computing and Immersive Technologies, Dr Scott Turner.

He said: “The Jam was a real success, with a wide mixture of people including fairly notable experts; those who have a Pi, but aren’t quite sure what to do with it and complete novices.

“It was great to see people who had some sort of Pi-related query have their questions answered, and others showing off what they have managed to get their Pi to do.

“It really helped to inspire the novices to get more involved in the Raspberry Pi, which will ultimately help them develop their coding skills.”

Computing and Science teacher Steve Foster, from Wollaston School, led a session on the popular Minecraft game, and was ably assisted by five of his Year 10 pupils.

One of the pupils, Ellie, said: “One of the groups had a problem with their coding and I managed to solve it for them. I love the challenges a Raspberry Pi can give you, and when you are able to solve the problem it’s really cool.”

The University is committed to making a positive social impact on the people of Northamptonshire and has set itself four ambitious challenges to meet by 2020.

One of these ‘Changemaker+ Challenges’ is to make Northamptonshire the best county in the UK for children and young people to flourish and learn – something the Raspberry Jam has contributed to.

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.

Dancing bot on a Microbit

In a earlier post on using micro:bit (Playing with microbit emulator-dancing bot)  a simple dancing robot image (using the 5x 5 grid was created). 
A dancing bot - 3x3 box for the body, with two legs. 

Thanks to a loan of a Micro:Bit from Lancaster University I can experiment with an actual micro:bit (@SCC_Lancaster @LMcUnderwood)











Experiment  1 - Using the buttons

So the functions for the idea were:

• Button A - Move to the left and then back to the starting position;
• Button B - Move to the right and then back to the starting position;
• Buttons A+B - Jump up and then back to the starting position;
• Shake - 'Crouches' and then back to the starting position

On the Microbit









Experiment 2- To add left and right tilting to it.
So if the micro:bit is tilted to the right the 'bot'  moves to the right, and the same for the left.

The tilting operation here is essentially - when the x on the accelerometer is less than zero move the 'bot' to the left and when it greater than zero go to the right.

Video showing it in action





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.

Pimoroni Flotilla first play with Python.

The Mega Treasure Chest Flotilla set from Pimoroni, was kickstarter project that got a lot of people interested. A nice package - a hub for a collection of devices such as light sensors, barometer, temperature, switches, motors and many more; all linked to a Raspberry Pi. The kit is shown in the image to the left.

A Python API exist for this system. Instructions on how to set up the Flotilla to work with Python can be found at http://flotil.la/start/ .

I wanted to play with switching the Rainbow (A set of RGB LEDs) outputs to Red, Blue and Green by pressing either 2,3, or 4 on the Touch Sensor as in the images.

Using the mini-kit example from https://github.com/pimoroni/flotilla-python/blob/master/examples/mini-kit.py as the basis, produced a simple system that uses the Touch module and its buttons 2,3 and 4 to change the Rainbow; the code is shown below and ran on a Raspberry Pi 3 using Python 3.

import colorsys

import flotilla

import time

client= flotilla.Client(

    requires={

        'one':flotilla.Rainbow,

        'two':flotilla.Touch

    })

def module_changed(channel,module):

    rainbow=client.first(flotilla.Rainbow)

    if module.is_a(flotilla.Touch):

        if module.one:

            rainbow.set_pixel(0,255,0).update()

        else:

            rainbow.set_pixel(0,0,0).update()

while not client.ready:

    pass

touch=client.first(flotilla.Touch)

rainbow=client.first(flotilla.Rainbow)

hue=0

lights_on= True

try:

    while True:

        if touch.one:

            lights_on = not lights_on

        if touch.two:

            rainbow.set_all(255,0,0).update()

        if touch.three:

            rainbow.set_all(0,255,0).update()

        if touch.four:

            rainbow.set_all(0,0,255).update()

        time.sleep(0.5)

except KeyboardInterrupt:

    client.stop()

The video below shows the system in action.

I look forward to playing with it a bit more and I would love to hear what others are doing with the Flotilla.


An other example of Python and Flotilla in action can be seen at 

 http://home.uktechreviews.com/Raspberry/Pi%20blog/files/flotilla1.html 

Related links

• http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=14476
• http://forums.pimoroni.com/t/flotilla-unofficial-getting-started-guide/1498
• https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/flotilla/products/flotilla-mega-treasure-chest-starter-kit

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.

