DRAGIT

Contents
Get Started ............................................................................................................................... 2

Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 2

Assembly ............................................................................................................................ 3

Open Bash Shell in Raspberry Pi ...................................................................................... 4

Open Bash directly (terminal) .................................................................................. 4

Remotely open Bash ................................................................................................. 6

Use Dragit ................................................................................................................................ 10

Mission 1: Drive the Car .................................................................................................. 11

Mission 2: Let It Speak: .................................................................................................... 13

Mission 3: Make the Car Understand You: .................................................................. 13

Mission 4: Control the Car via Speech: ........................................................................ 17

Mission 5: Get Ultrasonic Distance: ............................................................................... 21

Mission 6: Line Following: ................................................................................................ 26

Future Learning:............................................................................................................... 28

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Get Started

Instead of coding PiSmart directly in Python, you can also do it in a graphical/visual

programming software - Dragit, developed based on Snap! (check
http://snap.berkeley.edu/ for more). What's good about Dragit is that, the
programming process is visible with graphics. So you can just drag and drop the blocks
(unit in the software) to make the code to control the car, needing no knowledge of
any programming languages or syntaxes.

So now, let's explore the wonderful programming world in PiSmart, with Dragit!

Preparation

1. Prepare a MicroSD/TF card of no less than 8GB, insert the SD card into the computer
with a card reader.
2. Download the image onto your computer.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sunfounder/Raspberry/images/2017-04-10-
pismart_car_with_dragit.zip

3. Write the image into the microSD/TF card, and then plug the card into the slot on your
Raspberry Pi.

4. Unzip the downloaded package and you will see the 2017-04-10-
pismart_car_with_dragit file. Note: This file is NOT extractable.

5. Download the tool of image burning - win32DiskImager, select the image file and
drive (the card) in the tool. Click Write to write the system to the SD card. Wait for
a while until the system is written to the card.

6. Create an empty file named “ssh” under /boot/ to enable login remotely

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7. When the progress bar comes to the end and a prompt "write successful"
appears, click OK. Unplug the device safely and you can then insert the
programmed SD card into the Raspberry Pi and boot.

8. Create a file named wpa-supplicant.conf to configure Wi-Fi.

Here is the content of the configuration file:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=GB

network={
ssid="Juhao"
psk="sunfounder123"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

ssid= "(name of the Wi-Fi)"

psk= "(your Wi-Fi password)"

9. When both ssid and psk are correct, the Raspberry Pi can connect to this network
the next time the system is booted.

Assembly

The assembly tutorial and other related videos are available under VIDEO on our website
www.sunfounder.com. Just follow the steps and finish building the car.
https://www.sunfounder.com/video

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Open Bash Shell in Raspberry Pi

Bash is a command processor that normally runs in a text window. It can run the
commands users input. Bash can also read commands from a file, or more precisely,
a script. Like other Unix shells, it supports filename replacing (wildcard matching),
piping, here files, command substitution, variables and structure control statements
like condition ones and loop iterations.

Open Bash directly (terminal)

1. Preparations: a screen monitor, an HDMI cable (if your monitor only support VGA, use
a VGA-HDMI converter), a USB mouse, a USB keyboard and a network cable or a USB
Wi-Fi dongle (Raspberry Pi 3 do not need).

2. Connect the monitor to power. Then connect it with the Raspberry Pi via the converter
cable (HDMI cable). Connect the Ethernet cable or the USB Wi-Fi dongle, and the
mouse and keyboard to USB ports. At last, connect a 5V 2A DC power to the RPi. Power
on the screen if needed. Then you can see the display showing the Raspberry Pi icon
as shown below.

If the monitor displays colored texts with a black background after booting, and that is
in bash. You can just use this as a terminal (but not recommend for beginners), or
change the option for automatically loading a graphic user interface (GUI). To activate
GUI, you can type in startx with the keyboard and press Enter, and to always boot up
to GUI, type in sudo raspi-config and go through Boot Options > Desktop/Desk
Autologin, and reboot. Wait for a while and the GUI display will show up as below.

