Lara Grant – Blog. by Next Thing https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com News & Notes. Process & Projects. No BS. Srsly. Thu, 09 Nov 2017 03:16:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5 Go Back To School with PocketC.H.I.P. and 3 New PICO-8 Lessons https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/go-back-to-school-with-pocketc-h-i-p-and-3-new-pico-8-lessons/ Fri, 22 Sep 2017 23:29:13 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=1608

Last week Thomas and I led PocketC.H.I.P. activities at a very special event hosted by Salesforce.org. We debuted new learning materials that you too can use for a PocketC.H.I.P. and PICO-8 workshop!

We’ve teamed up with Salesforce in the past, at Dreamforce and during Computer Science Education Week, but this time it was to celebrate a 5-year philanthropic relationship between them and the San Francisco and Oakland Unified School Districts. We were one of three local companies to join the event at Visitacion Valley Middle School in S.F. and shared with students the fun of PocketC.H.I.P. + PICO-8.

This was not just any event, but one in which some big-money grants were given. All totalled, this year Salesforce announced a $12.2 million donation to Bay Area STEM education programs: $7.2 million to San Francisco and $5 million to Oakland.

As you’d expect with a big grant presentation, there were many local celebrities in attendance, and when I say celebrities, I mean superintendents, principles, teachers, and politicians. The speeches were kicked off by Joe Truss, the principle of Visitacion Valley Middle School and Salesforce co-founder Parker Harris followed by the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland, Ed Lee and Libby Schaaf respectively. The speeches were closed by Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff where he announced the grants.

My favorite speeches were the ones from Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammel and San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews, who both really connected with the crowd of students while talking about the importance of STEM in middle school.


PocketC.H.I.P. + PICO-8 = STEM Fun!

For our part of the event, we created three student activities, all using PICO-8, the 8-bit fantasy console for creating, playing, and sharing tiny video games. Two of them involved editing Celeste, our favorite game that comes with PICO-8.

One exercise had students dive into Celeste‘s source code and change the gravity to make Celeste jump higher to advance to level two. The second introduced students to PICO-8’s sprite editor by having them edit the look of Celeste. The third exercise was one that included the physical world. Students used PICO-8’s code editor to turn on and off LEDs while learning how to prototype a simple LED circuit.

I have uploaded all the materials into a Github repo and linked to them on the PocketC.H.I.P. documentation page. They are all free to use under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons license.


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Do you teach using PICO-8? We’d like to hear about it! Tell us about it on our forum or send us a tweet.

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Be the Boss with PocketC.H.I.P. Karaoke https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/be-the-boss-with-pocketc-h-i-p-karaoke/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/be-the-boss-with-pocketc-h-i-p-karaoke/#respond Tue, 06 Jun 2017 15:24:21 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=1532

No need to wait for your song to come on at the local karaoke joint anymore. You can now queue up all those hair metal ballads, Britpop hits, and good ole American heartland rock ‘n’ roll you’ve dreamt of belting out with your friends on PocketC.H.I.P. Karaoke!

I ❤ karaoke. It brings so much Satisfaction and adds to my Lust for Life. Whether you are in Funkytown, the local dive bar (you know the one) or a Love Shack, it always livens up the party. When I found Pykaraoke in the Debian repositories, I knew this was the software PocketC.H.I.P. was Born to Run.

The best part is this build takes a minimal investment of energy with a maximum return of good times. Enough chit chat, Let’s Get It Started!

Materials


  • 1. Setup USB Sound Card

    Plug in the USB sound card, your speaker (or a pair of headphones) and the microphone. Fire up Terminal and open AlsaMixer:

    alsamixer

    Here you can manage the USB sound card and any devices plugged into it. Following the menu at the top, press F6 and select your USB sound card. Mine is called C-Media USB Audio Device… very descriptive. Toggle the speaker and mic on and off by pressing m. Use the up and down arrows to adjust the volume levels to your liking.

    When everything sounds good, exit AlsaMixer by pressing Esc.


    2. Install PyKaraoke

    If you aren’t already, connect to a WiFi network in PocketC.H.I.P.’s settings (hit the gear in the lower right corner of the screen).

    On Pykaraoke’s website the author lists different ways to install Pykaraoke depending on the OS you’re using. For PocketC.H.I.P.’s Debian based image I found it easiest to use apt-get to install it and all it’s dependencies.

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install pykaraoke -y

    Note: If you do download and install the dependencies as instructed on the website the package listed as libwxgtk-python has since been updated to python-wxgtk3.0.

