Walkthrough: LED Toggle
This walkthrough is for you to get your first idea of how to use blokdots. We’ll only build a very minimal prototype: we will connect a button and an LED to blokdots and make the LED toggle on and off when pressing the button.
The walkthrough will guide you through every step along the way, so that even if you’ve never built a hardware prototype you can follow along easily.
Prerequisites
This example assumes no prior knowledge of blokdots.
Necessary Components
For this example you are going to need these components in addition to your board:
All of the components are included in the Grove Beginner Kit.
Project File
This file contains the finished project – if you get stuck along the way, feel free to download it and take a look!
Step by Step
1. Starting blokdots
Before we start, just a quick explanation: In blokdots, there are two sections of the interface:
- the “Board View”, where you manage everything related to your board and the currently connected components. This section is on the left side of the window.
- the “Project”, where you select which components are used in your project and configure the logic of your project.
Please keep that in mind when going through this tutorial.
2. Connecting the Board
Open blokdots and plug in your board using the USB cable.
The first time you connect your board, a little green box should appear on top of left of your window, flashing your board with the necessary Firmata. You don’t need to worry too much about that, it’s just something that is necessary for blokdots to be able to use your board. After a while, the green box should disappear and a label saying “Ready” should appear.
If that does not happen and it displays an error, don’t worry, simply unplug the board and plug it in again, eventually, it should flash.
If you are on macOS and are using a Seeeduino Lots, you might have to install an additional driver before the board is recognized by blokdots.
If you are on Windows and have just installed blokdots, you might have to restart your computer before the board is recognized by blokdots.
3. Connecting Components
The Beginner Kit already has components plugged in by default. We are using the LED at D4 and the button at D6.
If you are using a Grove shield or have the components already broken out, you can also just connect them with the Grove connector cables, of course.
Now we need to make sure that blokdots knows which components are connected to the board right now. Click “Connect A New Component” in the Board View to open the connection guide and select the component you want to connect from the list. The connection guide then shows you which slot the component might be connected to.
If you are unsure where to connect a specific component, you can use this to see which slots a component will work at if plugged into. But in our case we already connected the components, so we need to tell the Wizard which slot they are plugged into. Click the dropdown menu in the middle of the Wizard, underneath the slot name, and select D4 when setting up the LED and D6 when setting up the button.
After setting up the components, you can try if they work:
- In the slot
D6in the LiveView, where we set up the button, you see a little grey bar. When you press the button down, the bar should become green and the number 1 should be shown on top. - In the slot
D4in the LiveView, where we set up the LED, you see a toggle switch. When you toggle it on, the LED on your board should light up.
4. Creating a Project
Now, after setting up all components, let’s focus on the Project. In the Board View, we can control which components are actually connected, while in the Project we can add logic to them.
We are ready to go and let the programming begin – No worries though, you won’t have to write any code!
At the top right of the Project View is a button that says "Add Card". Cards are the building blocks of your project. They contain the logic that you want to apply to your components. Let's click it!
A new window should appear in which you can select two types of cards: “When … then …” and ”Map … onto …”. We will use the “When … then …” card for this example. Click on it.
Step by step, you now can click through the different options and create your card. Try to build “When button is pressed 1 time, then LED should toggle”.
Once you're ready, click on "Add Card".
If you are happy with your project, do not forget to save! There is a button at the top middle where you can save your project.
5. Running the Project
Now just press the “Start Project” button to actually put the logic into action. Only when the project is running will the logic from the cards get applied, so if you ever wonder why nothing is happening when you interact with the hardware, make sure to check if the project is currently running.
If you want to change your project, you can simply do so, the app will restart the project by itself until you press "Stop Project" again.
The only thing that is left is to test your prototype! Try pressing the button. Now the LED should turn on and off when you press it. Congratulation, you just created your first prototype! 🎉