3. Now click the icon of Terminal on the screen, or press CTRL+ALT+T simultaneously.

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4. Then a terminal will pop up as follows:

Here’s the bash we talk about before.

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Remotely open Bash

When using the Raspberry Pi, most of the time we do not connect it to piles of
peripherals like keyboard and mouse; instead, we'd like to use the Raspberry Pi
remotely in the PC with better functions and configurations for programing and
development. In this way you won't need to prepare several displays and mice. You
can use the serial port, ssh and rdp or VNC as long as you have already known the
address of the Raspberry Pi.

IP Address of the Raspberry Pi

There are many network scanners available, and here we recommend the Advanced
IP scanner.

This software will detect the network segment of the computer and decide the scan
range automatically. For example, when the IP is 192.168.1.101 of the computer, its
scan range is 192.168.1.*

Click Start to start the scanning and you will see a computer list within the same
network segment.

One advantage of this software is that it can find out the manufacturer of the network
devices.

The device whose manufacturer is Raspberry Pi Foundation is the Raspberry Pi. Also,
the IP address is helpful when you log into the Raspberry Pi remotely later.

For Linux or Mac OS X Users

For Linux and Mac OS X users, you can only open the Bash shell via ssh.

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Go to Applications->Utilities, find the Terminal, and open it.

Type in ssh pi@ip_address – ssh is the tool for remote login, pi, the user name, and
ip_address, as the name suggests, your Pi's IP address. For example:
ssh pi@192.168.0.101

Press Enter to confirm. If you get a prompt that no ssh is found, you need to install an
ssh tool like Ubuntu and Debian by yourself:
sudo apt-get install ssh

For other Linux platforms, please contact your supplier.

For Windows Users

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If your computer runs on Windows, you need to pen the Bash shell with the help of
some software. Here we recommend a tool PuTTY.

1. Download PuTTY
2. Open PuTTY and click Session on the left tree-alike structure (generally it's
collapsed upon PuTTY startup).Enter the IP address of the RPi you just got in the
textbox under Host Name (or IP address) and 22 under Port (by default it is 22)

3. Click Open. Note that when you first log in to the Raspberry Pi with the IP address,
you'll be prompted with a security reminder. Just click Yes. When the PuTTY
window prompts login as: type in the user name of the RPi: pi, and password:
raspberry (the default one, if you haven't changed it).

Note: When you're typing the password in, the window shows nothing just null, but
you're in fact is typing things in. So just focus on typing it right and press Enter. After
you log in the RPi successfully, the window will display as follows.

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This window is just like the Command Line window in Linux.

Now, no matter what method you take, you can get in the bash of your Raspberry Pi.

Tips：

When the Raspberry Pi is off, boot it by pressing the power button for no more than 2
seconds.
When it's on, power it off by pressing the power button for at least 2 seconds.
When the Raspberry Pi is booting, on the PiSmart you will see a circle of blue LEDs mimicking
breath. At the same time, the red LED for power of the Raspberry Pi keeps steady on and
the green one is blinking.

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Use Dragit

On your computer/tablet, open a web browser (Chrome/Firefox/Safari

recommended), enter the IP address of the PiSmart and then 8000:
Example: 192.168.0.177:8000

Then you're in the Dragit window.

After opening Dragit, you can see the following window:

There can be one or more scripts for a project in Dragit. The scripts are shown in the scripting
area and constructed by blocks in the palette.

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In this tutorial for how to use Dragit for PiSmart, we'll focus on the category of PiSmart, basics
of using Dragit, and how to control PiSmart in this software.

Mission 1: Drive the Car

To use PiSmart on the Dragit, first to learn is how to control the car to go forward. It's one
basic movement for this robot. Similar such movements like turning are done in the same way.