    That’s it! Pykaraoke is ready to use. Your karaoke dreams are close to coming true. To start the application type:

    pykaraoke


    3. Upload Karaoke Songs to PocketC.H.I.P.

    Pykaraoke can play several different file formats designed for karaoke machines. I mostly used CDG and MIDI formats. CDG files can be purchased online and you can download MIDI files from various online sites for free.

    Pykaraoke also has a suite of tools that manage CDG files and even has a utility to create your own playble files from CDG discs. It makes for a good excuse to go hunting for karaoke CDs at your local thrift store.

    Once you have acquired a collection of song files it’s easiest to upload them by connecting to PocketC.H.I.P. via SSH from a host computer then transferring them using an FTP client like FileZilla. To SSH into PocketC.H.I.P., you first need to install a tool that will enable you to remotely connect such as OpenSSH.

    sudo apt-get install openssh-server

    To connect via SSH to PocketC.H.I.P. you need it’s IP address. Use the following command and find the address:

    ip addr show wlan0

    Next, create a directory for all your karaoke songs to live in:

    mkdir ksongs

    Open your FTP client and plug in the IP address a.k.a. host, username, password and connect. Transfer all your glorious song files into your new directory.


    4. Load Songs in Pykaraoke

    Pykaraoke has a convenient feature of creating a searchable database. All you need to do is tell Pykaraoke where to look. There are two ways to load songs: either by searching for a compiled database or by navigating to song files and loading them manually. By default, Pykaraoke will open in Search View which will be indicated in the upper right corner.

    To create a database navigate to File > Add New Songs to Database.

    A window that is not sized correctly will open. You will not be able to see the option of adding a directory for your database, but you still can! Hit TAB once and press Enter. This will highlight and select the option you can not see.

    Another window will pop open, this is where you navigate to your song directory. After you’ve done that, click Scan Now which will scan for karaoke files and compile a database of found songs. Then click Save and Close.

    Now when you type an artist or song title and press Search any songs that match your keywords will pop up. Add a song to your playlist by highlighting it and clicking Add to Playlist. If some of the buttons are hard to see or cut off, drag the middle bar right or left to adjust the size of the search and playlist windows.


    5. Press Start and Sing Your ❤ Out

    Add as many songs as you like. To start the playlist highlight the first song and click Start. Pick up the mic and get ready!

    When you are done (which you never really are with karaoke) hit Esc to stop the playlist.


    What’s your favorite way to karaoke? Let us know in the comments below. Plus, make sure to tweet us your favorite photos from your very own PocketC.H.I.P. Karaoke sessions, and don’t forget to join the conversation in the forum.

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Light Up Your PocketC.H.I.P. Cyberpunk Style https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/light-up-your-pocketc-h-i-p-cyberpunk-style/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/light-up-your-pocketc-h-i-p-cyberpunk-style/#comments Fri, 26 May 2017 19:08:41 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=1491

In the wake of Cyberpunk Your Summer campaign, we’ve been repeatedly asked one question: How do I make my PocketC.H.I.P. glow like that? By popular demand, here it is, your Cyberpunk PocketC.H.I.P. LED & El Wire tutorial!

I had seen the EL Wire PocketC.H.I.P. project by Pocketeer 5t4rw1nd in the forums and decided to give it a go. It was rad, but I needed a bit more case illumination for our planned night time cyberpunk photoshoot. That’s when it hit me. I made a few tweaks and threw LEDs into the mix. With the combination of EL Wire and LEDs the hack really took off. Plus, I used a power inverter and DC step-up, so I made it all glow using only PocketC.H.I.P.’s internal battery.

Materials

Note: The step-up is for the 12V LED strip which can be powered by as little as 9V, though it will be dimmer. The adjustable module is a handy dimmer for the strip, or you can purchase a step-up module that supplies a steady 9V-12V. The LEDs will pull about 170mA, so any module that provides 1A output is more than enough.

  • Double-stick tape such as VHB (foam and otherwise)
  • Wire – the thinner the better

Tools

  • Soldering iron
  • Power drill and 764 bit
  • Small flat-head screwdriver
  • Wire snips and strips
  • X-Acto blade

1. Prep LED Segments

Cut on the line between the solder pads.

Cut the LED strip into segments of 4″ which will give you 12 LEDs per section. With an X-Acto knife carefully cut the very end of the plastic casing off to expose the two solder pads. You only need to cut it away on one end. The strip is thin, and the pads are fragile so be careful going in with a sharp blade.

Lift up and cut plastic from solder pads.

Ready to be soldered to wires.

