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Interfacing and Application - Landon Broadwell and Alana Duffy

Landon

Thonny - Matplotlib

What I used it for:

I used Matplotlib to graph the x and y values produced by the sensor that I plan to use for my final project. It allowed me to effectively and consistently model what the orientation of the sensor was, which provided an understanding of where the sensor was pointing. This represents the direction that the helmet would be pointing and could be connected to the helmet for external reading of it. I did not use the z axis, as that value represented the arrow rotating around itself.

Additional Uses:

  • Matplotlib can also be used to visualize data in real-time, which would be beneficial for monitoring the sensor’s data continuously.

  • It can help in analyzing the sensor’s performance by comparing different sets of data under various conditions.

Lopaka & U8G2

This website allows for the creation of OLED displays using different libraries and their respective tools. It assists in letting the user know what the OLED display would look like ahead of time instead of having to repeatedly upload new code to the OLED, which makes it much easier to program.

Through it, I used the U8G2 library, and it provided a wide range of fonts and symbols, making it versatile for displaying various types of information on the OLED.

Alana

Processing

You can download processing here.

According to the Processing Website, “Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code. Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology. There are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning and prototyping.”

What I used it for:

  • Interfacing between an on-screen application and a seeed XIAO RP2040 to make an LED on the RP2040 blink when I click a button on the on-screen window. This utilized Java language.

Additional Uses:

Additionally, the Processing website has many different resources helpful for learning how to use the application and troubleshoot. These include:

Overall, the Processing Environment is very appealing and easy to use. It “includes a text editor, a compiler, and a display window and enables the creation of software within a carefully designed set of constraints.” (source)

Beyond its Core Code:

  • “There are hundreds of libraries contributed by the Processing community that can be added to your sketches to enable new things like playing sounds, doing computer vision, and working with advanced 3D geometry.”

  • “The tools allow more processing development environment options, helping “make creating sketches easier by providing interfaces for tasks like selecting colors.” (source)

Programming Modes:

  • The default programming mode is Java

  • The application allows you to download more programming modes through the “Add Mode” part of the menu

Last update: May 30, 2024