[TriEmbed] Middle school presentation

[jonjwolfe at anibit.com]

I plan to make a video or two.

On 2015-01-26 08:17, Shane Trent wrote:
> Jon,
> 
> Amazing project. Very cool. Any chance you have a walk-through video?
> I would like to see a "Blink" demo, perhaps at the Triembed meeting if
> nothing else.
> 
> Separately I would love to learn a little about the tools and
> development process you used for the project.
> 
> Shane
> 
> On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 1:53 PM, <jonjwolfe at anibit.com> wrote:
> 
>> I'll take this opportunity to plug/solicit feedback on a new tool I
>> came up with that coincidentally is targeted at teaching Arduino
>> programming to kids and beginners. I've adapted code from the MIT
>> app inventor and a similar project for Arduinos named Blocklyduino.
>> (Both are based on the 'Blockly' graphical programming library) I'm
>> working on some code clean-up and then I'll publish it on github
>> under Apache license. My adaptation has a focus on the Pololu 3Pi
>> robot, but should be usable with generic Arduinos too.
>> 
>> The app itself runs in a web browser, and you can cut and paste the
>> resulting code into an Arduino IDE. It does run on tablets, though
>> not very well, I hope to fix that eventually. (It also has major
>> problems in IE, but works fine in Chrome/Firefox/Safari)
>> 
>> You can play with it here: https://anibit.com/webtools/3pi/ [1]
>> 
>> The "Getting started" help is not written yet.
>> 
>> I'm working on a Windows version that runs the webapp internally and
>> talks to the Arduino IDE to let you upload you code in one click. I
>> have proof of concept working for that, but I need to add some
>> polish and clean-up and I'll publish that too.
>> 
>> As far as economy programming devices, I'm torn between the Adafruit
>> ISP and the Pololu One. The Pololu programmer is a hair cheaper
>> ($19.95) and also has UART functionality, and an ultra low bandwidth
>> scope. As an aside, AVR ISP devices that can work at 3.3V seem to be
>> hard to come by. The AVR Dragon can do it, it has built in level
>> shifters to use the target voltage. The Dragon is more expensive at
>> ~$50, but it really is the Cadillac of cheap AVR programmers, it
>> also does JTAG and and debugging too, just treat it delicately.
>> 
>> --Jon
>> 
>> On 2015-01-24 19:31, Pete Soper wrote:
>>> You imply a key point, Shane: it would be very frustrating for a
>>> whole class full of kids to share a single computer. My experience
>> has
>>> been with settings where kids are going from place to place such
>> that
>>> only a few are at any one thing at a time. I totally lost sight of
>>> that with my posting to the list. The other significant headache
>> with
>>> the RPI approach is the pile of free little monitors out in the
>> world
>>> do not support HDMI and the pile of free mice and keyboards are
>> often
>>> PS2 vs the necessary USB type. Then there's power supplies, etc.
>> To
>>> make even a small number of these systems would involve scrounging
>> a
>>> lot of stuff.
>>> 
>>> I looked at the slides and poked around in the Eagle files for the
>>> project Shane pointed to and have a few comments.
>>> 
>>> I agree this project could provide an INCREDIBLE experience for 6+
>>> graders. But to emulate the format described in the slides would
>>> require some number of programmers (they used one per pair of
>>> students). Jon Wolfe of Anibit might make a deal on a batch of
>>> Adafruit USBtinyISP programmer kits but they're retail price is
>> about
>>> $22.
>>> 
>>> But one additional pain might be that edge connector. I really
>>> expected to see a 2x3 or 2x5 PIN header connector on this board.
>> But
>>> it appears this board would require some kind of edge to pin
>> header
>>> connector (that feels like it could cost a few bucks a throw) or
>> else
>>> an adapter cable (guestimate a buck a piece). The Adafruit
>> programmer
>>> comes with a 2x5 connector/cable (in addition to 2x3). In my
>> opinion
>>> step one for pursuing this would be to tweak the PCB design to use
>> a
>>> standard 2x3 male header to eliminate the need for some weird
>> adapter
>>> lashup.
>>> 
>>> -Pete
>>> 
>>> PS I've come to terms with this Adafruit programmer and don't hate
>> it
>>> any more. I discovered why it wouldn't work some times (and
>> anybody
>>> considering buying one of these should ping me for the details to
>>> avoid some real heartburn). My remaining issues with it that
>> aren't
>>> germane to a student project are that a) it's unbelievably slow
>>> compared to it's somewhat more expensive cousins and b) it applies
>>> over four volts to VCC no matter what the power jumper setting is.
>>> That's highly stressful to discover after the fact if your circuit
>>> board contains devices that forbid voltages this high.
>>> 
>>> On 01/24/2015 05:00 PM, Shane Trent wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Slightly different approach but I was impressed when I read about
>>>> this effort (Raleigh guy too, might be on the list) to show kids
>> how
>>>> to blink an LED on a tiny cheap board. I suspect you could raise
>>>> enough donations to build enough for a classroom.
>>>> 
>>>> https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1193 [2] [3]
>>>> 
>>>> Shane
>>>> 
>>>> On Sat, Jan 24, 2015 at 4:49 PM, Pete Soper <pete at soper.us>
>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I've done a few things in area elementary schools and school