Experiences with Raspberry Pi Touch Screen

Well for once I am not going to be talking about robots, but my experience in setting up a Raspberry Pi touch screen - this is not a how to guide, a couple links to those are included in the post, but my experience of setting one up. 

So the I bought the Raspberry Pi Touch Screen from Pimoroni and along with the stand/frame for it.

Setting up the LCD frame was simple with the instructions provided and the link at the end of the instructions provide some further help http://learn.pimoroni.com/tutorial/pi-lcd/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-7-touchscreen-lcd on setting up the screen

A tutorial from The PiHut (https://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-tutorials/45295044-raspberry-pi-7-touch-screen-assembly-guide) was very useful on how to connect the screen to the Pi. The blue side  on the white ribbon cable (provided with the screen) used in connecting the two together needs to blue side down towards the LCD (as explained in PiHut tutorial) and facing away from the Pi when connecting to it, which is the bit I was unsure of. Connecting the power via the jumper leads that came with the screen means only a single power supply is need for both the screen and Pi. If you follow the  PiHut tutorial the colours of the jumper leads may needed to be changed but that is not a problem. 

I used Raspbian OS and when power up with a power lead (it needs to output enough current to power both devices) both the Pi and screen came on without any difficulty.  

The touchscreen worked well as a mouse and the single power lead makes the system much more compact.


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.

mBot - cute, fun and Arduino based

I have had an opportunity (ie, the time) to play with mBot, Scratch Programmable Robot using the mBlock software which appears to be a modified version of Scratch - so relatively easy to use. They have added a section of blocks, to the standard set, marked Robots containing blocks for both Arduino and mBot. 

An earlier blog post (mbots - graphical programming and Arduino) discuss some of the basics of the robot. Just for fun I wanted to play with the ultrasonic sensor, getting the robot to react, change direction (run away) and the 'face' on an LED matrix that came with the robot if there is an object in the way.

The routine

• Loop
• Show a smiley face (using Port 4 )
• If the ultrasonic detector senses something close (guessed at a setting of 10)
• Go backwards quickly
• Play a tone
• Show an upside-down smiley face 
• wait 1 sec
• Otherwise
• Move forward
• End the loop

Download the code to the mBot using the Upload to Arduino button (see below). Here is where you find out whether you have set the system up correctly. In the mBlock editor pull down menu choose Connect and select the required connection; I have been using a USB cable so I needed to select the serial option and select the USB hub. After that using the Upload to Arduino button did lead to the code downloading.

The video below shows it in action

This is good fun, and a very cute. The build quality of the bots (not my building ability) the metallic construction means the bots feel substantial.  The software as it is Scratch based I think it will be interesting to try it out with my Code Clubbers - especially as they have been asking to play with more robots.

As always I would be interested to hear from others on their experiences of using this little robot.

Related links
mbots - graphical programming and Arduino






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.

Playing with the micro:bit Emulator - Dancing bot part 2

In a earlier post on using micro:bit (Playing with microbit emulator-dancing bot)  a simple dancing robot image (using the 5x 5 grid was created). In this post of modified version using the events to do pretty much the same thing (except the two button action)- A dancing bot - 3x3 box for the body, with two legs. 













So the functions for the idea were:

• Button A - make it bob up and down;
• Button B - makes it move to the left and right;

• On shake - make it jump up and down.

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.

Playing with the micro:bit Emulator - Dancing bot

The micro:bit (https://www.microbit.co.uk/about) has been in the press quite a bit recently - rightly so. 

At the moment I have not got my hands on an actual one, though someone generously (more in later posts on that) will be lending me one to play with. Luckily you do not need the device to start playing; the code editor (https://www.microbit.co.uk/create-code) has an emulator built in, so you can start playing. This post reports on my first go.

So, I am starting with experimenting with the editor, using Microsoft's Block Editor - which is similar to Blockly and Scratch as an interface.

What I built is simple but that is fine - A dancing bot - 3x3 box for the body, with two legs. I wanted to play with getting some interaction that uses the buttons (A and B) and shaking. So the functions for the idea were:

• Button A - make it bob up and down;
• Button B - makes it move to the left and right;
• Shaking it - makes it appear to jump and land (see below);
• Button A+B together makes it do one of the moves of up, down, left and right.

The video below shows it action. 




The other nice thing is go convert to the Microsoft touch Developer version (see below) with a click.

I really enjoyed playing with this, the next stage to try it on physical micro:bit. 

I would be interested to hear from others about they have been doing with this (including just the emulator).


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.