Saturday, February 24, 2018

A Tough Challenge

Difficult in any language. Try, try again! Learning by failing (falling)...

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

BlocklyProp Webinar

Ken Gracey at Parallax posted info about this webinar on Blockly for Microcontrollers Facebook page. The description says, "BlocklyProp got a major update in early 2018, making it the most capable visual programming environment ever produced for a microcontroller. The webinar will demonstrate BlocklyProp improvements for music, terminal, Feedback 360 Servo, temperature & humidity sensor, serial communication, math, OLED displays, I/O pin control and RCtime using classroom projects. User interface improvements include e-mail registration verification, zooming, and workspace management. If you’re a teacher or student you need to be in this webinar to put these tools to use."


I plan on attending this and you can join me by signing up here - https://www.parallax.com/event/webinar-blocklyprop-new-features


Friday, February 16, 2018

Ro! Ro! Ro-botic Boat

Ro! Ro! Ro-botic Boat on a not so gentle Lake Tahoe!

Ken Gracey posted this video of his latest project on the Blockly for Microcontrollers Facebook page. He writes, "I'm working on an interesting project with a robotic boat in Lake Tahoe. This project will show that BlocklyProp can be used for serious projects in research. Today's test was for the boat, motors and battery system, which function very well. I used the Propeller Activity Board to intercept the RC signals and mix them for the brushless motor thrusters."


The description on the YouTube video says it is a, "Brief test of a robotic boat I plan on using to navigate Lake Tahoe under GPS guidance to collect data at different waypoints. The kinds of data I could collect include pH, temperature, turbidity, chemical concentrations, etc. This system will be programmed entirely in BlocklyProp by www.parallax.com."

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

I Believe in this Idea...

Do you?



This happened yesterday. Elon Musk has sent his Tesla Roadster into the deep unknown aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which successfully launched on its first-ever test flight.

Carrying the SpaceX founder’s personal Tesla, Falcon Heavy took flight on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, around 3:45pm EST from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Cameras attached to the electric car showed it heading deeper into space. The car, blaring David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ on an endless loop, is being piloted by a dummy dressed in a spacesuit, dubbed ‘Starman.’

Dreamed and done... Only the barge landing failed... Amazing!



Live view here...

Friday, February 2, 2018

BlocklyProply FLiP Predicts...


Today, February 2, 2018, is Groundhog Day 2018 and Punxsutawney Phil has predicted 6 more weeks of winter. But what will BlocklyProply FLiP say? Give this piece of code at try. Results will vary based on your locale! 
http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp?project=25064


Thursday, February 1, 2018

LaserPING

New from Parallax... Use with BlocklyProp and directly interchangeable with Ping))) Ultrasonic sensor. WOW!