![]() From what I have seen it can’t handle much that you wouldn’t find a tutorial for and even then it can have mistakes. Not everyone who is good with things like hardware is also good at software programming and not everyone who is an adult, let alone a programmer knows how to program multiple higher level languages.ĪI at this stage can only write very basic code for a few select microcontrollers. Would be nice if it could also build in some error checking at least which this seems to lack at the moment.Īnyway, every time you see one of these apps or programs posted here, it seems like there are always assumptions made about how the target audience is always a minor who has never programmed before or is still learning. ![]() ![]() What about an artist who needs a specific microcontroller function that is simple but just works? Or someone who wants to use an AI based microcontroller for their specific use but does not even program at all? Or even just an adult who is new to programming? Or a visual learner? Or someone that does program but wants to create a fairly simple overall program quicker than they could physically type it all out by just dragging a few things around instead of writing code to get something at least testable? Posted in Microcontrollers Tagged block programming, scratch Post navigation If you’d rather stick with Python, you can do that, too. You shouldn’t write kernel modules in Scratch, either, but people have. But if you are looking for a gateway drug for a friend or a child, this could well be it. ![]() We know that block programming isn’t the language of choice for most Hackaday readers. There was a GUI - we think - to flash the base firmware on GitHub but with little documentation.īut if you have a supported board, it looks great. However, there didn’t seem to be many options for troubleshooting or for a teacher or coach to just flash the image in some regular way. You don’t want to shower kids with cryptic error messages. It did work in the end and it worked as advertised for a “stock” ESP32 development board. We also tried building the smallvm component from scratch, but getting it to build for the S3 took some modifications and uncovered some typos in the code base. We even grabbed some firmware images from GitHub and flashed them. The web page says it can be “tricky” to get the initial firmware on the ESP32, and - for us - it was apparently too tricky. Or it could have been simple operator error. We aren’t sure if it was a configuration issue or if the S3 isn’t supported. The tutorials have videos and snippets of graphical “code” you can drag directly into the IDE. We were unable, sadly, to make the browser version work with an ESP32 S3 module we had sitting on the desk. We were impressed with the range of blocks and libraries including like I2C, SPI, and NeoPixel. The tool is advancing, so you’ll find many new features compared to the video, but it will still give you an idea of what’s happening. You can see a video below about the micro:bit version from a year ago. You can use it in a browser or download versions for Linux, Windows, Mac, or even Chromebooks. It will work with several common boards, including the micro:bit and the Raspberry Pi Pico. If you want to try a Scratch-inspired take on microcontroller programming, check out MicroBlocks. With Scratch or Basic, complex things have a way of turning out complex, but that’s to be expected. Again, you can get simple results simply. These days, you are more likely to sneak kids into programming via Scratch - a system for setting up programs via blocks in a GUI. The old Basic interpreters were pretty forgiving, and you could do some clever things easily with very little theory or setup. One of the fun things about “old school” computers is that it was fairly easy to get kids into programming them.
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