Physical Etoys released!
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Hi! I would like to announce the first publicly available version of Physical Etoys (http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/).
Physical Etoys is an "extension" to Etoys. We believe Etoys is a wonderful software that helps children explore their own creativity in fun and educational ways, so we wanted to give Etoys the possibility to interact with real world objects such as robotic kits and innovative joysticks.
The current list of supported hardware: 1. Arduino, an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board. 2. Nintendo Wiimote, the primary controller for Nintendo’s Wii console.
3. Parallel port, a type of interface for connecting various peripherals to the computer. 4. RoboSapien v2, a toy-like biomorphic robot. 5. Roboquad, a 4-legged robot that somewhat resembles a spider and a dog.
6. I-Sobot, the world’s smallest humanoid robot in production. 7. Lego Mindstorms Nxt, a programmable robotics kit released by Lego. Unfortunately, this version of Physical Etoys only works in Windows. We are currently working on supporting Linux (especially the Sugar platform) so stay tuned for future releases!
Check our website (http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/) for more information. Cheers!
Richo
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Hi,
yes! Yes! Yes! Wonderful! Thank you! :-) Question: do you think it might be reasonably possible to connect Physical Etoys with NXTalk on the brick? Best, Michael |
Re: Physical Etoys released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
On 01.03.2010, at 21:59, Ricardo Moran wrote:
Awesome! I assume this uses a plugin to get the data - where's the code? A lot more sensors could be added to something like this. In particular ones that are built into laptops nowadays, like accelerometers. Would you take contributions? - Bert - |
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In reply to this post by Michael Haupt-3
Hi,
I'm assuming you mean to use our Etoys interface for NXTalk. I don't really know the details of NXTalk's implementation but I think it wouldn't be so difficult. I mean, the Etoys part is already done and it's quite simple. We just need to understand how to connect them together.
Cheers. Richo On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 6:28 PM, Michael Haupt <[hidden email]> wrote: Hi, |
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In reply to this post by Bert Freudenberg
On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 6:43 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
Thanks!
No, actually. We tried to develop this stuff using mostly Smalltalk code. For Arduino and SqueakNxt we are only using the SerialPort class. The other projects use FFI to access the libraries that do the hard work. If you're interested I can give you the links to their websites.
Yes, of course! We would be very glad to accept contributions. In fact, we want to increase the list of supported hardware with everything considered worthwhile, and the sensors built into laptops seem to be a great addition.
Cheers! Richo
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Re: Physical Etoys released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]>
writes: > Unfortunately, this version of Physical Etoys only works in > Windows. We are currently working on supporting Linux (especially the > Sugar platform) so stay tuned for future releases! Please keep support for Mac OS X in mind, too (I use 10.5.8 Leopard (PPC))! -- Benjamin L. Russell -- Benjamin L. Russell / DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com http://dekudekuplex.wordpress.com/ Translator/Interpreter / Mobile: +011 81 80-3603-6725 "Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto." -- Matsuo Basho^ |
Re: Physical Etoys released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]>
writes: > Unfortunately, this version of Physical Etoys only works in Windows. We are currently working on supporting Linux (especially the Sugar platform) so stay tuned for future releases! Please keep support for Mac OS X in mind, too (I use 10.5.8 Leopard (PPC))! -- Benjamin L. Russell -- Benjamin L. Russell / DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com http://dekudekuplex.wordpress.com/ Translator/Interpreter / Mobile: +011 81 80-3603-6725 "Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto." -- Matsuo Basho^ |
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In reply to this post by Benjamin L. Russell
Yes, I forgot. We are thinking of supporting mac as well, but is not one of our top priorities, I must say.
On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 10:33 PM, Benjamin L. Russell <[hidden email]> wrote: Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> |
Re: Physical Etoys released!
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Oh, just cool. I am a proud user of both NXT, and the Wiimote, and I
can't wait to find time to play with this. I've long wanted Squeak on my Wii, as for the big screen experience, the Wiimote works quite a bit better than a mouse (Bluetooth has crappy range, for example.) This is the next best thing. Good work! Sorry to say though, I'm one of those Mac users. Don't leave us out in the cold! Right now I'm busy with other things, but when I'm free up, if you have an alpha for the mac at any point, I would love to crash test it for you. On Monday, March 1, 2010, Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> wrote: > Yes, I forgot. We are thinking of supporting mac as well, but is not one of our top priorities, I must say. > > On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 10:33 PM, Benjamin L. Russell <[hidden email]> wrote: > Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> > writes: > >> Unfortunately, this version of Physical Etoys only works in >> Windows. We are currently working on supporting Linux (especially the >> Sugar platform) so stay tuned for future releases! > > Please keep support for Mac OS X in mind, too (I use 10.5.8 Leopard > (PPC))! > > -- Benjamin L. Russell > -- > Benjamin L. Russell / DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com > http://dekudekuplex.wordpress.com/ > Translator/Interpreter / Mobile: +011 81 80-3603-6725 > "Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto." -- Matsuo Basho^ > > > > -- Ron |
Re: Physical Etoys released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
On 02.03.2010, at 01:38, Ricardo Moran wrote:
Hmm, that's unfortunate. I was hoping to get this included in Etoys properly, but FFI is a no-go there. My idea was having a generic hardware-interface plugin that could input/output any number of signals (from joysticks and accelerometers over the XO's sensor port to special hardware like Scratch's PicoBoard or Phidgets etc.). Well maybe we can at least find a common interface in Smalltalk for all the great interface-to-real-world projects ...
