Today I begin to learn about the Arduino – the microprocessor, the IDE, the electronics around the processor and the projects, the C based program, etc., and what I realize, again, is that I know so little about so much!

I’m reading Getting Started with Arduino, 2nd Edition, by Massimo Banzi, one of the co-founders of the Arduino. It’s a great book – very accessible. In the book he explains beginning electronics well – something that I know almost nothing about. Something as simple as this, to me, is a revelation:

R (resistance) = V (voltage) / I (current)
V = R * I
I = V / R

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I went on to create my first project and it all went well – I answered some of the questions wandering in my mind and, of course, those made more arise. When I look at the code I feel as if I understand most of it, but not all. It’s that disequilibrium that seems to underlie most of what I do within the tech arena – and I’m not sure I’m functioning with that feeling any better than I ever have…

const int LED = 13; // the pin for the LED
const int BUTTON = 7; // the input pin where the
// pushbutton is connected
int val = 0; // val will be used to store the state
// of the input pin
int old_val = 0; // this variable stores the previous
// value of “val”
int state = 0; // 0 = LED off while 1 = LED on

void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
pinMode(LED, OUTPUT); // tell Arduino LED is an output
pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT); // and BUTTON is an input
}

void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
val = digitalRead(BUTTON); // read input value and store it

// check if the input is HIGH (button pressed)
// and change the state

if (val == HIGH) {
state = 1 – state;
}

old_val = val; // val is now old, let’s store it

if (state == 1) {
digitalWrite(LED, HIGH); // turn LED ON

} else {
digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
}

}

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• I’m quite comfortable saying, “I don’t know, let’s find out,” but working alone makes that not so easy – I would far prefer to be working in a small group of active learners – bouncing ideas, new revelations, previous learning reminded – that’s helpful for me. It’s great that there are so many online communities with the resources they provide and that finding an answer to a question, or learning how to ask a question in a better way, is so quickly available, but the human give and take, the purpose behind the task of the moment seems to be lessened without that interaction.
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The second project entailed using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) – a way to  change its brightness by changing the ratio between the on time and the off time of an LED. I got it to work, and have a fairly good idea how the code works, but again, I’m not feeling that comfortable with it. After reading 66 of the 130 pages and doing the projects up to that point I’m starting to feel that familiar feeling of cognitive overload and think that it’s best to stop for the moment.

const int LED = 9; // the pin for the LED
int i = 0; // We’ll use this to count up and down

void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
pinMode(LED, OUTPUT); // tell Arduino LED is an output
}

void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
for (i = 0; i < 255; i++) { // loop from 0 to 254 (fade in)
analogWrite(LED, i); // set the LED brightness
delay(10); // Wait 10ms because analogWrite
// is instantaneous and we would
// not see any change
}

for (i = 255; i > 0; i–) { // loop from 255 to 1 (fade out)
analogWrite(LED, i); // set the LED brightness
delay(10); // Wait 10ms
}

}

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Finally, after postal delays from China and not being able to leave the house from a bad dirt road, I have everything I need to continue my coding studies with Arduino and the RPi. I’m pretty far behind so I’ll have to spend a lot of the next few days catching up.

I’m using Brian Hill’s (sentdex)  YouTube tutorial – Raspberry pi with Python for Robotics and the SainSmart 4WD Chassis Aluminum Mobile Robot Platform For Robot Arduino Raspberry Pi for both my Pi and Arduino projects.

So far I have been through two of the seven tutorials and written my first bit of Python code. I’ve attached one motor to the bridge and tested it and everything works fine so far

Because it’s Project Week, and I’m going to be putting together a RPi robot that will depend on Python to run, I am going to begin a Python tutorial. To start I went to the Python Wiki and found Python for Beginners. It’s asking me to learn about IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) and text editors. I choose PyCharm as my IDE because it’s open source, was updated not long ago, and supports two of the platforms I’m using, to choose a text editor I go to the Debian Wiki as the OS I’m using, “Jesse,” is the codename of Debian 8.  I choose Vim as my text editor. I installed Vim from the handy add / remove software in the accessories folder, but can’t find PyCharm in the directory of programs. I downloaded it from their site, but don’t have enough experience unpacking a tar, nor really where to put it – or anything. I do try my best to find an answer because there’s so much learning in the process, but it’s best that I don’t make a mistake – a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Leaving the IDE for the moment, I am going to focus on learning the command line editor Vi – I have Vim installed and I’m using a good YouTube tutorial from Alvin Alexander.

The second part of my Creating with Code assignment is to find one mobile app that helps children to learn how to code and to explore that app and reflect upon it as I wish. I began the process by downloading nine suggested apps; Cargo-B0t, Kodable, Tickle, Daisy the Dino, The Foos, Hopscotch, Lightbot Hour, Scratch Jr., and TinkerBox.

The next step was to open one website for each app and to be totally judgmental in terms of aesthetics, likely support, popularity, and most importantly, whether I want this piece of software in my classroom life – can I stand to see it on a consistent basis? I immediately drop Daisy the Dino as it’s way to ‘cute’ and I know I will tire of her quickly. I lose TinkerBox because I see no appreciable web presence and therefore little community connection.

The next step was to open each one of the remaining seven on the iPad to get an initial impression. I drop Kodable for aesthetic reasons; the character’s voice and cutesy blinking eyes are too much to bear day-to-day, ditto for The Foos. Now I’m down to five apps that, thankfully, look quite promising. I leave Tickle behind because I know I will use it for other reasons, Hopscotch because it seems the weakest of the ‘block’ apps, and Lightbot Hour only because it seemed the need to include music, which is sometimes a deal breaker in a classroom, even with a mute button.

I played with Cargo-Bot and Scratch Jr. for a while and choose Scratch Jr. because it’s scalable to Scratch, its ease of use, the recording function, its community support, and seems quite deep enough so as not to tire of it.

In the not so very distant future expect a post on a planned “Scratch Day” in which I will use Scratch on my Raspberry Pi, Scratch on CS First, and my new member of the family, Scratch Jr.