Before operation, in case the car runs out of the desk and falls off, we prop it off the surface.

And then take these steps:

1． In the palette area, click to select the PiSmart category.

2． Then click and drag into the scripting area.

3． Enter values in the slot:

In this block, there are two parameters for control: channel and speed.

For the left one, channel is to set the motor you want to control. Click the input of
direction by the triangle sign and select a value at the drop-down list. Click A, meaning

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you'll control the motor at MotorA. Then click the right-side parameter, speed: enter a
number ranging between -100 and 100. The larger value you enter, the faster the motor
spins. Positive or negative value indicates the motor turns clockwise or counter-CW. So
now your block defines the motor, its speed and the rotational direction.

4． Click this block and see what will happen to the car. Yes! The motor at MotorA starts to
spin.

The two motors on the PiSmart car at two sides connect to port MotorA and MotorB. We can
select the channel both in the block, so two channels output values at the same time, thus
controlling both motor A and B at one time.

For example, click both on the list and enter 60 in the speed, meaning outputting a speed of
60 to both motor A and motor B. Click the block then and the car will move forward!

5． If you want to let the car turn a direction, you can combine two blocks to do so:

Set different values to the speed. When the wheel at one side spins faster than the other,
the car will take a turning.

6． To stop the car, just set the speed of both motors as 0:

7． Set the value of speed as negative for both motors, so the car runs backward:

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Mission 2: Let It Speak:

Since the car can walk now, let’s check how to let it speak!

A speaker is integrated on PiSmart. We can enable it to speak for speech message feedback.

This function applies the block to produce speech.

1． Click the PiSmart category in the palette area. Skip it if you're already there.

2． Click and drag it into the scripting area:

3． So now in the scripting area there's already a block to control the PiSmart to speak. Let's
check how it is done with the block!

In the block, you can click the slot and enter what you want the PiSmart to say. By default
it's "Hello!".

Click the block and you'll hear what's said by the speaker of the PiSmart, and that's exactly
what's been entered in the slot. It's, Hello!

Now try your own words! Multiple words are supported. Just enter and click the block. See,
what you enter, what the PiSmart will say. It's perfectly your mouth!

OK, simply done. Let's move on to next adventure!

Mission 3: Make the Car Understand You:

Now, the car can speak. Next, we need to make it understand our commands.

There is a MIC in the PiSmart as its “ear”. You only need to drag the corresponding blocks to
make it get your commands (but need to be preset).

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Set Dictionary:

Before using the hearing function, we need to set a dictionary first. What it does is to "tell" the
PiSmart to recognize the words xxx as the xxx command.

For example, when you say turn on (as called words), the PiSmart can understand it means on
(as deemed command); when you say turn off (words), it knows it's off (commands).

Use these two blocks to set a dictionary: & .

1． Drag the two blocks below from PiSmart into the scripting area:

2． In the block , enter the words and command. Since I want to use two
commands, duplicate one more block. Enter values for turning off.

3． Then put these two blocks into the slot of - click the triangle icon to
add another slot:

4． Click this combined block. Then in the back-end system a file will be generated recording
the mapping between the words and the command. Call the .sps file.

When the file is created, the dictionary is done. Now we're ready for the hearing function.

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Use Hear Blocks:

For the hearing function, blocks , , and are available.

1． Click the category and drag these blocks from PiSmart into the scripting area:

2． Say "turn on" to the PiSmart and then click each and you can see a bubble is popped up
at the right side:

Now let's probe into details of each block:

- When the PiSmart "hears" words recorded in the .sps file, the bubble will
return true, otherwise false. So only recorded words will be heard and corresponding
result returned. For instance, in the example above, since only "turn on" and "turn off"
are recorded in the file, only when you speak these two phrases, will the command true
be returned.

- It returns what the PiSmart heard. Only when the words heard are
included in the .sps file, the corresponding result will be returned. For example,
previously only the commands on and off have been recorded, so only when you speak
"turn on" to the PiSmart, on will be returned; say "turn off", off will be returned.