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Ricardo,
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 1:37 AM, Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> wrote: > I'm assuming you mean to use our Etoys interface for NXTalk. exactly. > I don't really know the details of NXTalk's implementation but I think it wouldn't be so > difficult. I mean, the Etoys part is already done and it's quite simple. We > just need to understand how to connect them together. NXTalk applications are just Smalltalk classes and methods, nothing else; they are compiled to the NXTalk bytecode format by a dedicated image builder. Connecting Physical Etoys with NXTalk would, as far as I can see, require some code generation to turn the Etoys descriptions of sensor/actor connections to the brick into methods that set up the hardware at application startup. Scripts may be a bit more difficult, depending on the interfaces - but it should be possible. I'll put it on the list of Things I Need To Look At. Hopefully, there will be some community forming around NXTalk soon, that would really help. Best, Michael |
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In reply to this post by Casey Ransberger
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 3:14 AM, Ronald Spengler <[hidden email]> wrote: Oh, just cool. I am a proud user of both NXT, and the Wiimote, and I Thanks!
Mmm... SqueakNxt shouldn't be difficult to use in Mac but the Wiimote is another story. It seems the library we are using (wiiuse) only works in windows and linux. We should find another library or port wiiuse (that seems like a lot of work, though)...
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In reply to this post by Bert Freudenberg
I might be missing something obvious here, but why is FFI forbidden in Etoys? Is it a matter of security?
Regarding the "generic hardware-interface plugin", I think it would be great to have something like that but don't you think the underlying platforms are very much incompatible with each other?
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 4:32 AM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
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In reply to this post by Michael Haupt-3
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 4:53 AM, Michael Haupt <[hidden email]> wrote: Connecting Physical Etoys with NXTalk would, as far as I can see, That's not difficult at all. In fact I was playing today with something like that for the Arduino project. I'm pretty close of having Smalltalk programs compiled into the Arduino board! I'm excited! :D
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On Tue, 2 Mar 2010 20:46:02 -0300, Ricardo Moran
<[hidden email]> wrote: >That's not difficult at all. In fact I was playing today with something like that for the Arduino project. I'm pretty close of having Smalltalk programs compiled into the Arduino board! I'm excited! :D Well, that certainly sounds interesting. I wrote a system back in 1998 that did something like that (PIC/Smalltalk), and it worked very well, but of course it was very limited... http://www.huv.com/uSeeker/smalltalk/pic.html Later, Jon |
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Yes! I've seen PIC/Smalltalk some time ago. You seem to have builded a Smalltalk parser from scratch. I'm just toying around with Squeak's parser for now.
Also, my understanding of this stuff is pretty basic, so this will probably be much more limited than PIC/Smalltalk.
Cheers. Richo On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 8:49 PM, Jon Hylands <[hidden email]> wrote: On Tue, 2 Mar 2010 20:46:02 -0300, Ricardo Moran |
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On Tue, 2 Mar 2010 21:12:34 -0300, Ricardo Moran
<[hidden email]> wrote: >Yes! I've seen PIC/Smalltalk some time ago. You seem to have builded a Smalltalk parser from scratch. I'm just toying around with Squeak's parser for now. Also, my understanding of this stuff is pretty basic, so this will probably be much more limited than PIC/Smalltalk. Yeah, I spent some time looking at Squeak's parser, couldn't understand any of it, so I just wrote a really simple one myself. I've often thought (now that I've switched my embedded activities from PIC to AVR and lately to Arduino) that it would be neat to build an AVR/Smalltalk that generated C source, but with full access to the hardware capabilities of the AVR. Later, Jon |
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Ricardo,
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 12:46 AM, Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> wrote: > That's not difficult at all. In fact I was playing today with something like > that for the Arduino project. I'm pretty close of having Smalltalk programs > compiled into the Arduino board! I'm excited! :D wait. What is the approach? Is Smalltalk compiled directly to assembly for the Atmel, or is there a VM? Best, Michael |
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In reply to this post by Jon Hylands
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 11:06 PM, Jon Hylands <[hidden email]> wrote: I've often thought (now that I've switched my embedded activities from Well, I don't really care much beyond the scope of Etoys scripts so I think this project will not fit your needs.
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In reply to this post by Michael Haupt-3
My approach is much simpler. I'm translating the Smalltalk code into C and then using avr-gcc and avrdude to compile/upload the program into the board. I think being compatible with Arduino official software is good.
Anyway, this is my first attempt (and I started this yesterday) so I may be wrong.
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 4:53 AM, Michael Haupt <[hidden email]> wrote: Ricardo, |
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