2. Solder Step-up and LEDs to PocketC.H.I.P.

Make sure the wires are long enough for each segment to reach to the front.

Solder these connections:

LED strip 1 power ↔ LED strip 2 power
LED strip 1 ground ↔ LED strip 2 ground
LED strip 2 power ↔ Step-up VOUT+
LED strip 2 ground ↔ Step-up VOUT-
Step-up VIN+ ↔ PocketC.H.I.P. 3V
Step-up VIN- ↔ PocketC.H.I.P. GND

Solder strips to VOUT and 3V and Ground pins to VIN.

3V and Ground pins on PocketC.H.I.P. are used as power source.

3. Extract Inverter

Carefully pry open battery holder to get to inverter.

Use a small flat-head screwdriver to pry the inverter case open. Be careful not to damage anything, including yourself! Take out the inverter and take note of the two connections that go to the battery for DC input and the two output wires that will connect to the EL wire.

Use a pair of angled cutters to snip off the ground coil and wire that connect to the battery holder. Place the inverter on the back of PocketC.H.I.P. to get a sense of how long the output wires should be. You want to make as much room as possible in the back so keep wires as short as possible. When ready, shorten the output wires that will connect to the EL wire.

Tip: Mark the wires before you forget which one is ground and which is power.

Clip off negative and positive input leads and trim the length of output wire.


4. Solder EL Wire and Inverter to PocketC.H.I.P.

Solder EL Wire to the output of the inverter.

Splice two wires in with PocketC.H.I.P.’s GND and 3V that are wired to the DC step-up. Solder these wires to the input of the inverter, where the battery used to be connected. Then, solder the EL Wire to the ouput wires, in my case these are the two black wires.

Note: The inverter transforms the DC power coming from PocketC.H.I.P. into AC power that the EL Wire runs on. The inverter used here is made for one AA battery which is 1.5V, but it also works with 3V. I used the 3V output since PocketC.H.I.P. makes it conveniently accessible.

Solder these connections:

EL Wire power ↔ Inverter power out (black wire)
EL Wire ground ↔ Inverter ground out (black wire)
Inverter ground in (where the battery coil was) ↔ PocketC.H.I.P. GND
Inverter power in (where the white wire was) ↔ PocketC.H.I.P. 3V

The power and ground pins go to both the inverter and step-up.

Solder power and ground to the input of the inverter.


5. Downsize Battery (Optional)

Downsize battery to make more room in back.

This step is optional but recommended because it makes more room for the EL Wire and modules. You will find that for everything to fit under the back case you will need to move around parts and use your best puzzle problem-solving skills. If you have a smaller battery lying around I recommend using it. I put in a 1000mAh LiPo instead of the stock and it’s lasted at least an hour with lights on and playing games. You may even want to use a smaller diameter of EL Wire although the high-bright variety is recommended. You can find EL Wire diameters as small as 2.1mm.


6. Snip the PocketC.H.I.P. Bezel

Snip off the upper right and lower left (when the bezel is on PocketC.H.I.P.) tabs with angled cutters. This will make room for the LED strip wires to reside.

Clip off one tab on the bottom and one on the top of the screen to make room for the LED strip wires.


7. Attach LED Strips to Front

Position LED segments right above and below the screen and tab holes.

To keep the wires in the back of the PocketC.H.I.P., the LED segments get pushed through two of the holes the screen frame snaps into. Use strong double-stick tape, like VHB, to attach the segments to the front above and below the screen.

Stick the strips down with a strong tape like VHB.

Thread one LED segment through a tab hole below the screen and one above the screen.

Push the wires out of the way of the pins once the segments are fixed to the front.


8. Install EL Wire

Stick the EL Wire down to the board with cut strips of VHB.

Use strips of VHB (or strong tape) to attach the EL Wire to parts of PocketC.H.I.P.. Don’t be afraid to bend and kink the wire to make it fit around the modules and battery. The randomness of the EL Wire also ends up looking cool.

Tip: The two main areas you want to keep the EL Wire away from are the center of PocketC.H.I.P. above the battery and the area where C.H.I.P. plugs in. Take a look at the back of PocketC.H.I.P. to see where it hits the board and is tight on space to help you plan where the EL Wire can go.

After the EL Wire has been placed, pop the back case back on. Shift things around as needed. The highest part will always be the inverter, but wires can get in the way of the case snapping closed.

Tip: A flat-head screwdriver can be a handy tool to poke wires in with as you snap the back closed.

A beautiful mess.

