Talking Arduino DAQ

[danadak]

A lot of folks give a thumb's down on using block languages, like the ones our kids are now using
in school to program robots. But they are expanding in capability and ease of use.

Here is an example of a tethered Arduino UNO board using Windows libraries (no fear, you do not
touch any of that stuff). Uses Snap4arduino block programming IDE, first you program the UNO
with SA5Firmata_tone, then do the block programming, and create a talking DAQ. In this case V,
Freq, Pulse Width high and low, and duty cycle. The UNO has to stay tethered to PC. But there
are libraries out there where it could stand alone, although not sure if they are integrate with
any of the block language tools.

Thats it. Lots of fun and quick to program. Once you learn this there are many other block languages
with specific features and many common features. Eg. once you learn one jumping around to the
others pretty simple. MIT has put some significant effort in Scratch4Arduino, there is Ardublock, Visuino,
Flowcode.....to name a few.

Regards, Dana.

 

[Pommie]

I regard it as another dumbing down of education. It's amazing how many parents think their child can program a computer because they can use word. Just teach them a proper language or who will write the code for snap4arduino in the future? Or will we just stop advancing?

Mike.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Looking at it, I'd consider it as a kids version of a PLC programming language for toys, not a computer programming language.

 

[danadak]

I remember C was controversial as well, proponents of Assembler thought
C was dumbing down the profession. As a field engineer I encountered
engineers, fortunately not many, in the 90's that would not use library
functions, the not invented here syndrome. Even today the jump from
discrete logic to a processor is unthinkable for some. And of course the huge
jump for some from vacuum tubes to transistors, radio to TV, a few thousand other
transitions folks have done and not done.

The coming of AI to generate code from dictated specifications, I am looking
forward to that. Engineering will look back at C and others in 10,000 years and
wonder were we just gerbils back then in competency. I vote for Gerbil

I toggled by hand and paper tape instructions into a PDP8 to test ICs back in the
70's, no intention of going back there. And at that time wondered why there was
no GUI tool and display graphics to create with. But those methods were just one
of many steps to today. In retrospect primitive.

The human condition I suppose at work.

Regards, Dana.

 

[Pommie]

The intoduction of calculators into schools was hailed as a great step forward. We now have students that can't add 2+2. Phonics was this great new way of learning to read, another disaster. This lego programming is, I believe, another disaster that will become apparent in 10 or 20 years. Time will tell.

Mike.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

I remember C was controversial as well, proponents of Assembler thought
C was dumbing down the profession.

If you know the CPU and its instruction set, you can use C almost as a higher-level assembler, being able to predict what assembly / machine code each line produces.

And you can include inline assembly, manipulate memory directly and all the things that newer high level languages ban you from.
It's the perfect balance as far as I'm concerned; faster to write than assembly, with no downside if used properly.

BASIC was the one considered too simple and too unstructured back in the early 80s, I remember hearing schools were insisting on Pascal. That's now mostly gone by the wayside, but C is still going strong.

I started programming in machine code, as the first computer I built only had 256 Bytes RAM to start with. It was quite a while before I could afford 4K RAM so it could run an assembler.

And I still think the PDP-8 is an excellent machine for teaching the basics of programming, as the structure is so simple - a beginner can grasp the whole CPU structure, see it functioning and understand its operation quite easily, which is near impossible with recent PC CPUs.
I had to get rid of my 8i when I first moved from my parents place in to a bedsit, but I have a little emulator to help teach young relatives:

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The introduction of calculators into schools was hailed as a great step forward.

By who?

Casio perhaps?

Phonics was this great new way of learning to read, another disaster.

My wife works in a primary school (as a Teaching Assistant), and until this last year has always been in Reception (4-5 year olds) - so has been teaching Phonics for a VERY long time, longer than anyone else in the school - so she's pretty good at it. She's now in year 4 (and year 3 next year) so Phonics isn't such a big part any more, she's also had to learn to count past ten!!

According to her, it does work, and it does help most children - and they transition to 'proper' spelling/reading later on in Primary School.

Back when I was at college the first Phonics taught students started to come through, many of them could barely spell their names

To be fair, the Phonics from back then has no relation to the modern Phonics.

My daughter was criticised in both Primary and Secondary for poor spelling - her response was always "I know what it says, you knows what it says, what's the problem?". I suspect she just couldn't be bothered to put any effort in, she didn't consider it of any importance at all.

 

[Pommie]

I just see all the new, fantastic ways of teaching kids as just fads. Most have been proved to be so and died by the wayside. Programming is a completely different area, and I may be wrong, but think lego programming doesn't actually teach anything. As I said, time will tell.

Mike.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

According to her, it does work, and it does help most children - and they transition to 'proper' spelling/reading later on in Primary School.

When I first heard of it, when a young relative started school, it seemed a reasonable idea - a more direct connection between letters and sounds.

However that relative is now ten years old, and the school is still using sounds rather than letter names when spelling words. That's just plain wrong, to my way of thinking.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

When I first heard of it, when a young relative started school, it seemed a reasonable idea - a more direct connection between letters and sounds.

While there's only 26 letters, there are 44 phonemes, so it always strikes me as more complicated.

However that relative is now ten years old, and the school is still using sounds rather than letter names when spelling words. That's just plain wrong, to my way of thinking.

Sounds completely wrong, are you sure it's not just your relative that's still using Phonics? - if they are struggling with reading/spelling then pupils are kept doing Phonics for longer than the rest. Usually Phonics is pretty well done by the end of year 2 for average pupils.

My wife still has a group of strugglers doing Phonics in year 4 though.

 

[ronsimpson]

I played with Scratch on the Raspberry Pi. It looks fun for games but I need I/O.

I am playing with Node Red on the Pi. For the real programmers, you can punch into any of the blocks and modify the code.

What I like about Node Red is that it uses a web browser for the human interface. In just minutes I had a graph on the phone showing the temperature over the last day. I am not a programmer but learned to connect my computer to almost anything on the web through Node Red. OK...maybe not real programming but it gets the job done.