Members Introductions aka The Icebreaker discussion.
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@skink Thats because the initial source was released in c and so is easy to port to arduino. In Micropyton (and UIFLOW by extension) it is taking longer for the code to be written.
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Hi my name is Luenardi.
I have been tinkering with tech since i was in diapers.
I'm from south africa born in a humble home in johannesburg.My interests vary from soldering valves to coding in bare asm.
I lost my right arm 3 years ago after a accident at work due to stress.
I collapsed and shattered my arm.Been learning about how AI is helping people with prosthetic arms.
i love the modular design of m5stack products.
Ui flow is quite handy for quick prototyping.i enjoy building small spider bots and tampering with AR
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Welcome @Xeon Luenardi glad to have someone with your kind of expertise here and interested to know how M5Stack devices could be used in prototyping prosthetics. Some of our Japanese users have used M5Stack to modify wheelchair controls and a father creates rehabilitation toys with M5Stack for his son who has cerebral palsy, but nothing in the way of prosthetics yet, look forward to seeing your projects. Luke
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@lukasmaximus
thank you i'm very excited. -
Hello all -- I'll jump into this icebreaker discussion. I teach media arts and musical instrument design at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. I've used many different platforms in my own work and teaching, from Microchip PICs to different flavors of Arduino (chipKIT and Fubarino). I'm impressed overall by the M5Stack platform, but am a bit frustrated by the lack of clarity with regard to the hardware architecture -- which unit has which IMU, for example. There are several posts that ask questions about this, with no clear answers. As a teacher, I need to be certain there won't be any unwelcome surprises when I have my class order their units. Also, I'm getting very unusable results from the magnetometer on my Fire (using the demo Arduino sketch), but I hope that is solvable (I have an unanswered post on that). As far as coding goes, I think the UI Flow environment looks promising for teaching, but I'm not sure yet if it's full-featured enough to replace coding in the Arduino IDE. I need to look into it more. Overall, I have to admit I'm a bit worried about the response rate from the M5Stack team on this forum -- there are many unanswered posts. M5Stack seems to be a great concept, but I wonder about the customer support.
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Hello @butch I agree with you that UIFlow is not fully featured. it is built on micropython so you can expand function by using code.
If you look in the projects forum for the uiflow handbook roadmap you will find the manuscripts for my books i'm working on. Im behind schedule on picking apart uiflow but i'm slowing finding issues that need solutions.
if you have suggestion please lets us know.
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I can see how to reply to a post but not how to create a new post.
I got my wife to give me the M5Stack Core for my birthday. I am interested in using it for industrial projects. I have worked with the Arduino UNO a bit, but wanted to up my game to a 32-bit microcontroller. I also have a very, very strong interest in learning Python and MicroPython.
So far, I have built a simple MicroPython program that responds to events from Button A and Button B. Button A causes a Grove-connected relay to turn on. Button B causes that relay to turn off. I am using UIFlow to edit the MicroPython because I cannot seem to get VSCode to work with the M5Stack and MicroPython. Using VSCode, the M5Stack keeps resetting while connected. It is very hit-or-miss even downloading a program. It is also very hit-or-miss viewing the directory tree of the M5Stack.
On the UIFlow side, I can edit a program and save it to the computer hard drive, but when I open that program the contents are nothing approaching what I saved. I have figured out that I can copy the MicroPython code to another file and then paste it back into UIFlow after I have opened the file. The MicroPython program does download to the M5Stack fine and I can then reset the device and run my program.
Not pleased with what I see so far, and not seeming to be able to progress with VSCode and MicroPython, I turned to Visual Studio (not Visual Studio Code) and installed the Visual Micro plugin and built a C++ program to toggle the relay. Everything works as expected.
Apparently I need some help. I don't know if it is possible to use VSCode to program an M5Stack using MicroPython. I have seen videos on youtube that appear to demonstrate that it is possible.
If there is someone who could guide me through the process of getting started with an M5Stack and MicroPython using VSCode, I would be grateful and would post material that might help another poor soul, who is also struggling, to get these pieces working together.
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@hamster I can't help with vscode but I can with aspects of UIFlow as I'm writing english documents.
Have you tried Maixpy IDE? -
@ajb2k3, I have never heard of MaixPy IDE. I'm open to any ideas. I am downloading MaixPy IDE right now. Thanks.
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@ajb2k3, I downloaded and installed MaixPy IDE. The M5Stack Core was not listed. I selected M5Stick. MaixPy has been sitting here for more than an hour trying unsuccessfully to connect to the device on COM5 (which is the correct port number).
Any suggestions on how to get MaixPy IDE working with M5Stack Core?
Any suggestions for other IDEs to try?
Thanks
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Let me guess, you are on windows.
Step 1 delete driver.
