Propeller Communication with Computer Running Scratch or BYOB for DAQ education
brianm734
Posts: 29
Has anyone used Scratch or BYOB to communicate with a propeller project?
The propeller makes for a powerful analog / digital data acquisition and control device at low cost, but is lacking in complex user interface programming abilities that kids (and big kids like me) find attractive.
Using a programming environment like 12Blocks (http://12blocks.com/) , children can easily program the Propeller to do some amazing things, but the projects (as complex as they are) can only have small, low resolution displays.
Using a programming environment like Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) or BYOB (http://byob.berkeley.edu/) a child can program games, and even use very simple IO devices like the PicoBoard (http://www.picocricket.com/picoboard.html , http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10311). The programs can have large displays, play video, play music, and interface to cameras. The software runs on PC or Linux and it is free.
Considering the Scratch or BYOB software can run on something as simple as a Debian Linux Single board computer like the Raspberry Pi (~$45 after shipping), and the average simple Propeller board is ~$30 (after shipping), I think it would be great to make these two work together for a really powerful and customizable learning / teaching / experimentor tool.
The Scratch or BYOB program runs on a PC or Linux distro and handles the complex video and user interface stuff, and communicates with the Propeller through a USB port. The Propeller handles all the IO / DAQ stuff, and allows for easy experimentation.
I just started playing with BYOB, and it looks like this kind of commucation could work.
If this idea sounds cool to anyone, then maybe we could all develop some kind of standard Object for the Propeller end of things (for the communication part) and some standard blocks for Scratch or BYOB.
To be clear - This is more for kids or people who have little / no programming knowledge. Or for people like me with hardware knowledge, but who don't think like a software engineer.
Maybe we can get Hanno Sander ( http://hannoware.com/ ), the creater of 12Blocks, to give us his input on this.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
The propeller makes for a powerful analog / digital data acquisition and control device at low cost, but is lacking in complex user interface programming abilities that kids (and big kids like me) find attractive.
Using a programming environment like 12Blocks (http://12blocks.com/) , children can easily program the Propeller to do some amazing things, but the projects (as complex as they are) can only have small, low resolution displays.
Using a programming environment like Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) or BYOB (http://byob.berkeley.edu/) a child can program games, and even use very simple IO devices like the PicoBoard (http://www.picocricket.com/picoboard.html , http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10311). The programs can have large displays, play video, play music, and interface to cameras. The software runs on PC or Linux and it is free.
Considering the Scratch or BYOB software can run on something as simple as a Debian Linux Single board computer like the Raspberry Pi (~$45 after shipping), and the average simple Propeller board is ~$30 (after shipping), I think it would be great to make these two work together for a really powerful and customizable learning / teaching / experimentor tool.
The Scratch or BYOB program runs on a PC or Linux distro and handles the complex video and user interface stuff, and communicates with the Propeller through a USB port. The Propeller handles all the IO / DAQ stuff, and allows for easy experimentation.
I just started playing with BYOB, and it looks like this kind of commucation could work.
If this idea sounds cool to anyone, then maybe we could all develop some kind of standard Object for the Propeller end of things (for the communication part) and some standard blocks for Scratch or BYOB.
To be clear - This is more for kids or people who have little / no programming knowledge. Or for people like me with hardware knowledge, but who don't think like a software engineer.
Maybe we can get Hanno Sander ( http://hannoware.com/ ), the creater of 12Blocks, to give us his input on this.
Thanks in advance for any advice.