LogoTurtle: Get Mac OS Working with the Adafruit Metro Mini

Getting a Mac to run LogoTurtle on the Logo Floor Turtle robot can be challenging. Windows users can run the LogoTurtle assembler program on the Adafruit Metro Mini right out of the box. But it was discovered that the Metro ships with a pre-loaded sketch that wreaks havoc on a Mac computer if it is not first overwritten by a simple Arduino sketch like Blink. Something about how Mac handles USB serial communication. Note that once you replace the sketch it ships with and load the Logo Assembler on one computer, you should be able to skip the Assembler and run LogoTurtle on any other Mac. If you are setting up several LogoTurtles, say, for a classroom or workshop, you might want load Blink then the Logo Assembler on all your Metros from one Mac, then any other Macs people use should be able to go straight to opening LogoTurtle and getting down to coding.

Rotating Squares in Phases with Gif Loop Coder

All of these sketches, made with Gif Loop Coder, are the same save for the phase frequency. From the first with a phase of 0.01*i to the last with a phase of i the squares create remarkable iterative designs.

function onGLC(glc) {
    glc.loop();
     glc.size(400, 400);
     glc.setDuration(3);
     glc.setFPS(20);
     glc.setMode("single");
     glc.setEasing(false);
     glc.setMaxColors(10);
    glc.styles.backgroundColor = "black";

Generative Art with the LogoTurtle

The LogoTurtle is a programmable turtle that can draw. I like running simple programs with small aspects of randomness because the resulting drawings are always a surprise, and often beautiful. When randomness is part of a program the robot will draw a different composition every time, but it's also fun to look at several drawings resulting from the same program and see the similarities. The robot is enacting controlled chaos, and both the controlled parameters and the chaos within those limits can be seen after several runs. I also like how the robot is a kind of partner in creativity as it makes its own decisions within the framework it's been given.

Troubleshooting NeoPixel Problems

The NeoPixel packs a lot into a tiny package, millions of intense colors! As I developed the 24 NeoPixel ring Arduino shield I encountered a couple problems and had to learn more about the NeoPixel to solve them. I found the ring needs a very stable power supply and any jostling of the pins connecting it to the Arduino or the pins connecting to the ring were likely to reset the Arduino or cause the ring to do weird things, like become dim, flash suddenly, etc. So a couple modifications I

Gif Loop Coder Is An Animation Microworld

There's a new JavaScript programming tool called Gif Loop Coder that is providing me with endless fun. GLC provides a bunch of shape objects and an environment to play with their attributes and then run the resulting image as a tweened animation. Giving an object a single attribute, such as a fill color, will give it a static

Developing A Light Logo NeoPixel 24 Curriculum

Light Logo, created by Brian Silverman, is a version of the Logo language that is used to program a few versions of the NeoPixels, from rings to strips, through an Arduino. See Josh Burker's post for how to get started, and see my Instructable for how to get a 24 NeoPixel ring more-or-less classroom ready. I'm developing a curriculum for it with 8th grade students as my guinea pigs and here are some thoughts that have come up as I use Light Logo in the classroom.

Daisy Chained MAX7219 Led Drivers

This project builds off of some work I did earlier with the MAX7219 led driver running a single 8X8 led matrix. Now I'm getting two of them daisy chained and driving 2 matrices. I'm moving the project off the breadboard and onto a perfboard, as well. This post has great instructions for wiring one driver and led matrix, which I've gone back to again and again.

One MAX7219 soldered and connected, running a random worm program. The second driver out in front isn't connected yet.

Arduino Lilypad Protosnap Test Program

Today at work I got a bunch, well 6 (more are back-ordered) Protosnap Lilypad Development Boards and I wanted to test them out before I put them away to get to other stuff. They recommend that you do so before you break them apart. The Sparkfun website just points you to a bunch of

Stepper Motor Player

I took some stepper motors out of some old printers to play with. Newer printers seem to use DC motors, but I love finding steppers because they make such nice sounds. I spent a while on this project just figuring out how to get the steppers to work and some different options for

Animate Stories With Neopixel Ring and LightLogo

I've been trying out the Neopixel Ring-24, a ring of 24 RGB LEDs easy to plug in to an Arduino. Instead of using the Adafruit neopixel Arduino library I'm beta-testing LightLogo, a new IDE for the Neopixel and Arduino to write programs in Logo. This can make a really beautiful device with its rich colors more accessible to younger