Step 2 switch off computer for a few minutes,
Step 3 start computer but DO NOT plug in the M5Stack ,
Step 4 install SIlabs driver,
Step 5 restart computer,
Step 6 Plug in M5Stack and check that you can connect.The com port driver is very unstable and the face that 2 IDE's are struggling point to the driver not installing correctly
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Yes, I am on Windows 10 Pro. I never thought about cranking up a Linux VM and developing for the M5Stack on that.
I have the Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge, version 10.1.8.2466, dated 6/20/2019 installed. Is this the one to uninstall? If I uninstall this one, what driver should I install?
So I uninstalled, turned off the computer, got some coffee, restarted the computer, installed the same driver, and plugged in the M5Stack.
Neither MaixPy or VSCode likes it any better.
Any chance I would be better off running either of these IDEs from Linux?
Thanks for all your help!
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@hamster Have you tried a new usb lead?
Linux vm, I don't know about that as I dont have a machine to test. -
I have 3 M5Stack Core microcontrollers (my wife is generous). Each comes with its own USB cable. I have tried to of the 3. They both behave the same.
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@hamster said in Members Introductions aka The Icebreaker discussion.:
I have 3 M5Stack Core microcontrollers (my wife is generous). Each comes with its own USB cable. I have tried to of the 3. They both behave the same.
That's two of the 3.
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@hamster
I disconnected my StickC and StickV
i opened device manager.
Removed the driver.
Rebooted.
installed new driver.
https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers
Rebooted.
plugged in.
verified both working. -
@hamster said in Members Introductions aka The Icebreaker discussion.:
Yes, I am on Windows 10 Pro. I never thought about cranking up a Linux VM and developing for the M5Stack on that.
I have the Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge, version 10.1.8.2466, dated 6/20/2019 installed. Is this the one to uninstall? If I uninstall this one, what driver should I install?
So I uninstalled, turned off the computer, got some coffee, restarted the computer, installed the same driver, and plugged in the M5Stack.
Neither MaixPy or VSCode likes it any better.
Any chance I would be better off running either of these IDEs from Linux?
Thanks for all your help!
You need to restart the computer again after installing the driver and before plugging it in.
this second restart is required for the driver to finish installing and to make it available from boot.I dont know why but the multiple restarts during install are required for both windows and osx.
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Again, thanks for your help.
Today I uninstalled driver, then rebooted computer, then installed driver (v10.8.1), then rebooted computer, then started VSCode, then plugged in M5ST A CK, not M5ST I CK, into computer. Up to this point, while the M5Stack is plugged into the computer the M5Stack has not rebooted.
I then connected the M5Stack using COM5, which is the COM port for the M5Stack. The M5Stack did not reboot.
Then, in the Explorer pane under M5STACK DEVICE, I touched COM5. This is supposed to expand and show the files and folders currently on the M5Stack device. At this point, the M5Stack reboots. It shows the QR code for roughly 10 seconds and then reboots. This behavior repeats, even after closing VSCode until I unplug the M5Stack from the computer.
When I plug the M5Stack back into the computer, it reboots once and continues to show the QR code without rebooting.
I then start MaixPy IDE. When I try to connect to the M5ST I CK (which is really an M5ST A CK) a dialog is displayed that has text, "Connecting ... Please wait ...". That dialog has a sweeping green bar that continues to sweep until the cows come home.
I then start UIFlow and connect to the M5Stack. The M5Stack does not automatically reboot. I then open an existing project. I then run the file. It runs. There is no cycle of rebooting.
I then attempt to "Download" the file to the M5Stack. The M5Stack displays "Uploading ...". The computer displays an Uploading message, "Uploading, please wait a minute ..." , then displays, "Upload code failed. Maybe your device is offline check it and retry". I have not usually had that happen previously. In the past, I have been able to download (or upload?) to the M5Stack.
I rebooted the computer and tried again. Same result.
I opened a different project and tried to download (or upload?) it. This was successful.
I then opened the original program and copied the contents into the buffer. Then I opened the second project that downloaded successfully and replaced its contents with the contents of the buffer. I downloaded the program and it ran correctly.
So, in general, I can make things happen with UIFlow that I cannot seem to get working using either MaixPy or VSCode.
Does anyone have suggestions for what to try next?
Again, thanks for your help.
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Apparently I am dislexic (sp). The driver version is 10.1.8.2466.
Is my problem Windows 10? Should I try this on a 32-bit Windows 7 machine?
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@Hamster to set the record straight Maixpy is not developed by M5Stack and is only intended to be used with Stick V. It is possible to open a serial terminal in Maixpy and code M5Stack devices from the REPL, but there are much better ways for doing that.
I just wanted to double check, when you used vscode did you set your M5Stack into USB Mode?