>>>> carnivals and a Durham library but mostly helping kids play with
>>>> "Squishy Circuits [4]" (and "Banana Piano", but IMO that's not at
>>>> all relevant to this topic).
>>>> 
>>>> But my cohorts showed the kids how to play with Scratch [5]
>> (which
>>>> comes preinstalled as part of Raspbian Linux for RPI these days).
>> If
>>>> I were going to do something like you're talking about, and could
>>>> put a little time into it I'd jumper a Raspberry Pi to a
>> solderless
>>>> breadboard with a few LEDs and piezo beeper, et al on it and use
>>>> Scratch, show the kids how to use it, then stand back and watch.
>> If
>>>> you google "raspberry pi scratch gpio projects [6]" there's a lot
>> of
>>>> stuff available to help shorten the learning curve.
>>>> 
>>>> I'm semi-confident somebody on this list would be glad to loan
>> you
>>>> an RPI for a reasonably limited time to facilitate this. I've got
>>>> extra breadboards, LEDs, beepers, and six other things that could
>> be
>>>> used for this that you're welcome to borrow. (My RPIs are either
>>>> tied up or the old, 1/4gb RAM flavor)
>>>> 
>>>> -Pete
>>>> 
>>>> On 01/24/2015 03:19 PM, jonathan hunsberger wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi all,
>>>> I'm pretty much an embedded n00b, lurking on the list to learn
>> some
>>>> things (pretty successful in that so far!) I work in IT, doing
>>>> systems engineering / infrastructure architecture, but when my
>>>> daughter's Computer Skills (mostly typing, plus a little bit of
>>>> other stuff, including "hour of code") teacher found out I was a
>>>> "computer person", she wanted me to come talk to the class about
>>>> writing code. I am not a software developer, but like most people
>> I
>>>> do write a lot of scripts, etc. to make my job easier. And at
>> home
>>>> my latest free time sink has been playing with microcontrollers,
>>>> etc. So.. I had two ideas:
>>>> 1. Talk about ways that some level of coding skills can be useful
>>>> even when you aren't a software developer for a living.
>>>> 2. Talk about how you can use code to do things "in the real
>> world"
>>>> with all of the easily-accessible microcontrollers that are on
>> the
>>>> market these days.
>>>> 
>>>> Kind of leaning toward the second one since it seems more like
>>>> playing than working. For kids who have just come out of "hour of
>>>> code" and maybe a few hours of codecademy, I was thinking it
>> might
>>>> be cool just to bring in an Arduino and some common peripherals
>>>> (sensors, LEDs, etc.) and show how easy it is to quickly get
>>>> something working using SparkFun/AdaFruit tutorials and
>>>> running/modifying example sketches that come with the Arduino
>> IDE.
>>>> Generally show them how accessible it can be and give them the
>> basic
>>>> info about getting started with it if it is interesting to them.
>>>> 
>>>> Have any of you done anything like that? Does anyone have advice
>> on
>>>> specific things to demonstrate, ways to organize the
>> presentation,
>>>> etc.? This would be for middle school students. 6th grade for
>>>> sure, not sure about 7th and 8th.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>>> TriEmbed at triembed.org
>>>> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
>> [3] [1]
>>>> TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org [4] [2]
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>>> TriEmbed at triembed.org
>>>> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
>> [3] [1]
>>>> TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org [4] [2]
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> A blog about some of my projects. http://fettricks.blogspot.com/
>> [5] [7]
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Links:
>>> ------
>>> [1]
>> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org [3]
>>> [2] http://TriEmbed.org [4]
>>> [3] https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1193 [2]
>>> [4] http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/ [6]
>>> [5] http://scratch.mit.edu/ [7]
>>> [6]
>>> 
>> 
> https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+scratch+gpio+projects&oq=raspberry+pi+scratch+gpio+projects&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.13625j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=raspberry+pi+scratch+gpio+projects
>> [8]
>>> [7] http://fettricks.blogspot.com/ [5]
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>> TriEmbed at triembed.org
>>> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
>> [3]
>>> TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org [4]
> 
> --
> 
> A blog about some of my projects.  http://fettricks.blogspot.com/ [5]
> 
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1] https://anibit.com/webtools/3pi/
> [2] https://learn.sparkfun.com/blog/1193
> [3] http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
> [4] http://TriEmbed.org
> [5] http://fettricks.blogspot.com/
> [6] http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/
> [7] http://scratch.mit.edu/
> [8]
> https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+scratch+gpio+projects&amp;oq=raspberry+pi+scratch+gpio+projects&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.13625j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;es_sm=93&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=raspberry+pi+scratch+gpio+projects