I could use some help. I am working on making an open source animatronic app so you can make your own waldo or print a version of one of mine and program your own animatronic. I am using pico w's for input controllers because they are easy to get but I'm struggling with a good starter microcontroller for the output. Ideally it would have audio and a way to control a few servos plus wifi. A pi 4 would make sense but you can't just get them easy...
@mt I'm not familiar with this to help, but you might draw those that are by adding some hashtags like #Electronics or #Microcontrollers, or maybe #Animatronics, to help improve the discoverability of your post.
You may know better terms to use as tags for this than I do tbh, basically whichever folks in your space use to discuss the topic. Best of luck, the project sounds really cool!
I've got a busted consumer product here that has 2 #Holtek#microcontrollers in it. Either one would be sufficient to run this product (a brushless-motor tower fan), but #MCUs are cheap, so why not throw a second one in if it saves a few centimeters of wire?
I'm trying to determine if there's a #standard#serial#physical#layer in use here to communicate from one #MCU to the other. It's one-way communication.
I'm attempting to teach myself how to code using Python, MicroPython and CircuitPython. I am using a device called "Pygamer" that also lets me code games using Microsoft's makecode arcade. I am using a raspberry Pi 4b as my main computer. I chose to use a raspberry Pi 4b for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is power consumption (8 watts vs 100+ watts) but the other reason is that it forces me out of my comfort zone. I also just wanted to see if it were possible to learn this stuff without a faster computer. It is possible but it's not plug and play that is for sure!
I am teaching myself this stuff becuase I became disabled around 4 years ago and was no longer able to work doing what I used to do (construction). Disability income is not enough to live on and grow unless you work really hard at learning a skill that doesn't require a large financial investment.
My ultimate goal is to reach a point where I can start tutoring programming and maybe even start a summer camp style electronics thing in the future!
So for now, as I learn, I document everything. I am attempting to build somewhat of a curriculum while I also learn the fundamentals. One day I'll use these materials in my lessons!
I'll be working on this stuff for the next few years as I have a roadmap that leads into 2028. Here is hoping by 2028 I can laugh at my terrible attempts at programming today!
I will mostly be using microcontrollers for my journey as devices like the adafruit Pygamer and pimoroni PicoSystem are relatively cheap and they give you a choice of a few possible languages to learn. Not only that, the extremely limited hardware forces you to focus on game design principles and coding with memory in mind. This will keep me from running away with ideas like I did back when I was playing with Godot as I am very limited in what mechanics I am able to implement!
Those tiny game systems are going to be the basis of ALL my projects moving forward. The Pygamer especially as I was able to grab a few right before they sold out for good!
My favourite genre of games are RPGs and text based adventures. Ever since coming on Mastodon I have been thinking about what it would take to make a vision impaired or blind friendly rpg/tba. This would be my ultimate goal, to code accessible games but for now unfortunately I'm going to have to use the materials that already exist which don't have vision impaired people in mind whatsoever. That is okay though. I will be keeping accessibility in mind once I start actually coding my own game!
I never shared anything on the old social media sites but Mastodon seems infinitely more friendly and filled with similarly motivated people. I look forward to sharing with you guys and meeting others who are doing the same!
Just discovered an absolutely brilliant project – version of #Doom that is perfectly playable on Raspberry Pi Pico – the $4 board with 264K RAM and 1-dollar CPU.
This is the full game, no corners are cut either in graphics or sound.