9. Drill Holes

The output voltage of the step-up is changed by turning a screw which dims the LEDs.

The inverter has a switch on it, which you can replace or extend so that it sticks out of the case. I kept things simple and didn’t do either of those options.

Instead, I chose to use a flat-head screwdriver as a key to all the glowy goodness. I made it so if slip a screwdriver through a small hole drilled into the back of PocketC.H.I.P., I can adjust the screw which changes the output voltage from the DC step-up. Since this build was used in a photoshoot, the fact that the LEDs could be turned up or down was super valuable. Lighting is everything!

Mark where to drill with a permanent marker. Drill using a 764” bit or similar to the diameter of the screwdriver you plan on using. Start from the inside of the case and then come from the outside making sure to get the angle right so the screwdriver can get to the switch and screw.

Mark where to drill with a permanent marker.

The on/off switch can be flipped using a screwdriver.


Going Further

Ready for a challenge? A great way to take this project further would be to control the EL wire or LED strips from C.H.I.P.’s PWM pin.
Tip: Use a transistor with the PWM pin and the external power sources to make sure the LEDs or EL wire gets the power they need while maintaining analog-like control.

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Made a EL Wire PocketC.H.I.P.? Take a picture and post them on the forum or tweet at us. And don’t forget to tell us about your favorite PocketC.H.I.P. mods in the comments below. We can’t wait to see them!

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PocketC.H.I.P. Goes to Middle School https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/pocketc-h-i-p-goes-to-middle-school/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/pocketc-h-i-p-goes-to-middle-school/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:58:06 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=1290

Earlier this week, students at West Oakland Middle School learned how to create their own video games using PocketC.H.I.P. and PICO-8!

In honor of Computer Science Education Week, Salesforce.org was hosting three one-hour lessons at a local school and they needed volunteers. Being a newbie to NTC, with admittedly only a little PocketC.H.I.P. experience before my first day of work, I realized I could learn and help at the same time!

Before getting there all I knew about the event was that middle school students would be taught how to code using PICO-8 on PocketC.H.I.P.. And that we would be assisting up to 60 students in one lesson!

At first, that worried me a bit. I have experience teaching hands-on coding workshops and currently teach a semester-long class at California College of the Arts. But the max amount of students I’ve had in those classes have been around 18. This was not only going to be my first time learning how to code on PocketC.H.I.P. but also my first time being around this many young students.

The lessons were lead by the fantastic family duo of Mare and Jessica. Together, they make up Sparkiverse, a group that focuses on after-school programs to creatively introduce kids to STEM. Any worries I had about students not getting their questions answered quickly vanished when I saw how many helpers had shown up to assist the students.

The student’s first task was to create a character sprite (computer graphic in video-game speak) and learn how to display it on their screen. Luckily, I’m familiar with programming, so when it came to helping the students, I could troubleshoot indentations that were missing or loops that were not closed.

But when it came to the PICO-8 interface and how to interact with it I was learning right along with the students. With Jessica’s clear instructions they—I mean WE—learned how to create a background for a sprite to live on and how to move the sprite around with arrow keys.

Some of the students had not coded before and were a bit intimidated at first. But once they typed 3 lines of code and watched their sprite whiz across the screen, they felt excited and encouraged. Coding wasn’t hard. The instant visual result of their code that PICO-8 provided was invaluable to the student’s learning experience. The kids were making games in no time and having a blast at it.

I was surprised and delighted by how many students raised their hands when Jessica asked, “Who has coded before?” I remember typing lessons and trying not to die of dysentery on the Oregon Trail but when I got to middle school there weren’t any programming lessons being taught in the classroom.

For the experienced coders, there were additional steps with the code printed out so they could work ahead. I really appreciated the students having that option since I’ve witnessed varying levels of skills in my own teaching experiences. For more resources on learning PICO-8, check out one of our previous blog posts.

One student from earlier that day was interested in learning more about programming and asked me if he could purchase a PocketC.H.I.P.. We also chatted about how getting better at programming was about practice and having fun. Shortly after telling him he could indeed purchase one Salesforce.org announced that they were donating pocketC.H.I.P.s to the teachers! I was thrilled that the students would have the opportunity to continue to craft their coding skills.

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Honestly, I thought teaching younger kids would be scarier than it was. Instead, it was a rich experience where I could teach the kids while they and Sparkiverse taught me. I left imagining of opportunities that would get me back in the middle school classroom. Luckily, I come from the land of PocketC.H.I.P.s and am focusing on education here at NTC. So, watch out C.H.I.P.sters and Pocketeers!

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