Some goog-ling...
I really didn't understand the assignment at first but I now realize we are trying to make a more sophisticated version of the serial port. Bascially make an interface we made. I started by checking out what other people have done in past years and then I looked into some tutorials. I started with this
A few weeks ago I applied to take Code in Place with Stanford and was accepted. I wasn't really bored... but had a chunck of time I didn't know what to do with... besides binge watching Gilmore Girls, so I thought learning to code would be fun. This was one of the first things that finally clicked for me. Neil has been talking about the Hello World program and the Chris Piech talked about it during my coding class.
A few things are becoming more clear... I need to be able to properly use a multimeter, I need to learn how to understand Arduino code, and I need to become more fluent in basic electronics.
Python 101
def main:
When the program is run, the python interpreter runs the code sequentially.
So this is the path they set for us and it has been super helpful to understand these concepts as a foundation so I'll recap these.
For statements
For statements are great when you know how many times you need to do something. The range function returns a sequence of numbers. w3whas a good page about it.
while loops
These are great for when you aren't sure how many times you want something done and instead want something to continue happening while a condition is true. w3w again has a good page about it.
print function
The print function outputs to the console whatever you say you want to print out. It can be good for debugging which is how I used it.
Python + Arduino talking time
I started off my figuring out what the Arduinos modem is which changes based on the port you are using.
This error was caused because when I pluggem my Arduino back in I used a different port which changed the modem. I hadn't yet altered it in my code, hense the error.
This is the modem line in the code which is very important.
My first try with a GUI.
A GUI is a graphical user interface and at it's core it's something people interact with to get computers to do things... it is composed of interactive visual components for computer software.
This is the second iteration which turned the built in led on the Arduino on and off... which was pretty cool!