- It verifies whether the command just entered has been heard. If yes, it
will return true，otherwise false. For example, if returns a command on,
will return true, when will give back false.

Since the Hear block returns the results of true or false, generally the Logic control blocks will
be used together for better performance of speech control.

Example: Use Speech to Control LED

Previously we've set a dictionary, with which we can make a program to control lighting up
and out the LED.

1． Click the Control category and drag the following blocks into the scripting area:

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2． Drag the block and drop to combine these blocks, drag to

the slot after if:

3． Click this combined block and say "turn on" to the PiSmart. Wow, the LEDs on the car just
light up!

To understand: When the PiSmart receives the command for the words "turn on", block ①
above will return true and the program will run the brightness setting in block ②; If no
command is received, since there's no content under else, nothing will happen. Therefore,
after the LEDs light up, you need to click the led off block to turn them off.

4． Click the combined block again and the program will stop running.

5． Drag another if block and drop it under else, so after the PiSmart "hears" "off", LEDs will
be turned off.

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Click the chunk block again. This time try to say "turn on" and "turn off" to the PiSmart and
observe how the LEDs act. Interesting control, isn't it?

So when you say "turn on" to the robot, the LEDs will light up accordingly. If you say "turn off",
LEDs will dim then. But if you say other things, since no more is written in the combined block,
it won't do anything and just stay the status quo.

Mission 4: Control the Car via Speech:

After learning in the previous mission, let's combine the knowledges to make a speech control
program by reviewing.

So here's our aim: When you speak "go forward" to the PiSmart car, it goes forward after
replying you "I go forward"; If you say "go backward", it does so and replies "I go backward".
Can't wait to make it!

1． Set a dictionary:

Enter command and words as we did in last mission:

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Drag and drop the dictionary block into the slot in set dictionary one. Click the chunk and
setting will begin.

2． Drag the following blocks from the Control category:

3． Drag the blocks below in the PiSmart category:

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4． Combine the blocks, and change the value:

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5． Click the green flag at the top right corner to run the program:

6． Now the program is running. You can say something to the MIC on the PiSmart. Try "go
forward". If it recognizes the command, it will do as you ordered, run forward. Sometimes
if it's too noisy, or you pronounce the words not so clearly, PiSmart may not understand
you. Try again then. When it hears you, it'll answer "I go forward" before going.

In this example, we've included what's learnt before and made a comparatively complex task
of speech control. But I bet you feel it easier than imagined as we did it in the Dragit. And it's
great fun! This is no doubt a wonderful way to program the PiSmart Car in Dragit.

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Mission 5: Get Ultrasonic Distance:

To make the robot car detect the ambient environment by the sensors, and for its autopilot,
we can use the ultrasonic obstacle avoidance and line following sensors included in the
package.

Find the blocks in the category:

Before using the block, please make sure the module is connected correctly to the car.
Otherwise the block will return -1.

The ultrasonic sensor can detect obstacles in front via the principle of ultrasonic waves. Then
in programming, we can make the car take a turning to detour the obstacle or continue going
straight based on the distance detected.

On the drop-down list of the block, there are many channels for ultrasonic module connection.
On the PiSmart they are digital channels 0-7.

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Here we connect the module to channel 0 - connect the yellow wire to SIG0, red to 3.3V, and
the black wire to GND. Then click 0 (BCM17) on the list of the block.

After wiring, click the block. And the distance value detected will be returned then.

Store Data Detected by Sensor

As described above, click the block and you can check the data detected by the ultrasonic
sensor. Before using the data, we still need to store it.

Use a variable to store the distance data:

1． Click the category.

2． Click to create a variable.

3． A window will pop up. Enter a name for this variable.

4． Click OK after naming it. Then at the palette you can see the variable created.

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Now you can use the variable, the ultra_distance block. Add another block
to store the data detected by the sensor in the variable just created.

5． Click and drag into the scripting area, click the triangle icon to select
ultra_distance:

6． Click the Modules category, drag to the slot in .

Click the combined block to run once, so the data detected by the sensor is written to the
ultra_distance variable and stored.

On the stage area at the top right corner, you can see ultra_distance and the distance
value it stores:

Place something like a book not far in front of the ultrasonic sensor, with the probes
oriented to the book. Click the block. Observe the value of ultra_distance in stage. That's
the distance detected by the sensor in the unit of cm.

Move the book forward and backward and click the block again. Any change to the value?
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Well, perfectly done if you get a smaller or larger value. But if -1 is shown on stage, it means
the detection fails. The possible reason may be wrong wiring of the sensor's pin sig to 0, or
the wrong port selected in the block. Go back to screen your blocks building! You can't be
more careful in configuring these values.

OK, since everything goes well, now we can apply the variable ultra_distance in the logic
judgement.

Here 4 if statements are used. The first one is to control the car to go forward when the
distance is larger than 20cm; the second, turn a direction if it's between 10 and 20; the third
one, make the car reverse if it's 0-10cm; as for the fourth, no specific condition is made, but
it's for the case when an error occurs to the value and -1 is returned: the robot will stop.

Now put this combined chunk under the forever loop and a start block:

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Click the green flag on top and the whole block will start running. That's really a big chunk.

Move the obstacle - the book towards or take it away from the car, observe the value changes.
You can see when the distance between the car and the book is larger than 20cm, the car goes
forward; when the distance is 10-20cm, it turns a direction; when the distance is 0-10cm, the
car backs. If you unplug the wire of the sensor, a value -1 will be returned and the car will stop.

Turn

Backward

Forward

Certainly you can add the speech communication and control into the program. So the car
can report its error if any (e.g. loose sensor), thus you can fix it immediately. Try it yourself!

Tips: If you feel no clue of how to make it, find the example sketch in example.

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Mission 6: Line Following:

Connected with a Line Follower module, the PiSmart car can detect black lines and run
tracking the path applying the principle of infrared reflection. On our website sunfounder.com
you can find an e-map in PDF file under LEARN -> Get tutorials -> PiSmart, download and
print it, and paste the black tape along the lines.

This Line Follower module connects with Raspberry via I2C: white wire to SCL, yellow to SDA,
red one to 5V, and black wire to GND.

Previously we've gone through various blocks and how to apply them and no more details will
be given here. So now let's check the example sketch. Tips: If you're not clear about some
block, right-click on the specific one and select help on the pop-up list.

Find the complete example program in example.

There are 5 probes on the sensor module, mapped with the 5 members in the list. Multiple
combinations are possible. Store each channel into Variables, tell the status of the car by data
detected by the sensor, and adjust the motors accordingly.

1． Set the variables first to store the data which will be used in the judgements.

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2． Store the values acquired by the sensor, to be referred to later for the judgement.

3． Decide actions to take based on the results of the judgement.

S t r a i g2[0,0,1,0,0]
ht

S t r a i g[0,1,1,0,0]
ht

S t r a i g3[0,0,1,1,0]
ht

L e f2[1,1,0,0,0]
t

L e f[1,0,0,0,0]
t

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Right2[0,0,0,1,1]

Right[0,0,0,0,1]

S t o [p0,0,0,0,0]
Then combine these chunks into one big block. Huge chunk then! But not so complicated as
you may imagine, I guess, if you follow each step.

Future Learning:

There are still many expansion ports on the PiSmart like spi, analog, UART, USB etc., enabling
more DIY possibilities for the PiSmart Car - you can connect more sensors for other fun
functions or control different actuators via PiSmart.

In the future tutorials, we'll add more fun projects with sensors, and more blocks will be
complemented in the Dragit also in later version. Follow our website for more updates!

If you have any questions or ideas you want to share, visit our FORUM and post anything.

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